These last few weeks have been seriously frustrating. First, I tried to host an essential oils class and nobody came. Then I put out a brilliant Facebook ad on Beachbody income potential and I received over 100 comments from interested people and I wrote to and then followed up with every single one of them and yet I didn’t make one sale. Today I posted on all the Facebook mom groups I could find about the amazing ways oils have helped with my baby and it started over 30 conversations and still not one person has followed through to the end.

Add in the hours I’ve been putting in every day simply sending out messages and working on my blog and my Facebook business page and it’s getting depressing. Besides my grandma in the first week I started working from home, I have not made one sale. Not even one. I have to be on the edge of something big, right? How many hours can I work with absolutely zero return?

My brain wants to put together a number–perhaps 100? That’s three hours a day for 33 days (yes, 4 on one day) and that seems like a reasonable amount of time to work before I throw in the towel. Well poo poo to my brain because I am going to work as many hours as it takes to make this thing happen.

I feel like I am on the edge of a boom but it doesn’t often happen overnight so I’m not getting my hopes up. I have learned, after all, that the only way to fail is to give up. I can resist reaching out to people out of fear that they will say no all I want but they surely will never say yes unless I try. Of course, all this translates better in my head than it does into actionable plans. I am somewhat at a disadvantage in this marketing business because I grew up overseas and don’t know anyone in America, and those I do know mostly live off ministry salaries which are less than what corporate jobs make, so that means the hours I put in are longer because I have to do the extra work making contacts. Since I spent all day at home with my sweet baby and I rarely get to have adult conversations, it does help keep me social and it definitely takes me out of my comfort zone. I am so much less afraid of hearing no than I was before I started these businesses that it is amazing. My mentors and coaches talk to me all the time about the importance of personal development and I think just working this business and “failing” over and over again is wonderful personal development!

If you’re out there trying to start a new business, I understand how discouraging it is being so close to the end of making a sale and then the person just stops responding. When it happens 100 times over, it is so tempting to throw in the towel, but throwing in the towel will surely never lead to a business taking off. It feels like my business is on the edge of something big, it’s just not going over that darn edge. Too bad it’s not a waterfall edge because those are much easier to go over.

My husband has been supportive and encouraging through these long last few weeks of me working late at night and he’s always reminding me that the first few are the hardest, but by golly hard has been an understatement. God brought these businesses into my life so I could stay at home with my son and help change lives and I really want to start changing those lives. 

There’s this wonderful phrase that has become my parenting mantra: you can either laugh or you can cry. Recently I have to admit I’ve been leaning more towards the latter option and when I do laugh it’s one of those help-me-I’m-going-crazy laughs. Pray for me, y’all!