In a previous article “Why Some of the Best Home Based Businesses Fail – Small Sweet Spot” we discussed the foundational relationship between basic business elements of Compensation, Qualification, and Gratification. What happens when one factor is missing and two are present? In this article we discuss one of the inconsistencies of the combination of two of the pieces, gratification and compensation but without qualification.
• Compensation + Gratification – Qualification = Fantasy
If there is Compensation and Gratification but no Qualification it’s either a fantasy or you have a family member who owns the company. Without qualification (Skill to run a business) we have basically a charity recipient, subsidized with entitlement for subsistence.
Setting aside, professional lottery “players”, or a weekend prospector stumbling onto a gold mine, neither of which requires great skill but enormous good fortune, it is easy to see why a business would fail if the skill to make it function and keep it going is absent.
Not very many people actually land in the fantasy position, but if you are the rare person who has, hang on and enjoy the ride. It may be very enjoyable, but brief. And, while few actually experience this condition, multitudes of people mentally reside in a Fantasy Zone, with confident expectation that their skillfully picked lottery numbers will hit, or standing by waiting for someone to notice them and give them their big break. Positive action to acquire and exercise skills is necessary to take command of destiny. It is the heat of skillful business operation that initiates and maintains the fire of success. Without skill the fire will extinguish to lifeless ember.
Proper management of resources is essential to determine which investments will benefit a sustainable bottom line. Many entrepreneurs and home business people are insufficiently savvy toward investment and are either too conservative, fearing the loss of capital and jeopardizing future benefit, or too flamboyant spending money they don’t have, betting-on-the-come that the future will be rosy.
Many home business opportunities thrive on the fantasy that anyone can be rich with no skill. Multilevel Marketing (MLM) is particularly geared toward the hope of prosperity with a minimum of skill. MLM business preys on the lottery mentality suggesting you should abandon common logic to embrace sheer luck and timing as substitutes for hard work and skill. They persuade you (perhaps it is manipulation) that you can do what very few, < 5%, have successfully done, make money.
Those who drink that Kool-Aid will invest a lot of money and time (rationalizing the investment as tinder to start the fire), then attract and impact similarly vulnerable people, pile on more money to keep the “fire going” and reinforce the image that they are successful, damage a host of personal relationships (sometimes permanently), realize they cannot afford the damage or cost any longer, and then disappointedly watch their business fall apart.
Do not be deceived! Marketing skill is essential in MLM companies and especially so when the business specializes in exotic products for which a rational person cannot see a need, at a cost they cannot afford. In contrast, a successful and sustainable business model requires skill, motivated by commitment.
Another play in the realm of fantasy is to pander to some people’s pride and desire for independence. “Be Your Own Boss”, goes the pitch. We fantasize how good it would feel to say, “Take this job and shove it!” However, the motivation to be your own boss can cripple a home business by inducing the owner to believe they are so smart, as “The” decision-maker, that they overlook: fundamental business flaws, the need for specific work skills, the sources of proper advice and the pitfalls hasty and ill-conceived decisions. The result is a poorly run business, which will experience decline and lost revenue. As a result mounting debt becomes the BOSS. It is a recipe for disaster. While you may be in charge of the business, who wants to be the captain of the Titanic?
Running a successful home business is not by accident, not by random luck, it is not by a freak coincidence. It is the result of a focused plan, careful study of the principles of business and wise carefully made decisions. Leave the luck to the lottery players. Study and skill are essential to successful home business.
To expect otherwise is a fantasy. In summary, to avoid another of the fundamental reasons many of the best home businesses fail, focus to converge your skill toward the Sweet Spot. Otherwise you will spend your time daydreaming rather than changing your life for the better.