how to stay inspired and motivated Archives

As I have said before on my blog, if you are going to have your own business, you have to know the success can come and go. As a result, it is very easy to get down on your business and lose motivation when those sales slumps occur. Every business has slumps, so here are some tips to stay inspired and motivated when business isn’t going so great.

Read About Others’ Failures Not Successes

Stop reading about other people’s successes and instead read about other people’s failures, before they had success. The majority of entrepreneurs were not successful right out of the gate. They had failure after failure until something finally worked. The key was, they did not give up, they kept trying.

People who have immediate success usually do so due to a fluke. Also, the people who brag about how successful there, typically are not. Why else are they trying so hard to convince you that they are?

These people are not the norm, so don’t focus on them. Focus on those who have failed and then went onto success as this is much more motivating. Here is a good article, 13 Business Leaders Who Failed Before They Succeeded from American Express Open Forum.

Think Only Positive Thoughts

Seems like such easy advice but it isn’t always easy to do. If I can recommend a book that did wonders for me, it was The Power of Positive Thinking. It is based on the theory that the mind is much more powerful than we realize and positive thoughts bring positive results, whereas negative thoughts bring negative results. Sounds simplistic, but it does work.

So get up each morning believing that you will get new customers and new sales. Don’t even doubt it. As I have said before, it doesn’t matter if anyone else thinks you will be successful, it only matters that you do. But if you don’t believe it, then it probably won’t happen.

Try Something New

On the odd occasion, I will have a client who will dismiss my advice because they think it won’t work. They won’t even try it, and they instead they decide to just keep doing what they have been doing that hasn’t been working for them. I guess it is safer to keep failing. Remember the saying, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.

Therefore, make a list of new tactics to try (my Marketing Plans have hundreds of them) and stop wasting time on things that have proven not to work for you because you already know the results.

Encourage Someone Else

We all need a pep talk every now and then, so why not help out someone else who may be feeling down about their business. Post a nice message on their social media sites, recommend their business to a friend or just email them a compliment. You will probably get kind words back, which goes a long way in keeping us motivated and a little good karma never hurt anyone.

If you need encouragement about your small business, try my one-on-one consultations.