What does it mean to ‘Treat this like a Business?’

‘Treat this like a business and it will pay you like a business’ – a popular mantra to shout from stage.

And whenever I’m speaking at an event and I raise my hand and ask ‘Who knows they need to treat this like a business?’ – every hand goes up.

But then you ask the follow-up question; ‘Who knows how to treat this like a business?’

Suddenly there’s only a few hands left up.

 

One of the greatest things about Network Marketing is that someone can come in without any experience and start their own business – for a fraction of the cost of a traditional business. But this also means that most people in Network Marketing don’t have any business expense. So whilst it’s great to inspire people from stage like above – it’s a useless mantra if we don’t actually teach them how to run a business.

 

3 Major Things we Have to Understand when it comes to Running a Business

1. Production is more important than time. In most jobs and employment situations, we get paid for the time we are there. We show up, complete a set of tasks and then go home. And we are reimbursed for the hours of time that we have given. Work X hours, you get paid $Y. In Business, the number of hours you spend working are irrelevant. Our business is built on what’s produced each day; how many sales were made, how much volume of product was ordered. It’s not about how many hours you spent on your social media, but how many conversations you had that truly matters. And this is especially important when it comes to Time Management in our business. Because really, time isn’t the thing we need to try to manage – it’s the tasks that we do in our time. Income producing tasks with income producing people. As a business owner – you have to change your mindset from how many hours a day I work my business to how many income producing tasks do I complete each day.
2. Businesses have Budgets. This is a huge one. Having a great side-hustle that brings in some extra money is one thing – but taking the next step and becoming a business owner means that you have to start thinking like a business with your finances. In a job, when your pay cheque arrives, tax and other expenses have been taken out. In your Network Marketing business – the cheque that comes from your company each week hasn’t had anything taken out yet. Major costs like Tax need to be budgeted for. You need to budget for re-investment back into your people, your business and yourself. If you really want financial freedom, you need to budget some money into other investments too. And then what’s left over is yours. Businesses have operational costs; traditional businesses have many (staff, rent, equipment, marketing etc), we don’t have as many. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have any. In leadership – we put our people first and in business – we pay everything else first, then ourselves. If you don’t know how to create a budget – see an Accountant and ask for help. Business owners have Accountants. They don’t have little hustles that are ‘off the books’…
3. We Have to Prioritise the Right People. I touched on this one above before – income producing tasks with income producing people. And this can be a very tough one for people. Especially our ‘blue’ natured people who are driven by relationships and community; and you will be able to help a lot of people being this way. But you won’t have a business until you can learn to manage your time properly – giving the income producing people higher priority than others. You have to learn to work with people who deserve your time, not need your time. And this can be very hard within our friends and family – because there will be so many people who need our help. But putting them ahead of great business builders is altruistic. It will cost us money. It doesn’t mean they’re not important to us as people – but when we have our business hat on and we are working on our business – we have to make business decisions on where we spend our time. Social life – spend time with them then. Business life – requires putting the people in action at the front of the list and maybe a few people may drop off at the other end. But you can’t carry someone to success. You can’t love them to success. You can help thousands, but you can’t carry any.

There are others – but these are the major ones to focus on initially. And some of the decisions above aren’t easy – but that’s also why many people don’t manage to grow past a nice little side-hustle. If this is the vehicle you’re going to use to create a different life for you and others – then you need to treat it like a business, you need to move through these challenges and take the next step.

 

To your success.

 

Andrew Logan

Andrew Logan is a Network Marketing Author, Coach and Mentor.

You can access more free training on his YouTube channel here and his Podcast here.

For your Free 7 Step Guide to Financial Freedom Through Network Marketing, click here.