Archive for April, 2006
Real World, Real Money, Real Time
I got an e-mail from someone who had just read a 651-word ezine I wrote, to say that he enjoyed the message and had actually printed and filed it. Ten minutes later, I got an e-mail from someone who had noticed three grammatical errors and a spelling mistake in the same document. The first person (the one who liked the message) is a millionaire and the one who discovered the horrendous mistakes is currently unemployed and living off her father’s pension. I had a question for this wanna-be teacher: “Tell, me, how many books have you written, how many did you sell, and how much money did you make?” Of course, she has never written anything that anyone read and never made any money, but she did study English. Big deal!
Here’s the truth: I make grammatical errors and I make spelling mistakes and I DON’T CARE. I am not interested in grammar; I am interested in getting a message across. Some parrot that used daddy’s money to study for years does not impress me – I am impressed with someone who gets real results in the real world. There are many educated derelicts out there. The only MBA that counts is a Massive Bank Account. I recently had someone e mail me and ask me to mentor her. She proceeded to tell me all about how well educated she was. I said I wasn’t going to mentor her but I gave her three things that she could do to achieve her goals. Guess what? She never got back to me after that. Education is great, but results in the real world are more important.
The bottom line is the bottom line. A = A. If you are able to apply your education, that’s great. However, education in itself is useless. The university or college made money and you feel important for getting your degree. That’s the beginning. That’s the starting line, not the end of the race. I don’t like promises and pie in the sky – I like real world results. Don’t pay for promises and words – pay for results. When Colleges start offering courses by real entrepreneurs who actually run businesses and make money, the courses will be well worth what you spend on them. Education that works in the real world is what we need. We’re working on creating just that. Theory is great until you hit reality. I have been reading a wonderful book by Brian Klemmer. I really learnt a lot from it. When I saw that a word was missing from one of his idea boxes, I had to laugh. I could just imagine some loser contacting Mr. Klemmer to try to sell him some editing service. I’m going to call him right now and tell him what a great book he wrote.
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“Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire and sincerely believe, must inevitably come to pass.” ~ Paul J. Meyer.
No commentsRescuer, Victim or Persecutor?
In business, as in life, we are faced with a dangerous triangle which is a downward spiral. This triangle is entered into by choice by players who tend to swap roles. A good example is an employee who whines that he doesn’t earn enough money, (VICTIM) so the boss becomes the RESCUER and ups the employee’s salary for no good reason. As you know, we will never have enough money, so within a short period of time the employee, who still produces the same amount of work, wants more money. At this point the boss realizes that he’s paying more but not getting more value, so he puts his foot down and refuses the increase. Now the employee moves his position from VICTIM to PERSECUTOR and starts blaming the boss for being a money-hungry slave driver. The boss falls into VICTIM mode and starts whining, “I can’t afford more! I can’t find good people! They take advantage of my kindness!”
The simple solution to this disempowering game is to take responsibility and to demand that others take responsibility as well. When the employee wants more money, the boss / owner of the business can say, “No problem, Bob. I will create an incentive program / a profit sharing program whereby you can earn money in direct proportion to the profit you are responsible for creating for this company. I will remove all income limitations so that you will be able to give yourself as many pay increases as you like. In fact, I can show you how to start your own business and become an independent contractor to my business which will allow you to take advantage of all the tax breaks available to self-employed people!” Now the employee is responsible for his own choices, income and actions. Instead of being paid because of manipulation (Playing the VICTIM or the PERSECUTOR), he can be paid for the value he creates. He can decide to stay in his present situation as an employee or he can accept his boss’s kind offer to participate in the profits of the business. The boss has decided not to be drawn into the game and causes the employee to be responsible.
We are all responsible for our own lives. Many would have us believe otherwise, through the use of false guilt, collectivism, socialism, altruism and mysticism. But in the real world we should reap what we sow, not what others sow. Adults should take responsibility for their own lives. And we can grow better adults by avoiding the Victim/Persecutor/Rescuer traps as we raise our kids. Perhaps then we would have fewer 30 year old losers living in their parents’ homes and more self sufficiency. As Ayn Rand said, “Poverty is not a mortgage on the labor of others – misfortune is not a mortgage on achievement – failure is not a mortgage on success – suffering is not a claim check, and its relief is not the goal of existence – man is not a sacrificial animal on anyone’s altar nor for anyone’s cause – life is not one huge hospital.”
Taking responsibility for your own life and demanding that others do the same, results in prosperity, self esteem, freedom and personal growth. It’s the best gift anyone can receive.
Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com
No commentsJoint Venture Leverage
See me in the picture? I’m talking to 375 people at one time. Better than talking to each one individually, right? Archimedes said, “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I will move the world.” If you had the choice between carrying rocks and using a wheelbarrow, you would choose the latter. If you could either make a phone call or drive to a meeting, a phone call would save you time. This is simple, common sense. Yet as entrepreneurs we tend to forget this in business. You find business owners who are great salespeople spending time on minimum wage activities. Why spend your $100 per hour time on an $8 per hour administrative job?We complain that we don’t have enough time and that we can’t afford advertising dollars, and we’re right. Because we’re allocating our resources incorrectly and we’re not taking advantage of resources that are readily available. We’re working hard instead of smart. We’re putting the cart before the horse. Two fellows get together and decide to start a transport business. They max out their credit cards and deplete their bank accounts paying for the design of a fancy logo, buying a new truck they don’t need and printing expensive brochures. Then they find they don’t know how to market or find customers and they have no money left.
There are two schools of thought – the one says, “Go out and spend years and all your family’s money creating what you have convinced yourself is a great product, then try to sell what you have made.” The other suggests you first go out and see if you can get some orders before you spend a blue cent on manufacturing. Here’s the Joint Venture approach: Find someone who has a great product, get someone else to market and sell it to their existing customers and you take a piece of the action. Leverage other peoples’ time, money, distribution, reputation, access, database and skills. Let them carry the risk, inventory, leases and sleepless nights. And you make money. Only spend time on things that only you can do.
When you’re selling time and selling widgets, you’re losing out on the power of leverage. When you’re reinventing the wheel, you’re missing the business success boat. Why do consulting or “coaching” when you could have someone else do it and pay you 20% of the gross sale on an ongoing business? I’ll tell you why you would do that: It’s because you don’t understand profit. See, if a five minute referral phone call to a “life coach” makes you $100 net profit, it’s better that spending hours of your time and a lot of other expenses to make $500. Time IS money. Real businesspeople understand that $100 for five minutes is $20 per minute and that’s better than $250 per hour less your traveling time and your gas and car maintenance expenses. They’re more interested in making a profit than in feeling important.
Here’s the bottom line approach for real Joint Venture success: “How can I do this with the minimum amount or time and risk and the maximum return on my time investment? How can I leverage other peoples’ resources? How can I distribute the maximum value to the most people with the highest possible margin in the least possible time with no cost or risk to me?” Think more, solve more problems and use Joint Ventures to make all your financial dreams come true.
Yes, But…
I regularly speak to large groups of people in seminars, talks and my Joint Venture Bootcamps. I know that, while I am speaking, my audience are internally talking to themselves at something approaching 600 words a minute. They’re either saying to themselves, “Wow! I can do that! Yes, this is a great idea I can and will implement. That sounds exciting to me!” OR they are saying to themselves, “YES, it all sounds great, BUT…”
