Getting Your Partner/Family on Board With That Business Program
Is everyone on board with your business? I just finished teaching one of my Revenue Breakthrough Intensive workshops. One woman made a comment that always comes up at these workshops.
She said, “Monica, I just get so frustrated because when I talk to my husband about joining a coaching program or getting support, he always says, ‘Why can’t you do it on your own? Why do you need another program?’”
And then she said, “Monica, it wouldn’t matter to me if I didn’t care about his opinion, but, unfortunately, I do. So I asked myself the same question. Why do I need a program? Why can’t I do this alone?”
I paused. And I said to her, “I don’t think it’s that you can’t do it alone. I want to be clear: you can do anything that you want to do, whether you’re doing it alone or in a community.”
“But I do think it’s important that you get clear on what it is that you want. And it sounds like you want to have a mentor and a community of entrepreneurs around you as you create more and more success.”
I find that I get this conflict all the time from the women I work with: how do I talk to my partner about the fact that I need more support, that I want to join a community or a program, when they think I shouldn’t need it?
Now that I’ve been coaching for over 15 years, I have a lot of perspectives on this question, and I want to help you have this conversation with yourself, your partner, and/or your family.
I think the first step is to realize that women generally do better in a community. We do better when we see other women being successful, when we have other women as partners, and when we are being validated by other women.
I’m not saying that men don’t need or want community, and I’m not trying to create an artificial distinction between men and women. But in my 15 years of coaching, I’ve found it’s something that we women have in common.
And it’s OK that we want that. Personally, one of the first things I had to come to terms with as a young entrepreneur was that I wanted a community around me.
I wanted a mentor because I wanted to have more fun, because I wanted to have someone there to grab my hand and pull me up when I fell over or give me a kick in the pants when I was being lazy.
I didn’t want to do all of that stuff myself. It wasn’t because I couldn’t do it on my own—although it’s super hard to do on your own—I just had no desire to do it on my own.
And I think that all of us who resonate with that sentiment need to stop feeling ashamed about it.
The second piece is understanding that your friends, partner, and/or family are looking for results. They want you to prove to them why you need this community and what kind of results it’s going to bring you.
Your partner or family may be disillusioned with business programs because they don’t see you making money. So the way to prove to them the worth of these communities is by actually getting results in your business.
But just because you spend your money on a program doesn’t mean it’s going to change you. You’ve got to do the work in order to make that happen.
And if you’re starting with $20,000 or under in revenue in your business, it’s important to understand and communicate with your partner that it is going to take you 12 to 24 months to generate your first $50,000 or $60,000.
If you’re building a service business, you might be closer to 24 months, because a service business is all about building relationships with people—and that takes time. A product business can grow much faster because it’s all about distribution.
Be careful not to go in with the expectation that you’re going to be able to go from 0 to 60 in six months and prove your partner wrong.
It’s important that you stay patient and compassionate with yourself and that they stay patient and compassionate with you.
To recap, remember first of all that it’s OK to want to be part of a community, even if your partner doesn’t get it. And second, know that you will get your partner and/or family on board with your business by creating results.
So whatever program you choose to get involved with, do the best you can to take action with it so that you can create those results.
With that, here’s to you being able to get the support you need and communicate that with your partner and/or family. Stay true to you.
