Before you spend money on a graphic profile, a website, stock, licence fees, accounting services, a CRM system, marketing material, leadership training and so on, take a look at direct selling.
A few years ago I became a part owner of a company where I lost quite a lot of money. I went without a salary for a long time, borrowed money to cover the bills and had to go back to the factory floor when the company went bankrupt. Somewhere along the way I realised I needed to start with direct selling again. I'd worked with it on the side and I knew of no other way to earn back that kind of capital. It felt like I'd be in debt for the rest of my life if I didn't do something, and that was a feeling I wanted to get away from.
I needed to start with direct selling again and make one last run, because I knew it would work. I knew it would deliver if I delivered. Many people start climbing a career ladder and then, after many years, they come to the conclusion that it isn't what they want to be doing at all. The world is full of confused people who keep studying without knowing what they're going to do in the future. For me it was the opposite, I knew exactly what I wanted and needed to do. It's about choosing which wall you lean the ladder against.
People change jobs without knowing what they're looking for. It's as if they walk around listening to a radio station they don't want to listen to, but it's never occurred to them to change frequency. What happens if you start climbing a completely new career ladder? You can also choose to build one of your own. It used to be that you had to have a ladder to climb, and business owners were the ones who had inherited something or were born entrepreneurs. That's not quite how it looks today.
A while back I listened to an audiobook called ”The 10% Entrepreneur”. The concept is simple. Whatever you do today, put 10% extra working time into building something on the side. If you work 40 hours a week, put 4 hours a week into something of your own. That's 200 hours in a year for anyone who chooses to do it. I see this as highly applicable to direct selling.
In direct selling, just like in any business, you get paid for results. Activity leads to results, or ”you reap what you sow”. This means those hours have to be directly income producing to be of any use, and in direct selling that means meetings. 4 meetings a week is 200 meetings in a year. Easy to do, easy not to do. If you choose to be a 20% entrepreneur, you sit in 8 meetings a week and get through 400 meetings in a year. The choice is entirely yours.
Direct selling is a school of entrepreneurship because you learn the basics of running a business. Booking meetings, planning, meeting different people, following up and so on. The difference is that you haven't put in any start-up capital, because it's free to get going. Instead you invest your time. The company takes care of everything around it, so what you need to focus on is your own meetings. If you're thinking about starting your own business, take a look at direct selling. Start here. Learn the basics. The education you get, you carry with you for life in everything you do.
I've spent a six figure sum on training around the world in personal development and leadership. I don't regret a single krona, because every course has taken me further. Ten years ago we were at Anthony Robbins' Unleash the Power Within, Wealth Mastery, Joseph Mclendon's Next Step, Next Step II and so on and so on. Direct selling training is more or less free. You pay a few hundred or a few thousand kronor to be trained by the world elite.
The training is there so you can do this direct selling thing even better, but also so you as a person develop in your leadership, your communication & your rhetoric. There are many things we need to learn in life that I feel I never got from school. School teaches you to follow, not to lead. Goal setting wasn't on the timetable. It's mostly elite athletes and business owners who work with it regularly. Where you want to go in life isn't something school focuses on.
A school of entrepreneurship is what direct selling is all about. Here you grow in responsibility. In leadership. You learn step by step how the craft is done. Anyone, regardless of background. It doesn't matter who you are or where you come from. If you have the will and the right attitude, you can go as far as you like.
You have 168 hours in a week. You sleep 56, work 40, so what you do with your remaining 72 decides what your future looks like. A 10% entrepreneur invests 4 hours a week in meetings and creates results from 200 meetings a year. If you choose to be a ”20% entrepreneur” and invest your time in 8 meetings a week, you get through 400 meetings a year and can probably go down to part time, or go full time in direct selling, after the first year.
”If you don't like how things are, change it. You're not a tree.” Jim Rohn
I had no start-up capital. If you don't have money, you invest your time. That became my way out of the rat race. As long as there are people out there who need to make a change and have the will to do it, I'll keep going. This is about relationships. Direct selling is a school of entrepreneurship and the coolest career ladder I've seen.
