How to prevent your home based business from failing.
Working from home, building a business can be a dream or a total nightmare.
Some people need the connection of constant co-workers, the after hours cocktails, and the general “familial” connections and that come from a traditional work environment.
Some people also need the structure of being told what to do and then doing it. This group of people have an employee mindset and as long as their work fulfills them and it meets their basic needs, they are usually pretty content.
But then there are people with an entrepreneur mindset. They want to control their own pay, their own hours, and set the rules so to speak.
This group has a driving force behind their goals and for every time they fall down, they bounce back up.
The 3 Main Reasons Home Based Businesses Fail
After over 15 years of coaching in business and leadership, I’ve seen and heard hundreds, okay probably thousands, of reasons and excuses behind why people believe their businesses have tanked or not taken off.
There are a handful of legitimate reasons, and a ravine of excuses (lack of time and money being the two that sink most people and have zero credibility when it comes to your actual success)
But of the legitimate reasons, nearly all will fit into one of the following three categories.
What Can You Do to Help Yourself Succeed?
The third reason is identity. Do you know who you are, what you want, and what you are willing to do to get what you want.
Most people that are trying to start a home based business are trapped between the employee and entrepreneur mindset.
A true entrepreneur will likely succeed very quickly. They will do whatever it takes to ensure that they don’t have to remain in traditional employment. These are the people you hear about that hit 5-figure months or higher in the first year in their businesses.
An employee will quiver and question, always afraid to let invest time, money, energy, and themselves into their business ideas will full gusto. They rely on the safety and security of their job (total facade BTW).
Or they go into their business with an employee back-up plan (if this doesn’t work out I can always….) pretty much sealing their fate from the get-go.
They are already questioning if they have what it takes. And like clockwork, within 6-12 months of starting their business, it takes a back burner or closes completely while they cling to traditional bi-monthly paydays.
The good news is that you can transition from an employee to an entrepreneur mindset if you’re ready to ask for support!
You Have to Believe in Your Business
The second reason is belief.
No matter how many women I work with, a minimum of 9/10 when we first start working together, struggle to identify the solution, result, or outcome their product or service will provide.
Sure they can give me some surface level answers but when I ask them to go deeper I’m met with crickets.
The content, words, energy and actions that will sell your service/course/program is BEYOND the field of crickets.
It’s when you can identify with rock solid confidence, aka BELIEF, everything that you and your offer can do for another that it begins to sell with ease.
This is why you can’t just copy someone else’s strategy and hit it out of the park. Besides it being unethical to copy another’s business, it simply WON’T WORK.
If all women needed were the technical solutions to run their business, I could coach women in two weeks flat, and I’m by no stretch a technical wizard. Yet many are CONVINCED that strategy is what’s holding them back.
How to Run A Successful Home Based Business
Hands down, the unequivocal reason most businesses fail is mindset.
Poor mindset around success.
Poor mindset around money, time, investing, and self.
Raise your hand if the following sound familiar:
- “I’ll invest in a business coach after I sign a few clients so I have the money to invest.”
- “Maybe I’ll take time off once I get caught up on my bills.”
- “I’ll spend more time in my business when my schedule calms down.”
Time and money are the two biggest excuses people give for not being able to get help with their businesses. And if you want yours to succeed, mentorship matters.
First, if either of those is a current excuse for you, your mindset needs some tweaking. Those two excuses will run any business idea you have straight into the ground.
There truly is no such thing as self-made. Richard Branson, Tony Robbins, and Oprah all had mentors, coaches, and people along the way that helped them in their journey. They invested regularly and often. Even when it was a stretch or struggle.
Second, the lack of time and money excuses will (and 99%) already are pouring over into other areas of your life, affecting you in ways you haven’t even realized yet. Or maybe you already know since nearly all stress boils down to money, time, and relationships which are affected by both.
What Can I Do If I Feel Like My Business is Failing?
Reevaluate your priorities. Why did you start your business to begin with? Is it still important to you? Are you hoping to ditch traditional employment, corporate life, long commutes, and overtime in lieu of more time with your family and/or travel?
If you still find you’re hellbent on making a go of your business, hire a mentor and/or coach immediately. Lacking funds? They can likely advise you on some ways to come up with the investment. If your sister needed $10k for an emergency transplant this week you’d find the money…this week.
If you wanted to open a clothing store, you wouldn’t say you needed to sell some clothes before you could pay the rent/mortgage and open the store. Business doesn’t work like that.
It’s very likely that you truly could find the funds to hire a coach or mentor…if you weren’t afraid of failure.
Of not getting an ROI.
Of the endless “what if’s”, which only reaffirms your need for mindset coaching to begin with.
Too busy is another fear based excuse. You’re likely trying to build a business to free up your time. So if you choose to forgo help in an effort to try and do it on your own, it’ll likely never get done.
Will Your Home Based Business Thrive?
Even a high-end coach cannot guarantee your results. Because any investment you make is not about the mentor/coach, it’s about you.
Sure you want to hire one that you believe in and that you click with. Ultimately you’re hiring someone to support and hand-hold you through some critical times in your business.
But at the end of the day, the steps still need to be taken by you. The strategy tweaks still need implemented by you. The mindset work, honesty, and ability to open up to your coach or mentor still rests with you.
Most online businesses fail because the person does not believe in their idea, the result they deliver, or sometimes even themselves.
The real question is, are you ready to push past any doubts, get the support you need, so you can start seeing the results you desire?
xoxo-Deanna