In the blink of an eye, that which you worked so hard for can be dissolved, leaving you out in the cold. And while you may think I’m referring to a marriage between a man and a woman, this is actually a business blog, so I am referring to a business failure. I used to say that the failure of my network marketing business was like a divorce and I wasn’t ready to be remarried. So I went on to school in 2001, getting my MBA in 2009. You may know this if you’ve followed my blog for a while. You may also know that I formed an aimless corporation in 2008. I wanted to start a business again but wasn’t sure exactly what. I thought, well maybe I’ll start my own network marketing product company, but I wasn’t completely sure what I was going to do.
Since 2008 I have taken on some consulting, here and there, but in 2010 my decision to go into consulting full time was solidified with the pink slip. I was laid off from my employer and I had enough luck to land, the next Monday, at another company doing full-time consulting. Then I verbally signed a contract with a friend and did a few hours for him every once in a while. This contract was dissolved a bit later, I guess you shouldn’t work for friends. We were heading into the winter and it was the busy time for my other client, so I just went full time with them through March. March is now approaching and I’m considering asking for another year, which I really don’t think is going to be a problem. So I will be full time in my own business for more than a year as of June. That is better than I did in my first business, when I was full time for about 6 months before I went back to work. The difference this time is that I am “working”, i.e. selling time for money, so it doesn’t feel like I’m working for myself.
When we had our first business, it was a lot of work for very little initial return. But by the time I quit my job, there was very little to do and plenty of money. It was kind of weird. I wasn’t prepared for the change. After a few weeks, I knew I had to go back to work. This was before the beginning of the end; I knew I wasn’t ready to be flooded with time. But before I had quit my job I was so burned out. We had worked our tails off, my mind was mush, very little sleep for a couple of years, virtually could not do my job any more. Six weeks later, I couldn’t stand all the time. Then within 6 months, virtually no more business. It was painful. I was very bitter and I “never” wanted to do it again. We put in all that work and it was destroyed in a flash.
A lot has changed since then. In addition to my consulting, I am starting to build a network marketing business again. This with a company I’ve been associated with for 18 years. I signed up when I was 28 years old and did a little bit, but when success wasn’t instantaneous, I quit trying. But I did renew the membership every year. Then we started our “first” business in 1997, our first successful business at least. So I came back to my original network marketing company full guns last year and am actually doing pretty well. It’s a lot of work but it’s growing. I’m happy to be doing it again, and this time I don’t think I’ll have problems with the company. It’s a little weird to be using the same muscles again after all this time, but the memory is still there, and I feel like I’m actually pretty good at it.
Have you ever had a major business failure, and what did you do to come back from it?
I just tried Facebook Live over the last couple of days and it is so easy to use. Why would you want to use it? Because when you do, you are producing a video of yourself, but you also get feedback from people who watch. You can customize your message and respond to questions. I will bet you are wondering how to do Facebook Live…
