Taking trips in your network marketing business can be the best fuel for your fire. Some of my favorite memories early in my career were those trips with my teammates and mentors. You create synergy, memories, and show those people in other locations you care about them. You can create some serious momentum for your business.
The key to a business trip is you have to make it worthwhile. I don’t suggest driving all the way across the country to see someone unless you really believe they will knock it out of the park. Jordan Adler, one of my favorite mentors said, if the trip can pay for itself in business volume then take it.
Most people don’t understand the tax deductions a home-based business can give you. Just because it is “home-based” doesn’t mean you can’t leave your home. You can take a radical trip and write it off on your taxes*. When I found this out it blew my mind! I find that if you can mix in some fun while on that business trip it is totally worth it.
I live in Utah and Colorado is a short skip away. We just brought on two new teammates in that area with one in Denver and one in Eagle. This presented an amazing opportunity to go build relationships, create momentum, and also snowboard some of the best mountains in the world. Sounds like the perfect business trip to me.
With a little planning we were ready to go! It takes about seven hours and over 400 miles to get to Breckenridge, Colorado. For business owners you get $0.54 per mile you drive. Imagine one dollar dropping from the roof of your car every two miles you drive. We would be neck deep in dollar bills by the time we got there! Too keep track of all these things we use a phone application called Deductr; it literally tracks your mileage as you go. It makes tax deductions so easy. With the evening in Breck, we were able to go out to dinner and participate in my favorite past time, beating people on the pool table. I love to win!
The next day I was able to go snowboarding at Breckenridge Ski Resort for a few hours. I had a blast exploring the mountain before we drove into Denver for our business meeting. I ended up changing in the parking lot and fixing my hair at the Taco Bell bathroom. You have to work with what you have.
We met up with our first teammate and her guest at a coffee shop there. I had never met her in person before so this was a very important trip. I believe she will do big things, so even just meeting up was really important for both of us. We went out to dinner and had a great time bonding. Her guest really enjoyed what we had to offer as well.
We picked up after dinner and drove the two hours back to stay by Beaver Creek Resort. I really like that mountain as it has a lot of character, and I had a blast exploring it for the day. I again changed in the parking lot and headed to our other teammates house where he was preparing for a meeting. He called everyone he knew in town.
We didn’t have the turnout we expected, but you can’t control people. It was a good learning experience for him. The fact is people make commitments and don’t always show. The important thing is that you commit to your team and being there for them. That will speak volumes. It will create momentum for their business just by doing the actions of reaching out to people.
We left immediately after the meeting and drove one and a half hours to Grand Junction, Colorado. It worked out to a near perfect loop back to Utah. We went up to the desert the next day to literally “get the lead out”; my friend is a gun enthusiast and we were able to shoot some really fun guns. I killed a few rocks and cans. It was really fun.
While we were getting back from the desert I got a call from Kelly; he excitedly told me that he was contacted about an advertisement he put in the local paper in Grand Junction. The man contacted him and was interested in talking about his business. This man said he was in the industry of network marketing for over thirty years and had made millions of dollars. What are the odds? I was in Grand Junction at the same time as he got a random call from this gentleman.
I met with this professional network marketer and he was the real deal. We had some delicious pizza at Enzos and I was able to present our opportunity to him. The business talks are still open, but what an amazing thing to happen on this trip. It makes you sit back and think about all the things that had to happen for it to fall into place.
The lesson of this random event is that that teammate and I were putting in the work. When you put in the work, amazing things happen that seem out of control. The universe presented us with a gentleman that can completely change our businesses. This trip attracted new and exciting events, even though we did not have large groups or teams to meet with. The book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill is a masterpiece that goes into this metaphysical attraction of building business and getting rich. It is an amazing book that talks about these events happening and I suggest everyone reads it. I believe we attracted some of that together with this trip.
It was a fun and successful few days. We snowboarded amazing mountains, saw beautiful places, hung out with awesome people, and created some serious momentum together. Business trips can be a game changer for you and your team. If you have hungry and excited teammates, figure out how you can get out there to meet with them. Set some goals together. You can use technology to your advantage to build an area and then go visit. Take more trips and experience more of the world.
Through network marketing, you can do all of this while helping change peoples lives along the way.
Chris Lengle Productions 