Today’s blog post might make me some enemies. There are a few things that get under my skin and this is one of them… People who refuse to think. Lazy thinkers.

Even worse is people who refuse to think who use their emotions, other people’s opinions and stereotypes to try to justify business decisions.

Make no mistake – your business is not you. Your business deserves to be heard and your business has no place for emotional hand-wringing. Your business has one purpose – to make money. What you do with that money and the freedom and power it will give you, is up to you. But none of that matters if your business doesn’t first get what it deserves – a viable strategy and focused dedicated work and leadership.

Your business’s purpose is to make money.

Most people don’t have the huevos to stick up for their business when it comes down to it. They apologize for success or, even worse, try their hardest to avoid it. They substitute all the emotional crutches they use in their personal life to determine the course of their business.

A business owner who is looking out for his business will:

Insist on timely and accurate financial statements.

  • Trust other people.
  • Embrace new ideas, methods and skills.
  • Research technology to do things better, faster and quicker.
  • Examine knee-jerk and emotional reactions
  • Give up short term perks for long-term and lasting rewards.
  • Be okay with feeling uncomfortable doing or believing something new.
  • Embrace purposeful and directed change.
  • Accept new ideas. (Oh, did I mention that already?)

Want something different than you have right now? You have to accept that something about you, your business, your attitudes, your thoughts and/or your actions need to change.

Everything you’ve done to date has led you to this point. If you’re not happy with where you are, then there is something you need to examine! Want something different? Do something different!

My husband Richard and I got hit hard by the recession that began in 2007/2008. We knew that something had to change in order for us to get back all the wealth we’d lost in the real estate downturn and stock market crash. One of the things we did that was new for us was to start working in a network marketing company, aka multi-level marketing company, aka MLM, aka home-based business opportunity.

When we got involved, we made the commitment to each other and to our new business that we would work in it for 2 years. At the end of 2 years, if we weren’t where we wanted to be, we’d think about quitting.

After 2 weeks, we knew we’d found the right company with the right product at the right time. And the money started rolling in. Now this is from us just working part-time and unlike most network marketing companies, there is real profit to be made selling the product at preferred pricing even if you never sign-up a single solitary rep. So the model is not based on just signing up someone else who signs someone else. In fact, if that’s all you ever do, you’ll miss out on commissions and bonuses. That’s because this company really is geared toward selling a product people want instead of just recruiting someone else to join the company.

I’m not going to tell you the company or the product, suffice to say it’s something that works especially well in this economy.

Even though I’d never worked in an MLM before, even though my entire database had come to me for tax savings tips (and not home-based business opportunities), we still had quick success, just following what the company leaders said to do.

Now, here’s the interesting thing. There were some people who heard what we were doing and reacted negatively. “I can’t believe you’re doing a network marketing company!” I heard. “I would never do that,” someone else said.

These people judged based on a past prejudice. The fact that you could make money and never recruit a person (very different then standard MLMs, which are based on recruitment) and that it was a product people wanted, at a price cheaper then the stores, didn’t matter. It had the “MLM” touch and that was all that was needed for some people to decide it wasn’t for them.

They never even asked what it was.

That’s what I mean by past emotional baggage clouding your decisions in the future. It could mean a business label that you react emotionally too. It could mean working virtually, outsourcing globally or simply hiring an employee that triggers an emotional reaction. Whatever it is – it’s not healthy for you or your business. Your business exists to make money. If you let your emotional decisions get in the way of making money, you’re not honoring your business.

Today was Business Building Tip #3: Make Business Decisions For the Benefit of the Business