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Sticking with it...

bmwsmitybmwsmity subscriber Posts: 1
edited September 2008 in Thought Leadership
Just wanted to share a recent experience that hopefully will give some of you encouragement.
I recently came to a point in my business that was pretty low.  I was contemplating throwing in the towel and just going back to being a 9-5`er again.  Things weren`t picking up, sales were way down from last year, and to top it off, my spouse was being extremely discouraging as usual.
I felt as though I had gave it my best effort, and that maybe I just wasn`t ready for my own business yet.  I owed creditors money, hadn`t been able to pay my gas cards for months, and I owed one of my suppliers thousands.
I felt like all I had done was bury myself in debt and create stress on my family instead of give them a brighter future.
Well, I continued on.  I kept up my grassroots marketing efforts (mailers, doorhangers) and tried to stay positive in my negative environment and circumstances.  Then I got a call from a referral source...one who gave me my largest job last year.
I visited the home of the referral and got some design concepts together, and then I made the best design I`ve done yet...and the largest.
It wound up taking me 6 weeks to finally pitch my design and estimate to the homeowner.  I just was not going to give up on this one.  He was a very busy guy, so he was often out of town.  Finally, I sent a really nice info pack with pictures of my work to him and his wife.
I got the meeting a few days later... and I sold the largest job to date.  In fact, it was 3 times larger than my previous record.  Even better, the profit will totally bring me current on everything again and leave me some left over for the winter off season.
It just goes to show that in your darkest hour is when you need to re-double your efforts and stick it out.  Just when you think it is all crashing down is when you will often make your largest advances toward success.
Keep with it, and always be very hesitant to throw in the towel... you never know what tomorrow will bring!

Comments

  • chefamychefamy subscriber Posts: 2
    I have been through almost the same scenario!  We actually met with a bankruptcy attorney and then it hit me, don`t just stop.  Now we are sitting on our largest order, we will be current with 60% of debt and we are growing!  WOW what if I had just quit?  You never know.
  • st8icst8ic subscriber Posts: 11 Bronze Level Member
    Truely a wonderful story. Very inspirational. The best advice I ever got was from the movie Blow:



    "This is the way it goes...sometimes you`re flush, and sometimes you`re bust. And when you`re up, it`s never as good as it seems, and when you`re down, you never think you`re going to be up again. But life goes on. Remember that. Money isn`t real, George. It doesn`t matter. It only seems like it does."
  • besthealthbesthealth subscriber Posts: 4
    Congratulations!
    I can certainly relate to the idea of throwing in the towel. Those days come when one feels at though they may not have made the right choice. However, since it is such a big part of me, I never ever let it go - instead the ideas of adding and improving my business keeps flowing. We offer training/workshops to health care organizations and during a networking event, I was speaking with someone from a coroprate company that asked for our training - - it actually pays to be dilligent.
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