What is one goal that all business owners have in common? Growth. All business owners, especially network marketers, want to grow their businesses. Although the percentage of growth may vary – some seek exponential growth while others are more modest – it’s clear that in order for a business to survive, it must continue to grow. 

Setting the goal to grow is the easy part; the more difficult part is creating a plan that encourages such growth. It’s not that the growth itself is difficult; it’s that the process of growing, especially if you have ambitious goals, requires you to move out of the comfort zone. 

The comfort zone

Think of the comfort zone as a warm and snuggly blanket that you wrap around yourself. It’s cozy, safe, and reassuring. It’s a place you never want to leave. And, you don’t have to. You can live your entire life wrapped within this blanket (figuratively, of course). However, you’ll never grow. And, perhaps more importantly, your business won’t either.  Not only won’t you reach your goals, but your business may also stagnate.

Growth is essential to life… and business

“Growth and comfort do not coexist.” -Ginni Rometty

If you want to grow – yourself and your business – it’s crucial to get uncomfortable. You have to shed that cozy blanket and explore the possibilities that exist outside of it. 

Remember the growing pains you felt as a kid in your arms and your legs as your body was growing? Your bones and joints may have ached at night, sometimes to the point of keeping you awake. And, although your parents may have given you a pain killer or rubbed your legs, you may have still felt the dull ache of growth. This literal growth hurt and was super uncomfortable, but without it, you’d still be about 24 inches tall. 

Or what about in school when you were trying to master a difficult concept for a class. You may have struggled to try to understand algebra, for example, reading and re-reading the textbook to understand how to do the equations and asking for extra help from your teacher or a tutor after school. It was uncomfortable and it may have strained your brain so much that it gave you a headache. You may have thrown your hands up in frustration, time and time again. But, you kept at it and then one day, while taking the final exam, something clicked and the questions no longer seemed like “problems” anymore. Now you could have not sought the extra help and figured, “Welp, I’m awful at math. That’s that.” But, by seeking extra help, you moved out of the comfort zone and began to grow.

Growth is a part of life. It’s also a part of business. Businesses have to grow in order to meet the changing needs of their customers and the market. They also have to grow in order to continue to make money. Sure, a business can continue along its path and not court new customers; however, it likely won’t last long. Once other businesses move into the area that offers more of what the customers need, the business that refused to grow will go out of business.

Why is growth so uncomfortable?

Many people fear growth because they don’t want to feel uncomfortable. It’s so much easier to toe the line and keep doing things as they’ve always been done. This path is the easy road. Although you may achieve some business success for a time, if you don’t continue to grow, the success is short-lived. Most network marketers understand this; however, they continue to avoid growth. Why?

Fear of failure

Failure is the biggest fear of any business owner. No one wants to try something and then fall flat on their faces. Failure is hurtful, especially to the pride of the business owner. They don’t want to hear, “I told you so” or the sound of people laughing at them, both real and imagined. It’s easy to take failure personally. However, you must understand two things. First, as Zig Ziglar said,  “failure is an event, not a person.” You may have failed (verb), but you are not a failure (noun). 

Second, failure is the cost of building a strong and thriving business. Ask any business owner and entrepreneur about failure and they’ll tell you to pull up a chair because it’ll take a while to go through all of them.  Thomas Edison famously said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Had he not failed – regularly and repeatedly – he never would have created as many inventions. People fear failure, especially as they’re trying to grow their businesses. In reality, they should fear not failing. 

Fear of success

The fear of success is real. Now, you may be saying, “That’s nonsense. Who fears success.” Many business owners do. They’re afraid of what will happen if they achieve success – how they’ll change, how their business will change, how their lives will change. Will success come with more challenges and stress or force them to spend less time with their spouse, children, and loved ones or turn them into a greedy and horrible person? The questions go on and on.

Don’t believe the story

So many business owners create these stories in their heads about what will surely happen when they find the success that they avoid it altogether. They feel that their lives will change so drastically and they don’t want that to happen – they want to maintain the status quo, what they’re comfortable with. As a result, they don’t try. They don’t set ambitious goals for their businesses; instead, they just strive to maintain their results. While this may allow them to maintain their businesses for a time, they’ll never achieve the level of success they had in mind when they started their businesses.

Fear of disappointment

Similar to failure, many people fear disappointment. No one wants to be disappointed, especially if they try hard to get results. Often you not only feel as if you’ve let yourself down, but you’ve let down those around you as well. 

It’s a matter of expectation

The fear of disappointment is all about our expectations. For example, if we take a risk and pursue ambitious goals for our business – say, to add five new prospects to our networks every week – and we don’t meet that goal for several weeks in a row, it knocks our confidence. We may have added two prospects for three weeks in a row – still an admirable amount of people, but not on par with the goal we had set. We’re disappointed in ourselves and we begin to think, “Maybe I shouldn’t have aimed so high. Maybe I should’ve set easier goals.”

To avoid disappointment in the future, we may set a goal to add only one new prospect a week. Is that an achievable goal? Yes. Will you be able to do it, no problem? Yes. But, will it help you grow your business to its true potential? Eh, not so much. 

If you want to grow your business and create a strong foundation for lasting success, you’ve got to grow. You don’t have a choice.

How to foster growth

You know you have to grow; how do you go about doing so?

It all starts with personal development

If you want to grow your business, you have to start with yourself first. Personal development includes the books you read, podcasts you listen to, the training and courses you take, etc. It’s about filling your head with all the tools and strategies you need to deliver the highest level of service to your customers, prospects, and distributors. Personal development allows you to grow and expand your knowledge and put your experiences in perspective. Everything you learn and experience will give you the confidence to set more ambitious goals so you can grow your business to its truest potential. 

Get a coach

Most network marketers are so involved in their businesses that it’s impossible for them to see the bigger picture. And, while they may have a spouse who offers advice from time to time, what they need is an unbiased perspective. A coach will not only praise you for what you’re doing right, but they’ll also let you know what you’re doing wrong and offer suggestions to help you fix it. They’ll check in with you to make sure you’re doing what you say you’re going to and harp on you until you get it done. Although they’ll be your biggest cheerleader, they’ll also give you a boot to the backside when you’re not living up to your potential. But, perhaps most importantly, they’ll push you out of your comfort zone so that you can grow yourself and your business and reach all of the goals you’ve set.

Find a mentor

A mentor is different from a coach. While a coach will give you a game plan and see that you stick with it, a mentor will give you the gift of their experiences. A mentor has been in your shoes before, whether they built a successful network marketing company themselves or have built a business from the ground up. They’ll share their experiences with you – their successes and their failures – so that you can avoid the lessons they had to learn the hard way. You can try to follow their path to success and do what they wish they had done to avoid the challenges and setbacks they endured along the way. 

Grow with Teamzy

Did you know that Teamzy is more than a CRM? With your membership, you also have access to a variety of video lessons to help you organize and grow your business. Click here to learn more.