17 August 2009

Use Your Influence for Good

As I’m sure you’re read around here a time or two, my primary business focus is currently (and has been at times previously) direct sales. This means that I work mostly from home. My home office is where I contact hostesses of my home shows, guests and customers who have purchased my company’s products, members of my team who want to learn how to successfully do what I do, and plenty of people who are a combination of these categories (guests becoming hostesses, hostesses becoming team members…). One of the biggest drawbacks to this type of business for me is that I’m one of those really weird people who enjoys sales meetings. Yeah, I know. I’m a freak of nature that way.

Since my current business is still relatively small, there aren’t a lot of meetings and trainings I can attend (with the major recent exception of our national conference last weekend). I love using articles like Become an Influencer to give me that extra inspirational boost and help me stay motivated and on-track with my business.

Some of the points in the article (like letting your boss know when you take care of the office plants or bring donuts) are obviously more applicable to a job outside of one’s home, but even these can be brought around to help your cause. A struggle working in the home is balancing household responsibilities with working the business. Make sure other family members realize that you do other things besides work on your business so they can’t say, “You’re always on the computer!” It’s common-sense – heaven forbid everyone runs out of clean underwear while you’re following up on leads!

The most universal point in the article was quite basically to have and project a positive attitude. Not only will it help you successfully complete the tasks of the job you’re actually doing, but it may also get the attention of others who are not necessarily your boss, but may be in a spot to better your position at some point. You never know how someone you’re interacting with today could influence your life down the road.

1 comment:

siteseer said...

You're right, that last comment is universal. Don't burn any bridges and use sweet words, you might have to eat them. Oh yeah, and be prepared for opportunity to come knocking.