The Best Ways to Make Money When You are Stuck in a Rut

Business Sales, Increasing Revenue, Making More Money

I meet women entrepreneurs at events all the time who say to me, “Monica, I’ve hit a money ceiling. I seem to be making the same amount of money month after month or year after year! Help! What are the best ways to make money when you are stuck in a rut?”

I totally get it. The truth is that most of us were never taught about how to make money for ourselves. Really. Even in business school – I was taught to make money for other companies, to be a good team player, a smart worker.

Making money for yourself is a language that you actually have to learn, step by step. And there’s a lot out there in the business world about tactics, specific marketing strategies that can be used to make money, but very little about how to make money overall.

Getting stuck in a rut or hitting a money ceiling happens to so many business owners I meet from all over the country and all over the world.

So let’s get started on solving this problem – let me explain some of the best ways to make money when you are stuck in a rut.

1. The 60 Day Rule

Now this isn’t going to be very popular, but it’s true. If you are stuck in a rut, or worse, having low income this month, it’s because of what you did (or didn’t do) 60-90 days ago. 

Here’s what I mean. As much as there is tons of stuff out there on making money in the next 30 days or immediately, such methods are not consistent or sustainable. The people that are buying from you today met you at least 60-90 days ago and have had some time to get to know, like and trust you through various marketing touch points.

So if you are experiencing a low revenue month, chances are that you didn’t do your marketing activities 90 days ago. And you have not been consistent every single week.

Business owners who come to me for support like to make their problems unique and complicated. They love to try and claim that their business model isn’t working or that they are just not good business people. This is just a fancy way of hiding.

The truth is this: if you are experiencing low revenue or stuck in a rut, you are not getting in front of your target market enough and/or you are not doing it consistently for at least 90-120 days.

Most business owners are grossly under marketing themselves. And 80% of women entrepreneurs are simply not leaving their house enough to speak, sponsor and create partnerships in person. They are hiding behind social media (and visualizing).

Now here’s the thing. I believe that you, as my readers, are searching for the truth. You don’t want silly marketing rhetoric or inspired fluff from me. And you aren’t afraid of working hard. But here’s what gets in your way:

You don’t think you can actually have personal success (or deserve it, or could keep it, etc).

And because you don’t think you can be successful – the very thought of staying consistent for 90 days seems like a lot of work for no reason.

Therefore you self-sabotage and doubt yourself. And as soon as there are no results or things don’t go perfectly as planned, you assume you just can’t be successful. You send out one newsletter and get a curt comment from your aunt – as a result you haven’t written another newsletter in 3 months. You try to organize one speaking event and only one person showed up. It’s been 2 months since you’ve spoken again.

But what If I told you that if you just consistently faced your fears and did your marketing consistently for 90 days, you would get results? It’s true! It’s true! I’ve seen it over and over again with hundreds of clients.

That’s because there’s a universal law that says when you put energy into that which you are most afraid of, you will get rewarded (know that the results can be indirect and have nothing to do with what you tried).

2. Learn the Skillsets and Language of Business

Now don’t get me wrong, you can’t keep doing the same thing over and over again in the wrong way and expect to get different results. This is the case for the majority of business owners I have met who are stuck in a rut. They are doing their business activities backwards or in the wrong way. 

They have never learned how to monetize their hard work! 

For example:

• I’ve met tons of business owners who have been doing speaking events for years and yet still not getting results. This is happening because they don’t know how to make an offer.

• They have been networking for months but they don’t realize how to make a connection that leads to a sales conversation. Or, maybe, they don’t know who to look for at networking events.  

• They have done tons of sales conversations, but as soon as someone gives an objection, they freeze up. They haven’t taken the appropriate sales training. Therefore they are only closing 5% of the leads they could be closing. They don’t know how to work through an objection.
  

If you are in any one of these situations, know that you aren’t alone. Learning how to be an amazing business owner is about taking the time to train yourself on all the skill-sets needed. Learning to make offers while you speak, understanding how to use networking events, and working through objections are just three of these skillsets.  

Almost every person I meet who is stuck in a rut assumes that she is “doing everything right!” Understand that this is NEVER true. 

If you don’t have the results you want. And someone else is getting those results, then you are missing a skillset. And you must get some training!

Your voices in your head are incredibly sneaky here. They will tell you that you are doing everything you possibly can to make money, that you’ve tried everything, that every teacher and training is a scam.

I know it, I go through these voices too! But that’s just your brain trying to keep you safe. It’s trying to get you to stop doing new things – and avoid failure.

But in avoiding failure, you also completely cut off success.

So if you are stuck in a rut, take a deep breath and ask yourself, what do I need to learn here? Do I need sales training? What skillsets am I missing?

3. Ask For Money

This leads us to the third way to make money when you are stuck in a rut – the most important skillset of all – asking for money. Or better known as doing sales conversations.

One of the best ways to make money quickly when you are stuck in a rut is to set up more sales conversations.

Here’s a list of ways to generate more sales conversations for yourself quickly. The important thing to note is that the conversations work better when people know, like and trust you.

There’s two main ways this know, like and trust happens. First – do them with your friends, family network. Two – meet people in person and build relationships prior to your conversation through marketing activities like speaking, sponsorships and networking.

Having said that, here are some options to get you started:

• Write a letter to your friends and family network and put it in the mail (snail mail!). Tell them what you do, how you do it, and stories of results you’ve had. Ask them to connect you with prospects that could use your work. Follow up with phone calls.

• Take a walk or a drive to all the neighborhoods near you. Get out every time you see a store, a doctor’s office, a community center. Anywhere that you think you could create a partnership with. Go in and introduce yourself. Be creative about setting up partnerships, speaking events, etc at these locations.

• Connect with everyone you know – your doctor, your exercise teachers, your son’s school teacher. Give yourself the goal for having at least 5 conversations a week where you are telling someone about your business. The goal here is to set up sales conversations.

• Post a long-form post on Facebook. Describe in a heartfelt way what you do and some of the results that you have had. This one has to be full of heart and sincere. Invite people who resonate with you, and want your help, to respond, personal message or comment to you to have a conversation.

I’ve given you the best ways to make money when you are stuck in a rut:

• First – to realize that this rut was caused by what you did 60-90 days ago. To avoid a rut 60 days from now, you must start marketing consistently today.

• Second – to understand that in order to eliminate the ruts completely you must learn the skill-sets and language of business. Especially if you think you already know them.

• Third – the most important skillset is learning how to ask for money or doing sales conversations. I’ve given you 4 short-term ways to generate more sales conversations.

Now, I know this article isn’t filled with a bunch of short-term tactics that you can try. But that’s because those don’t work in the long term. I’m more interested in eliminating your stuck-ness all together forever and investing in your personal success, than I am in giving you a short term fix that may or may not work. 

So here’s to getting out of a rut and staying out of ruts for good. Then taking that money and changing the world for the better. For more tips, check out my article, 10 Ways to Make More Money in Your First Year of Business.