#51 - Overcoming The Doubters

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[0:00:14.3] Hey everyone. Stephen Esketzis here from Marketing on the Move. And today, I’ve got a bit of a story to share with you.

I had a chat with another fellow entrepreneur, and it was turning into a bit of a “D&M,” so a bit of a deep and meaningful conversation.

You know those ones that you have with your friends or your business partners or whoever it might be. Well, you sit down, you just start talking and you start getting a lot of deeper and deeper, and you’re like, “What the hell is going on?” But it’s good conversation because obviously you’re talking about business, about marketing, about whatever it is about life.

So I was having one of those types of conversations with someone that I worked with. And he was telling me that his actual business that he’s running, his concept he’s been working at for a couple of years hasn’t taken off yet.

So it hasn’t taken off to the level he’s wanted. He’s probably been working on it about a year and a half, two years, and it just hasn’t taken off to that point where he really can see cash flow coming in. he’s been working with a lot of expenses, and for a long, over a year and a half now, and we were just talking and we were just talking about like the expense is piling up.

Obviously, there needs to be a way to generate cash flow, talks about is the idea that’s the problem or where in the pipeline is the mistake? Where do I start? Where do I keep going? Should I keep continuing? That sort of conversation.

So I was talking with him and I go, “Well, where do you see yourself this time of the year? Do you still believe in the product? What’s your financial position like?” I started asking him all these different questions.

And he started telling me. He said, “Look, the product and their service that we’re creating, I won’t mention what it is, but the product and service that we’re creating still got 100% belief and I still think it’s gonna be the one to do it. But we just haven’t cracked the code yet.” I’m like, “Well, if you completely believe in your product or your service, then by no means should you stop.”

I can’t see this guy’s as someone just looking to give up. But the real bit that got me was I go, “Are there any different ideas?” You guys, I wanna start doing a different idea or we can sort of “How can we generate cash flow in the mean time?” because this has already been a catch 22 position, there’s other moving parts which don’t really allow this to make a profit as much as he’d like it to.

And we started talking about the different side of entrepreneurs and where it’s like when you haven’t proven that first business, your family, your friends, everybody that you go to that you pitched in your idea or something new to it will really just shut you down, like brutally shut you down because you haven’t proven yourself. You haven’t gotten those results.

[0:02:46.7] And that’s what I wanna sort of talk about in this podcast is going through that stage where until you’ve really gotten results, until you see cash flow. And let’s be honest, when you’re actually looking at your family or your friends or everybody else, the real question is, “How much money have you made?” There’s no easy way of getting around that. There’s no way of saying, “Oh, I’ve done this. We’ve got this many employees. We’ve got—we’re in this newspaper, blah, blah, blah.”

At the end of the day, everyone wants to know one question and that is “How much money have you made with the business?” Nothing else matters. Have you made money? Where’s the cash coming? Have you made a profit? And until you prove yourself to make that money, then it’s so hard to do anything else.

The amount of times where you hear stories of these big, successful entrepreneurs that try and fail, so they’ll try 10 ideas. Now, one will fail after another, they’ll keep trying and trying again. But what they don’t tell you is every single time you try, every single time you get back up and you start this new idea, the people around you, the people that are supposed to support you, automatically start losing support in you. And it’s not to say that they’re doing a disservice or something really bad, but that’s just how it is.

When you don’t see results from something, you start losing focus. You start not seeing the bigger picture. You start saying, “Oh, maybe this guy isn’t cut out to be an entrepreneur. Maybe he’s not ready for it. Maybe we should look at him to set him up with a job. Maybe he needs help with something.

And then you see him keep trying and failing, trying and failing, trying and failing, and then it gets to the point where these people start to think you’re a joke. But I guess the hardest part throughout all of it is to just stick to your guns.

You’ve got to really stick it to them and just say, “Look, put your pride aside. If a business doesn’t go well, literally just put your pride aside and say, “Look, I’ve worked for a year and a half, it’s just not working.” You’ve got to make that call and say, “Look, is this something which I can still see, I still 100% believe in? I can still see it’s gonna crush it?” or is this something that I think is just a short-term business that I’ll create a new business and then we’ll move on from there.

That’s something you’ve gotta make decision in. But at the end of the day, if you are gonna close that business down and you’re gonna move into something else, whether it’s a new marketing role, a new product, a new service, whatever you’re gonna do, a new venture.

Then you need to put your pride aside and really have a look at your business and say, “Alright. This isn’t working. I’ve tried everything. We’ve exhausted our financial bank accounts. We’ve exhausted all the avenues. We’ve done this. We’ve done that.”And everyone’s believing in you and I wanted to work, but then when they see you just turn around, they see you say, “Alright, we’re closing this down, I can’t do it anymore,” they think you’re failure and they think, “Well, go and get a job, man. You’re not cut out to be an entrepreneur.” And then especially when you go to do something else, you go to start a new business with a new idea, people just say, “Oh, it’s the same guy. It’s the same guy trying to do this. He couldn’t make that work so now he’s jumping from this to that.”

[0:05:42.7] So what I’m really trying to say here, guys, is it’s tough. I’m not trying to make it easy for you but when you get to that point where you’ve gotta put your pride aside and close up a business, or if you wanna keep going and really tap out your financial, your bank accounts, your friends and family who may have borrowed money from.

And the idea may not avoid you that makes it even harder. All these things that can happen, its super tough because people start doubting you. Money gets involved. Family gets involved. All the people that are there to support you, your wife, girlfriend, friends, family, and everybody around, boyfriend, whatever it is, they’ll start to doubt you and they say, “Well, maybe this guy isn’t cut out to be an entrepreneur.” And as an entrepreneur, I’ve had that before and I’m sure some of you out there have had that as well. It’s one of the worst feelings in the world, when people start to doubt you because of a failed business idea. It’s just crushing.

So what I wanna remind you guys of today is if you’re in that position where somehow you’ve got a business, whether you’re into online marketing, whether you’re into a physical product, whether you’re into anything, whatever it might be, just consider it.

So take a look at your business, is it growing? Is it at the point you want it to go to? If not, why isn’t it growing? Is it something that you need to close up shop or is it something that’s just a minus speed bump in the road? And how are the people gonna react around you when that happens? Are they gonna be supportive? Are they gonna say, “Keep going. We believe in you.” Or If you close up shop and start a new business, are people likely to start saying, “Oh, this guy might not be cut out to be an entrepreneur.”

If you have wife there and you’re supporting your family and your kids with this business, and you’re not making any money, they’re gonna start saying, “Look, go get a job,” when at the core you know that you need to be an entrepreneur and this idea is just one of many.

[0:07:27.7] So that’s what I wanna remind you guys of today. That’s what I wanna speak with you guys about and make sure that I remind you that keep your head up high. It is difficult but at the end of the day it’s your call.You’re the one that needs to go through it.

If you can afford mentally to go through those hardships and realize what’s going on and say, “Look, we’re gonna fight through it. We’re gonna keep getting better.” Then that’s something that you should definitely focus on and do. That’s something which I think a strong entrepreneur has a trait of. But at the same time, you do need to realize when you wanna put your pride aside and you gotta know when to stop and move on. So that’s my little podcast episode for today, guys.

I hope this one helps you.

It’s just something which I thought would benefit you guys, just giving you a little reminder about what some people are in that position.

Not everyone’s fortunate right now to be raking the leads, the cash, the profit, and it’s reality. I mean, everyone starts at the point where they’re building a business, and I’ve been there as well, trust me.

Maybe I’ll share a story about where I’ve been there in another episode. But it’s definitely something which needs to come up and needs to be said that not everything is sunshine and rainbows. So when you’re in these tough positions, that’s where you’ve got to make the choice and step up and say, “Alright, it’s gonna happen or we’re gonna shut up shop.” And then you’re gonna start actively moving into another idea, another business or keep going regardless of what your friends and your family say because they might not be able to see that exact dream that you can see so clearly. And it’s all about bringing your dream to reality, but at the end of the day, the numbers don’t lie.

So yeah, it’s a tough one but I’m gonna leave you with that.

Hopefully it gives you some sort of clarity, gives you a reminder. And if you’re in that position, don’t be afraid to reach out and if I can help you in any way, shoot me an e-mail and we’ll have a chat.

Anyway, guys, I’ll speak to you soon. Take care and we’ll catch up on the flipside