The Very Best Business Tool

Are you on the hunt for the idea or strategy that will take your business to the next level?  The next great idea that will help you recruit more, sell more and earn more?

One of the biggest myths I’ve run across is that successful people became successful once they discovered the “right” business strategy.  They implement it in their business, and then effortlessly ascend to the highest levels in their industry.

Nothing could be further from the truth.   

Have you heard of the “Life is Good” brand of T-shirts?  They record sales of up to $100 million out of 4,500 retails stores each year, currently.  But it wasn’t always that way! The founders struggled for years to sell their T-shirts out of their van. In their own words, “We tried and failed a thousand times.” I remember reading that they actually lived in their van eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!

And you can hear this story over and over again about: McDonalds, Colonel Sanders, Disney, Apple — all brands we know today, did not succeed using one magical strategy. They had to try different things, tweak them and try again.

This leads me to the following conclusion.  The best business tool is persistence.

While that is a good concept to know, how can you utilize it in your business?  Here’s how it worked for me:

It took me many years to build my business up to just 3 parties a month. What kept me persisting? The thing that kept me going were these simple questions, “What else can I try?”  And, “What else can I do?”

Just like Bert and John Jacobs (founders of “Life is Good”), I tried a bunch of different things and had to tweak them again and again before finding what worked for me.  I got ideas from taking classes, being coached, reading books, listening to trainings and talking to the successful consultants in my company.  They recommended that I talk to my friends and acquaintances (result: lots of “no’s” and one door closed in my face),  carrying my products around to show people with little success, doing my own parties (succeeded after 3 tries at it), selling at vendor events (did it, adjusted how I did it many times and eventually it worked well for me) and making phone calls (worked as soon as I knew what to say). The secret was to not give up when my ideas didn’t work the first time. Eventually I realized that I had to try something at least 3 times before I could conclude it didn’t work for me.

My take away from all of this is that persistence really is the best business tool.  And the best way to maintain your persistence is to keep asking yourself the questions:

“What else can I try?”
and
“What else can I do?”

Then give your ideas a try — at least 3 times, making adjustments, before moving to the next idea.  You will uncover strategies you never even knew you had! And before you know it you’ll be enjoying achieving your goals, whether it’s to earn, promote, achieve… or all three!