When it comes time to pay the bills, what do you think of first?
1. Your day job, which pays you a steady salary week in and week out
2. Your newly-created MLM business that isn’t paying full dividends yet
If you’re like most people, when the bills stack up you think of your day job … or what I like to call “day money.”
Why Day Money Both Helps and Hurts Your MLM Business
Day money is the both a blessing and a curse when it comes to building your MLM business. It is a blessing because you need money to pay the bills while you build your new business. Day money also helps because it is the seed money that launches your MLM business.
But once you’ve launched your MLM business, day money can be the curse that stops your business in its tracks. The typical scenario goes like this: you work for your day money for eight hours each day and when you get home you’re too tired to even think about your MLM business. You tell yourself, “I’m too tired to [fill in the blank] for my business. I’ll think about it tomorrow.” Of course, at the end of the day tomorrow, you are again too tired to work your business.
On Saturday and Sunday, you should be prospecting, marketing, or doing follow-ups for your MLM business because these are the only two days of the week that you don’t have to earn day money. It sounds logical, only you don’t feel like it after a hard week of working at your day job.
You say to yourself, “I should call my prospects today, but I’m really tired. I deserve a break. I think I’ll go shopping today and call prospects on Sunday.” Then Sunday rolls around and you say to yourself, “If I work my MLM business today, I’ll be tired at work tomorrow. I need the energy to work my day job. I can’t lose my day job because I need the money to pay my bills.”
Are you starting to get the picture? Do you hear the siren song of your day job? Can you feel the lure of day money and do you see how it can trash your efforts to build your network marketing business?
Plan Your MLM Business Around the Distraction of Day Money
The bottom line is if you want to really build and grow your MLM business you have to be aware of and plan for the lure of easy day money. You have plan a strategy so that you have enough energy at the end of your workday and on the weekends to really work your business while still keeping your day job.
Five Strategies To Help You Focus on Your MLM Business
1. Disciplined Schedule: Leave your day job at a set time each day to ensure that you have the time and energy to work your MLM business when you get home.
2. Work Early: If possible, work your MLM business before you leave for your day job. If you live on the West coast, call prospects on the East coast early in the morning. You can also ask prospects for permission to call them early in the morning. If all else fails, answer emails and prepare packets to send out before leaving for your day job.
3. Limit MLM Work Days: So that you don’t feel totally overwhelmed by both your day job and your MLM business, pick 3-4 days a week for doing the bulk of the work in your MLM business and schedule prospect calls and training calls accordingly. Save at least one day a week for rest and relaxation.
4. Work Your MLM Business During Lunch: Bring a sack lunch to your day job, and if your work situation permits, do your MLM business during your lunch break. You can answer prospect emails, write articles for online promotion, call prospects, or even schedule training calls with your upline sponsor. If you work situation is delicate, consider using your cell phone and make calls while sitting in your car.
5. Sacrifice Distractions: Usually your day job isn’t the only thing distracting you from your MLM business. Other distractions include hobbies, travel, shopping, and socializing. While it’s important to have a balance between work and life, you can free up more time to work your MLM business by choosing at least one distraction to sacrifice. Whether it be spending less time surfing on eBay or watching less television, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how much more time becomes available to work your business. When one of my upline sponsors was going for the top rank in the company, he literally unplugged his television and stuck it in his closet. He promised himself he would not get the television back out until he achieved his desired rank, which he did a few months later.
You obviously need to be able to pay your bills and fund your MLM business during the startup phase, so hang onto your day job. But you also want to hang onto the perspective that your MLM business is what will get you off the hamster wheel of having to work a day job forever. Your MLM business is a ticket to retirement, so long as you have the dedication to work it consistently and resist the lure of easy day money.