Top 6 Excuses That Are Sabotaging Your Business Without You Realizing It

Brace yourself for some tough love...

Why do you think people fail in direct sales?

You could say there are a lot of reasons...

But there really isn't a single excuse. 

So many fail in direct sales because they simply GIVE UP after finding a convenient excuse.

During my time supporting a large network marketing team, I have heard many different reasons for why a particular consultant didn't believe she could be successful...

Or believed it required more resources and capabilities than she had access to or possessed. 

So many people sell themselves short, or set themselves up for failure before they even begin their business.

The saddest part is that many of the reasons people give for why they can't run a successful business are really just phantom obstacles: mere excuses.

While I could name dozens of excuses people give for failure, here at the top 6.

I’ve heard this excuse more times than I’d like to count...

And yet, not having a lot of contacts is NOT something you can blame for not achieving your goals.

That's a lot of "nots"...

I didn’t have many contacts when I began..

But I went out and made contacts!

And of course, "went out" is a phrase which here means, "messaging or emailing people online."

Making contacts may sound like a mysterious art form, but I assure you that it does not require any ancient magic to acquire.

Pay very close attention to what I’m about to say next, since I am about to give you the key to unlocking new contacts. Are you ready? Here it is.

Isn't that a miracle???

You have nothing to lose, and nothing to fear!

The worst that could happen is they don’t respond to you, or they say “no.”

Not having contacts is no excuse! Online or offline, go make some contacts!

Similar to the above point, not having a lot of friends is not a woe upon which you can place blame.

Aside from the social stigma which comes with “having no friends,” not having friends is no barrier to achieving your direct sales business goals. 

In fact, for a few reasons, I have intentionally never tried to sell to friends and family.

I reached out to people who weren’t friends or family.

I guess you could call them strangers.

But over time, and through working with them, they became friends.

This is just one more benefit that comes with running your own network marketing business: you make more friends!

You can be successful without having a lot of friends to sell to, or have sign up under you. Like the first point, go out and make some friends!

You aren’t a sales person? That’s great! I’m not very good at parkour. Do you have a point or are you just making chit-chat?

“But don’t you have to be good at sales to make sales?” you might be wondering, and your thinking would be right—in a sense.

Good salesmen typically make more sales than poor salesmen, but you aren’t trying to be a salesman, or at least you shouldn't be.

You shouldn’t be trying to “make sales” either.

“Huh?”

The key to success in any network marketing business is the product.

If the product is great quality, great value, and you absolutely love it, then the product will sell itself.

You don’t need to be thinking about how to make a sale, but how you can help others by making this fantastic product available to them.

If someone was living in a house without a roof, you don’t need to be a good salesman to tell them about the value of roofs.

You could easily point out how a roof protects you from the elements, and keeps out pests, and grants you privacy from those annoying hang-gliding neighbors.

You could go on and on about how great roofs are without knowing anything about sales.

Why?

Because the product—a roof—is such a must-have!

You don’t need to be good at sales to meet your business goals, nor do you have to be good at parkour, thankfully.

In all areas of life, this is never a good excuse.

People make time for what is important to them.

If people were told that they would gain a million dollars simply by taking a 30-minute drive to a certain location, I think everyone would miraculously find they suddenly have the time to spare.

Additionally, there are so many ways we waste time, time that we could easily spend on our businesses instead.

I get so many requests to play Candy Crush, or see people raving about the many different TV shows they watch.

Frequent shopping, and even certain homeschool actives can be a waste.

Throw in procrastination, burning time on Facebook or other social media, and there are so many unnecessary things which could be eliminated to free up time.

Also, the things we fill our time with might not even be bad things, they could be very good things, but not the best.

Even GOOD things can become harmful distractions if they take you away from the best things.

We deceive ourselves into thinking all our time is spent doing important things.

We all have time wasters we could cut out and instead use the time to build our businesses, which would benefit family, others, and ourselves.

If you’re not sure where your time is going, a good exercise is to record everything you do in a day for a week.

Write down where all of your time goes, what you do, and for how long. You may be surprised.

You don’t need money to start a direct sales business.

Simply start small.

Home and Facebook parties cost very little (if anything), social media is free, collaborating with smaller influencers is often free, and a little brainstorming can yield many different ways to market your business without spending money.

Do all the free things you can, and then move on and do the low cost things.

When you start earning some money, reinvest it into the business.

Over time, you’ll have more money to spend toward growth. You don’t need money to start out.

I didn’t know anything when I started out!

You learn through acting! Trial and error.

Or, you can learn from a mentor or your sponsor.

You can learn from your team.

You can learn from company resources, or from library books.

You can learn from this website!

We live in the information age. Information is everywhere!

There is absolutely no excuse for lacking knowledge on a subject. If you are dedicated to learning, you will learn.