If you think you don’t have what it takes to achieve your weekly sales goals…
You’re not alone!
And to use my favourite expression…
“It’s not your fault!”
You see…
Most successful business people have doubted their potential at some point in their business careers.
That’s normal 😉
The problem that many home business owners face, is that they get into the habit of making excuses why they can’t achieve their business’s sales goals.
As a home business owner, a primary concern of yours will always be: cash-flow.
Now…
There are different schools of thought about managing cash-flow and profitability but my recommendation to you is that you monitor your income and profitability and sales goals on a weekly basis.
Yes, weekly – never monthly or quarterly.
Weekly sales goals help you to pivot and tweak your strategy while you are building up momentum.
Assessing this on a monthly or yearly basis is too risky.
Interestingly, in conversations with new members of Team Sofa, whenever I used an expression like “you can achieve anything that you set your mind to” and they have responded with nonsensical comments such as:
“Well Jonny, I would love to be a professional football player but I wouldn’t have the necessary skill-level no mater how much I practice and train.”
When someone gives you this type of response, you can tell that they have already given up.
Now…
It’s blatantly obvious that there are dreams, goals and fantasies that we as human beings will never be able to realise because of physical, financial and intellectual limitations.
But here’s the real issue…
Many people put limitations on their ability to achieve based on a false, non-existent ceiling that often doesn’t exist.
They have mentally crammed themselves into a compartmentalised box which they will never be able to break out of.
Don’t let this be you!
So…
Let’s say that one of your goals is to have a net worth of $1m.
Right now, you might be thinking that this is an unrealistic goal because you’re currently $50k in debt.
But…
In most countries in the western-world, millionaires aren’t mythological creatures like Big Foot or unicorns.
They are scattered around villages, towns and cities and many of them achieved their success starting from where you are NOW.
A goal like this isn’t impossible because so many people are achieving it.
Now…
One of the common characteristics that these millionaires have, which doesn’t include inheritance, is that they realised that they needed to….
Multiply Capital!
..doing something that they are competent at.
Recently,I was speaking to someone who is 38 years old.
She said that she would love to achieve financial independence but said it will never happen for her because her job only pays $50k per year.
My response was…
If your goal is to be liquid $1m, and you know that your job isn’t going to offer you the possibility of earning the income you need to, what can you do to realise this goal?
Her response…
There’s nothing that I can do because I’m not qualified well enough to move into another job that pays me more money and my company isn’t exactly giving away promotions.
She missed the point.
You see…
If someone has a goal to be liquid 1 million in cash in, let’s say 5 years, this means that they need to make $200,000 a year.
$200,000 a year translates to $16,677 a month, which works out to be $500 a day.
Now…
Let’s say you are running a home-business that revolves around a product that retails for $100.
And, let’s assume that you make 50% profit on each sale.
This would mean that you would need to sell 10 of these products a day to earn $1000 and make $500 a day in net profit.
OK stay with me…
So, now you’ve got something to aim for.
But, here’s what’s interesting…
If you sold a product that retailed for $200 you would only need to sell 5 products a day to hit your $500 profit target.
If you sold a product that retailed for $500 you would only need to sell 2 products a day.
Make sense?
Yes, I know that this probably sounds like a Herculean task lot but there are many people doing this – especially online.
So, using my friend as an example, if she used her day-job to pay for her bills and pension contribution and then dedicated her spare time to starting a home based business that could generate $500 day, just thinking along these lines would give her measurable goal to aim for.
More about excuses….
It wouldn’t surprise me if you were thinking thoughts along the lines of:
- Sound’s great but making $500 a day is easier said than done or…
- That’s great for some people but I don’t have a spouse that allows me to take risks or…
- ..any other excuse that occupy people’s minds when it comes
Don’t get too bent out of shape when I refer to be above as excuses but in reality…
That is exactly what they are.
Excuses are a tool that we all use to justify our lack of belief in ourselves and our ability to get the job done.
It’s very convenient isn’t it, when you really think about it.
Another example…
Last week I was talking to someone in their early 50s who told me that he had not invested much in his pension/IRA over his working life.
He was worried what was going to happen to him when he reaches retirement age.
When I suggested that he should start running a part-time home business to increase his income, his immediate response was..
“I’m too old now – I should have started doing something like this years ago.”
When I told him about entrepreneurs like Ray Crock who made his first million when he was well into his fifties, he didn’t really have a leg to stand on.
Once again: another excuse.
Now..
There’s a big difference between making an excuse and having a genuine concern about starting a new venture or pursuing a goal.
When I was explaining the benefits of print media advertising to a member of my team, I didn’t see their scepticism as making excuses, just genuine concerns.
And that’s OK.
In most cases, an excuse is used when people try to justify their lack of action in the direction of their goal.
Here’s a perfect way to detect excuses in yourself and other people that you speak to when it comes to running a business.
If someone has an another excuse already lined up when you manage to rebut their first excuse, you know that the first excuse wasn’t a simple objection or concern but a genuine excuse.
The key to overcoming excuses like this is to change beliefs, but guess what…
This takes effort!
And….
If you’re anything like me, you have no interest in trying to psychoanalyse every customer, prospect or team member you are working with.
At a subconscious-level your mind is happiest in a cosy, relaxed state which will have to be disrupted if you are going to take the action necessary to change your beliefs.
Your subconscious mind will change if you take the time to change it and you can do the following to initiate this change, and increase the probability that you will achieve your goals:
- Play a movie in your mind daily of what you want to achieve and see yourself achieving the goal – pay close attention to all sensory aspects of your experience such as feel, touch, smell and taste of the things in your environment.
- Carry around a list of your goals and read them to your self at least 3 times a day – preferably when you wake up and before you go to bed.
I normally run a mile from most personal development strategies such as the law of attraction and other new age motivational philosophies BUT, the two mentioned above have delivered results for me and my team – like clockwork.
So, there’s nothing tactical in this post other than taking the steps to eliminate excuses from your life that aren’t related to physical, mental and other such limitations.
MY CHALLENGE TO YOU IF YOU HAVEN’T DONE SO ALREADY:
- Determine how much you need to make on a daily basis to achieve your lifestyle goals – e.g. $200/day.
- Write this realistic and achievable goal down and carry it around with you.
- Work out how many products or services you need to sell to achieve this goal – affiliate marketers and network marketers have the math done for them.
- Every day, play a mind-movie of you achieving your goals – really use your senses because most people forget to do this!
- Monitor your progress weekly and refine your strategy.
It’s that simple.
So…
Make a decision that you are going to take the time to reprogram your subconscious on a daily basis so that you can achieve your weekly sales goals.
In some people’s opinion, this focus on goal setting is more important than any product, advert or marketing tactic that you could use to generate an income, if that’s your goal.
I hope you got some value from this post.
