As a business owner, one of the biggest goals you may have is to run a successful business. Now, as you know if you’ve read this blog or been through any Teamzy training, that is one super vague goal. After all, if you want to achieve it, you have to be more specific! However, the point is, we all want to achieve success and run a thriving business. The challenge is how to get there.

Why your habits matter

At the core of success lies your habits. It’s those things you do each and every day to push your business forward. On days when you’re super motivated, doing your daily activities is super easy. You’re amped to connect with your peeps and make their days. And, you’re hoping that you can converse with them – either online or in person – and find out what their pain points are and how you can help.

However, you also have to do your activities when you’re feeling less-than-motivated. Perhaps you’re crazy busy and life is tugging at your sleeves and demanding your attention. Or, it’s a beautiful day and you’d rather play outside with your kids or head to the beach instead of working. Or, you’re just mentally in a funk and would rather do some self-care instead. There’s no shame; it happens to all businesspeople at one time or another. It’s a huge challenge to rally your motivation enough to do your daily business activities.

Skipping a Power Hour doesn’t matter, right?

Although skipping a Power Hour here and there may not matter in the grand scheme of things, it matters if it impacts your habits. That is, if you’re cool with skipping one day, what’s to keep you from skipping two or three days in a row? Now, you may say, “Well, a few days won’t matter.” But, very often, those days stretch into a week or longer. It’s the “longer” part that’s most dangerous. After all, it takes time (often several weeks) to build a good habit; however, it only takes an instant for a bad habit to creep in (i.e., choosing to do something other than your daily business activities). We may not court bad business habits, but – like an unwanted ex or former friend – they seem to pop up at the worst times when your motivation is low.

What if I’m going on vacation or have to take a week off?

There’s a difference between not doing your activities because you don’t want to and not doing them because you can’t. Time off is essential for your mind and well-being, especially when you’re running a business. If you’re going on vacation, do extra work in the week or two leading up to your break so that you can come back to your business well-rested and ready to kick butt. If that’s not possible, make a commitment to put in the extra work when you get back so that you’re not as far behind in achieving your goals.

If you’re sidelined for another reason – an illness or life event, for example – do what you can, but commit to making up for it and getting back on track when you’re able to. Life happens and although many of us would love to have more control over what happens, sometimes it’s not in your hands. And, while you can control your actions, it can be tough when you’re in the middle of a life-altering event, whether it’s an addition to the family, a wedding or divorce, or – God forbid – an illness. At these times, you’re focusing on how you can get it all done every day and no one would blame you if you missed a Power Hour or two. There is a caveat – you have to have the motivation to get back on track when life calms down. Although it will take some time to remember and rebuild the good habits, it is possible to get back to where you left off.

Skip your Power Hour – Skip out on building relationships

If you want a good reason NOT to skip your Power Hour every day, think of your relationships. Put another way, every time you skip a day of business activities, you’re missing out on the opportunity to connect with your customers, prospects, and distributors. When you miss this time to connect, you also miss out on an opportunity to build trust and build your relationships. Your network is the core of your business – it’s vital to check in with them and find out how you can help and serve.

But, I can check in with them tomorrow…

That’s true; you can. And, you may have the conversation with them that you would’ve had today and everything works out. However, what if they’re having a challenge now and they could use your help or input? What if it’s a prospective customer or team member and a competitor rolls up and connects with them at just the right time, which happens to be the day that you were meant to contact them? Although they may think of you and get in touch, it may not work out that way. Could you miss out on a sale or a potential customer or team member? Potentially. Is that a risk you’re comfortable with, especially if you wish to lead a thriving, successful network marketing business?

That’s up to you to answer that question. If you’re having a banner year and are way ahead of your milestones on the way to reaching your goals, it may not matter right now (not to say that a customer doesn’t matter; you just understand that you’ll have to work a bit hard to win them over with fantastic service). However, many network marketers aren’t in that situation and if they want a successful business that allows them to reach and help others while earning an income, the Power Hour is essential.

Pro Tip: A Power Hour is just that – an hour (or often less). And, it doesn’t need to be done in one sitting. If you have trouble carving an hour out of your day, break it into 5 or 10 minute segments throughout the day.

It’s all about consistency

Building good habits and doing your Power Hour every day is about more than your relationships, though; it’s about building trust with your biggest advocates. How do you build trust? Through consistent actions.

It may seem like a small detail – something that doesn’t really matter. However, this seemingly small detail is actually the most important thing you can do for your business. Consistency is doing what you say you’re going to do when you say you’re going to do it. You may ask, “The people in my network don’t know when I’m supposed to contact them – so why does it matter?” They may not know, but you do. And, if they’re top customers, they’ve likely come to expect that you’re going to connect with them once a month. Make sure you meet that expectation.

Every time you reach out to your network, you add a brick of trust to the foundation of your relationships and your business. They may not know when you’re going to contact them, but they’ll likely miss it if you don’t. Although they won’t suddenly vanish from your life – especially since many people in your network are folks you’ve had lifelong relationships with – you may not be top of mind when they’re looking for the product or service you’re offering. And, while you may contest that your network would never do you wrong like that, it has happened in some instances. And, if you keep pushing off your Power Hour and putting your business on the back burner, it’s sure to happen eventually.

So, what can you do?

Luckily, there are things you can do to ensure you maintain consistency and keep doing the little things that drive your business.

• Prioritize your day. This is so important. Although a to-do list is a good start, it’s not enough. A to-do list doesn’t keep things from moving to the back burner. Instead, pinpoint your top two priorities for the day – the activities that you have to do – and put them above the other things on the list. These are the tasks you must do no matter what. Here’s a hint: one of your priorities is your Power Hour. There; that decision is made for you. Now, you only have to choose a second priority. Once those two priorities are complete for the day, go to the next most important task. When you prioritize your day – and make your Power Hour your top priority – you can be sure you’ll get it done.

• Commit to consistency. If you want to be consistent, you have to make a conscious effort to be consistent. This is especially true as you’re building good habits. You see, once your Power Hour becomes a habit, you won’t even have to think about it. It’ll just be something you do automatically, like brushing your teeth or making your coffee (or other preferred beverage) in the morning. But, in the beginning, you have to make a concentrated effort to complete your Power Hour each day.

• Keep your eyes on the prize. If you need a quick surge of motivation, think of your Why. Think of your goals. Think of your long-term goals. Look at a photo or image that reminds you of your Why and your goals. Humans are very visual and sometimes seeing the prize provides a groundswell of motivation. And it’s this motivation that can help you build a lasting, successful business.

Build a Business You’re Proud of…

It requires focus, passion, consistent action, and most of all, a willingness to play the long game. Teamzy’s Elite Business Bootcamp launches this week and can fast-track your growth and save you years of expensive trial and error. Looking for support on your business-building journey?

We’ve already helped 75,000+ network marketers and we’d be honored to help you build a meaningful and profitable business.