Build Slowly, Foundations Deep

Another 'Article From The Archives'

I started a home business about the same time as a guy who lives across the road from me here in Poole, Dorset.

Mail order is definitely where the money is, we were led to believe, so that was our current business opportunity flavour of the month.

I decided to do a massive mail shot to promote the business, which was basically information manuals and audio cassette tapes. I hired a mailing list and promised to use it only once, as you do.

In order to build a downline of traders I had to not only sell the manuals but tell people that they too could earn an extra income by selling them on to their customers as well.

I spent a few hundred pounds on the mailing list from a fresh list of names gathered by a top promotional company. After a few weeks and no replies, apart from one hundred and seventeen gone-a-ways, I began to think that my list was a little duff.

Meanwhile, the guy across the road had spent twenty pounds on his list and also got no replies from just a couple of hundred names.

He went on to try another list supplier and a couple of hundred names.

I went back to the same company as last time where they gave me a ‘premium’ list which was for buyers, not just information seekers.

No replies later, I was skint and had lost all faith in working from home.

The guy across the road had gained five replies and two take ups from his list, so decided to invest in a much bigger list from the same company. The success rate was phenomenal, he was building his downline and making sales slowly but surely, testing out each list first.

I found he was coding each advertisement too. By simply inserting a department number or initialling the publication in brackets he knew which ads had worked and which were not so hot. I had gone about it all wrong by splashing out all my savings on mass advertising which was untested by me, silly mistake.

I had gone round to all my friends and colleagues telling them about my new business and pestered them to buy a manual or two, and maybe a set of audio tapes for their self development. Just listen to them yourself, they’d laugh.

Guy across the road said, No, no, never tell your close friends about what you are up to…. unless they ask, that is. He warned, once you tell immediate friends and family about your home business, it is doomed because they ridicule you, tell you why it won’t work and try and put you off. In the end, every time you walk into a pub and they are there, you will find they move away from you just in case you should try and convince them that joining your latest opportunity will make them rich.

I need to build a downline quickly so as I can earn big money, I insisted, but no, the best way is to build slowly, he replied…build a foundation first for the rest of the team to stand on.

He explained that bringing in people by the masses looks good at first but the drop out rate will be stupendously high as you can’t keep control of them. If you need to persuade people to sign up they never stay in long. Bring in only those who show a genuine interest in what you are doing as they always make a good effort to make it work by staying in for, at least, a year to see if things work out okay and aren’t put off by friends and family constantly telling them that it’s no good.

If I had a pound for every person who asked, ‘Where’s your BMW then?’, ‘moved into your new villa yet? Ha ha ha’, I’d have the extra income I’ve been planning on receiving.

After studying this guy from across the road and how successful he is in his various ventures, it seems it is all down to the same plan, that is, building slowly on firm foundations, it seems to work with any home business.

I always tended to rush into things and wanted a return on my investment immediately but, of course, that just doesn’t happen, no matter what the adverts say.

Now-a-days I keep several opps going at the same time and, due to that slow building, they all bring in a decent extra income…I’m not the millionaire I’d like to be but I do set certain goals and always do something each day to reach them. On completing a goal, I set another, often more difficult than the last and head for that, slowly but surely, it does tend to work.

I believe that if you do at least one thing for each business you are involved in each day, then you will keep moving forward. Even if it’s just telling somebody about it or replying to an enquiry, writing an advert, making a telephone call, booking an advert, sorting your filing system, anything that is doing something for one of the businesses. I also believe in having a portfolio of businesses as one can often help the other. Once you get into a routine, it isn’t too difficult to keep them all running smoothly. A mailing list you’ve created from one business, say, information manuals, just may work when you write to your customer and tell them that you are also selling a Work from home business course, therefore one business helping the other.

After becoming established in your chosen field of home business, it almost becomes self sufficient as customers get used to your good service and tend to come back to you for something else. I find myself introducing new products simply for this to happen, and it works every time. I’m off across the road now to see what else I can find out.

Martyn Brown