From the category archives:

Level Three Business

Re-energizing Your Business In a Tough Economy (Yes you can do this!)

by David Finkel on November 19, 2009

I had a great day writing today (I’m working on next business book for how to build a Level Three business.)

I wanted to give you a short (2 min) video detailing 2 very important ideas on how to re-energize your business in a tough economy.

Forget all the doom and gloomers out there. You can grow and expand your business.

In fact, I was on a mastermind call yesterday with several of our Level Three Business Clients where they shared that their sales are up, their margins have improved, and they are netting more money.

Here’s one of the ideas from the video:

Re-Activate / Re-Connect your old clients who have drifted away!

Just reach out to them. Make the call… send the email… send the letter…

Tell them you miss them and share that you wanted to reconnect. You spent so much energy establishing the relationship long ago why let it go to waste? It harms them, it harms you.

I hope you found the video clip useful and inspirational.

David

P.S. If you really want to take your business to Level Three as fast as possible, talk with Stephanie right away. Her direct number is toll-free 866-214-6619. Or you can email her at Stephanie@MauiMastermind.com.

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What Matters Most to You? Business Owners Must Ask this Question

by David Finkel on August 6, 2009

I just wanted to share a very personal post today on the theme of what matters to you most as a business owner.

SOmetimes it’s easy to forget WHY you do what you do…

For me it’s three things:

To have a positive impact on the lives of small business owners — and through them on millions of other people’s lives.
To have a place to create– this is why I love writing books and creating courses for business owners on how to grow their business, time mastery, growing their wealth independent of their businesses.
To allow me to care for my family, and give me the freedom to spend a ton of time with them.

On that last point, I wanted to share a personal video clip (20 sec) of what drives me…

Please take a moment and share what drives you by replying to this post.

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What’s on Mind of High Net Worth/ High Income Earners

by David Finkel on July 30, 2009

Hi everyone,

Last night we held a teleconference call with a group of high net worth, high income earners (MINIMUM net worth $5 million + or $1 million+ annual income). We had 86 people registered for the call and had a blast.

I want to share with you what I learned was on these higher earner’s minds from their feedback on the call. I’m a big believer that if you want to grow your business and build wealth learning from people who’ve gone before you will shorten your learning curve and remove obstacles from your path.

First I asked them at the start of the call, “How many of you feel like you’re the leader of your current peer group financially and business-wise? With your current peer group drafting off you?”

It really interested me to note that over 65% of them felt that they were at the front of their peer group. We talked about this and several of them shared that what prompted them to be on the call last night was because they wanted to change that fact… they wanted to upgrade their peer group because they realized that in order for them to take things to the next level, they needed a peer group who could support them in the jump. (The second half of the call last night was about the brand new “Level Three Mastermind Group” we’re starting for people who meet the minimum criteria of $5 million net worth or $1 million+ annual income.)

Later I asked them what their single greatest distraction was to growing their main business or businesses… What do you think they shared?

The top answer was, “Too many opportunities.” You see, as you step higher and higher up the success ladder in your business you’ll risk not a lack of opportunities, but an overabundance. It’s possible to drown in too many opportunities if you don’t have the clear focus to direct your actions.

What’s the best way to remain true to your strategic focus? You’ve got to cultivate outside mastermind partners who you respect enough who can hold you accountable to your stated purpose and focus. The people who work for you can’t do it… your significant other can’t… but an independent and respected mastermind team CAN and will hold you accountable.

Then we talked about other benefits of upgrading your peer group, like having access to an expanded referral network of successful people. Did you know that over 90% of the people on the call shared that the way they found their best professionals were via referrals from other trusted peers in their network. It’s no wonder that successful people hang around with successful people, it makes it easier to grow and expand your business and investments!

Another interesting question I asked them was what was their single biggest business concern right now. What do you think they answered to that one?

The number one answer (50%) was how to best sustain the growth of their business. Notice their focus wasn’t on “survival” but on GROWTH! 30% answered that their number one business concern was how to best sell their business sometime in the next 36 months. Again notice that the most successful people have been able to focus on the things they want (growth, successful sale of their business, etc) versus the things they fear. This is a HUGE INSIGHT.

Read that again…

The most successful people have been able to focus on the things they want (growth, successful sale of their business, etc) versus the things they fear.

I’ll bring this letter to a close now. I hope these insights helped provoke some useful thoughts on your part.

NOTE: For those of you who have already enjoyed a great deal of business and investing success I welcome you to apply to join our brand new “Level Three Mastermind Group”. Again the minimum criteria to join that group is $5+ million net worth or $1 million+ annual income. The mastermind group will meet monthly via teleconference line on the 4th Friday of each month. To find out more and enroll please email Stephanie in our office. Her email is Stephanie@mauimastermind.com. Please put, “High net worth group” in the subject line so she can get back with you right away.

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I.T. Business Owner Shares Expensive Lesson He Learned on Optimum Staffing Level for His Business

by David Finkel on July 27, 2009

Business Owners! When does it make sense to staff up? When does it hurt you to try to do it all yourself?

Listen to one I.T. business owner share about his lesson as to when to hire on more techs for his business.

Love to hear any of your thoughts on this topic of “staffing levels”. I see it as a real challenge that our clients are constantly working with to find the optimum staffing level.

Share your comments to this post.

David

P.S. If you want to learn more about our Level 3 Business Consulting Program just click here

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Business Owners Review Your Business Now!

by David Finkel on July 20, 2009

We just hosted a weekend mastermind session for our clients, focussing for much of that time on reviewing their businesses for the first half of 2009 and creating a strategic plan for Q3 and 4.

Some of my insights from the weekend (short list):

Need to get away from the business to SEE my buisness… I won’t take the time to do it if I’m not pushed… Too easy to get mired in the DOINGness of the business.
There is a clear, repeatable pattern to fine-tune your business and course correct as you go… here is the layout of the pattern we used:

Getting clear on exactly what business you want to be building… what is your target

Laying out the terrain (obstacles and opportunities)

Creating your strategy (from where you are to get to where you want to go, taking into consideration the terrain your business is traveling through)

Layout the landmarks and milestones

Create your 90 day strategic focuses (max of 3)

It doesn’t take more time to build your business… it takes you refocussing your time to invest it where it will make a bigger difference for your business.

So, all you business owners out there… I am urging you to step back from your business ,take stock, and clarify your plan for the balance of the year (and beyond.)

If we can help you do this more effectively please let us!

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The Business Key to Gain Control AND Freedom

by David Finkel on June 18, 2009

Hi Everyone,

Today I want to share with you something that has been turning in my mind for some months now.

About 5 weeks ago, Bonnie, one of our Level Three Business Consulting Program clients asked me a question about her private practice. The quick context to the question before I share it with you is that Bonnie had built up a successful Advanced Stage Level Two business (2 locations, steady client stream, talented team members, etc.) but like all business owners she was dealing with the challenges of how to delegate to her team and still maintain a sense of control over her business. (Sound familiar to any of you business owners out there?)

In essence Bonnie was at a cross roads that eventually all of our Level Three Business Consulting Program clients reach—the point where you the business owner struggle to find the right balance between delegating to your team and maintaining the control you need to sleep at night.

Here’s how Bonnie put the question:

How do I delegate more and more of my day-to-day responsibilities to other people on my team and still maintain control of my business?

There it is, she nailed it. In one simple question lies one of the greatest challenges you as a business owner will over face.

On the one hand you have the need to leverage your team to get more done by delegating to them. On the other hand you have the need to maintain control over your business so you don’t have bad consequences happen if team members drop the ball or don’t do things the right way.

STOP! Go back and read the paragraph immediately above this sentence… (“On the one hand…On the other…) If that paragraph resonated with you.. If you found yourself nodding your head… Then you’ve bought into one of the single most damaging misconceptions about building a business.

I see this every day. Working with over 10,000 business owners in the past 10 years I’ve gotten a chance to really understand the false beliefs and misconceptions that cost them BOTH control and FREEDOM.

It’s a False Dilemma!

Here’s the thing, it is not a choice of “delegate and lose control” or “Hang onto things and keep the control”. That’s a lousy choice, and totally inappropriate for those of you who are committed to built a Level Three business.

You see “Control” is a Level Two perspective. It’s an security blanket that most business owners sleep with in their business.

As a business owner control is a reaction, a reaction to watching big mistakes happen in your business when you hand off to someone else… a reaction to losing a sale because a team member screwed up an order… a reaction to sending out a proposal with the customer’s name misspelled… a reaction to not collecting your A/R because someone is too timid to insist on being paid for work you performed. It’s a reaction too… you fill in the blank.

But here’s the thing, reacting to painful moments in your business by taking control back is not the solution. At best it means you’ll run a tight ship that completely revolves around you. All major decisions will go through you… All key projects will be checked by you… All key deliverables will flow through you at some critical stage… The business may be a “success” but what’s the ultimate price? You give up any chance of enjoying the freedom of a Level Three business.

I know this is harsh, but it’s accurate.

I have another one of our Level Three Business Consulting Program clients that I was working with last weekend at a quarterly mastermind session. He is the co-owner of a very successful Advanced Level Two business that was on the verge of going to Level Three. After a little positive peer pressure (how many of you wish you had a peer group of other business owners who were totally committed to take their Level 1 or Level 2 businesses to Level Three?) he committed to “not pick up any piece of equipment” in his warehouse. This was a HUGE breakthrough since he sells millions of dollars of computer parts every year and every time he got involved in the fulfillment end of boxing, testing, or moving parts it cost his business thousands of dollars in lost revenue (his best use of time was in creating the sales systems to sell more parts!)

So why was he so involved in the fulfillment? Control!

I Struggle with the Same Challenge!

Hey, I’ve been there too. In fact, Stephen has to remind me at least 2-3 times a month to let go (intelligently) and step back from the edge. I have to say that having an outside person there to hold you accountable, who because they are outside your business can see so much more clearly, is perhaps the biggest benefit of working with the right business consultant.
So what’s the solution?

Don’t build for “control” instead build CONTROLS.
That one single “s” makes all the difference in the world.

Control is a Level Two reaction…
• It’s fear based
• It’s autocratic
• It means you’re gathering up more and more of it for YOUself (and didn’t you want to build a Level Three business that was dependent on you to begin with?)
• It says, “Check with me”

Controls on the other hand is a Level Three response…• It’s proactive
• It’s enterprise driven (you build controls in for your business not for you the power hungry business owner!)
• It’s primarily a tool to allow everyone in your business to see status, check on results, and self-correct as needed
• It’s mantra is, “Check the scorecard/dash board”

The bottom line is that you do NOT want control which ties you more and more into the central nexus of your business, you want to build in effective and intelligent controls that empower your team and your managers to consistently produce quality results, and flag when things are off target and in need of feedback, troubleshooting, and course corrections.

Here’s the question I want you to ask yourself:

How can I achieve scale with effective controls in place to ensure me enterprise is operating healthfully?

When you (and your team) build in the business controls your enterprise needs and train your team in their use, not only will you have the best form of control (enterprise-centric versus solo-business-owner-centric) but you’ll have a degree of freedom that most business owners will never experience.

I hope this gives you pause and maybe even causes you to really think through how you’re building your business. I’ll come back to this theme in the months to come because it is so important in helping you build the business you really want to own.

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The Three Levels of Building a Thriving Business Worth Millions

by David Finkel on June 18, 2009

I just wrote this article for my syndicated list and thought I’d share it with you all. Enjoy!

The Three Levels of Building a Thriving Business Worth Millions

Over the past decade I’ve had the privilege of working with over 100,000 entrepreneurs. They all dreamed of building a successful business. But what most of them never realized is that building a successful business means that they needed to build a business that didn’t require that they be there each day to run it.

I’m about to share with you what I consider to be the single most important business lesson I’ve ever learned. It is my sincere desire that you use this information to build your business the way you really want.

The Three Levels of Building a Thriving Business

What does owning a business mean to you? Is it a way to create job protection for yourself so you can never be downsized or made technologically redundant? Or is it a way to follow your dream or passion, or is it a way to make yourself financially free?

And what does being an entrepreneur feel like to you? Does it feel risky, like you’ll have to step outside of your comfort zone and launch a new, untested business idea? Does it mean long hours, employee hassles, and lots of risk? Do you think you’ll find yourself wondering if you made the right decision, or whether staying in the W-2 workforce would have been a better choice?

If you have found that running a business isn’t freedom at all, that it’s even more work and hassle than a regular job, chances are your past experiences have all been with Level One or Level Two businesses.

Level One: No Control, No Freedom
A Level One business is a fledgling company. It’s really the beginning point of a business. At this point not only do you have little freedom (you’re working long hours to get your business launched) but you have little control.

Level Two: Control, But No Freedom
A Level Two business is a business that works, but it needs you the business owner to be there to make that business work. If you don’t show up to work, there is no money. It’s really not business ownership, so much as it is self employment.

You’ve now got the control, but with that control comes long hours and the sense that all of the decisions, all of the risks, all of the responsibility—all of it—rests on your shoulders. Every day you have to prove yourself and keep going because if you stop, it all ends.

You have the control, but no real freedom.

Level Three: Total Control, Total Freedom
A Level Three business is one where your business runs without you needing to be there each day. A Level Three business is a business that operates smoothly, efficiently, and profitably without being dependent on any one person—including you the owner—needing to be there to run it each day.

At Level Three you have real control over your business and you financial life. And you also enjoy real freedom. You can still work in your business, but now it’s a choice each day, not an obligation.

How One Business Owner Earns 7-Figures Annually – and Now Works HALF the Hours!
The real reason to build a Level Three investing business isn’t just to make the money. (Don’t get me wrong, I want you to enjoy the cash flow, but it’s just that real wealth is about more than just the money.)

Listen to how one of our clients Tom put it. Tom is a business owner in Florida with a spare computer parts business (he buys and sells a LOT of older, used computer equipment.) Tom shared with me via email:

“I’ve always been one of those driven people who believed in working hard to reach your goals. Before I began working with David and Stephen and the Maui program I had been fortunate enough to build a successful business and real estate portfolio that generated a seven-figure income. But I had to work long hours tied to my computer, phone, and email to do it… or so I thought. Using the Level Three approach (especially David’s time mastery strategies) I’ve reduced my working hours in half and still make the same income. Only now I don’t come in to the office until after 10am and take every Friday off to be with my family for the weekend. This sure feels a lot more like wealth and freedom to me. For anyone who owns a successful business I strongly recommend you use the Level Three business system to help you make it better. Who knows, you just might get your personal life back like I did.”

The Powerful Perspective Shift Necessary to Build a Level Three Business
The critical perspective shift that leads to true financial freedom and security and ultimately to a Maui lifestyle, is to see yourself not as a producer for your business, driving sales or fulfilling the purchases of your clients, but rather to see yourself as a business builder who is growing a business that will one day work without you needing to be there to run it.

You are only a temporary producer until you can build the business that can replace yourself.

In essence, you are the engineer, designing and building a profit machine that consistently kicks
out cash flow each and every month.

Target of Your Business:

To build a business that consistently creates value in the market and thus earns you a healthy profit without you needing to be there to run it.

Keep this goal firmly in mind and let it influence all the decisions you make and the actions you take.

Remember, the real reason you are putting in all the energy and time to build a business isn’t so you can make more money, although that will happen. The real reason to go to the effort of building your business is so that you can gain your freedom. You don’t want to spend all your time stuck managing and running your business. Yes you can make a ton of money doing this, but why not make the money and have the freedom too? Personally, we think that the only way you can really be secure and know that your income streams are secure is to have the business infrastructure in place to run it over time.

Level Two to Level Three Game Plan

Here is a quick bullet list of the key steps along the way to move a Level Two business to Level Three:
• Replace your fulfillment role in the company.
• Create systems to ensure quality doesn’t suffer as you pull out of your current role.
• Work on your company, not just in the company.
• Increase the sales and reach of the company.
• Continue refining the Level Three model for your business.

The Five Questions You Must Answer to Reach Level Three

Here are five questions to start you on your way to taking your business to Level Three.

Question One: What is the single most important “driver” in your business? A driver is the thing your business does that “drives” new business in the door. It could be a direct mail letter you mail to rented lists. It could be a website that has huge traffic. It could be your key word ad campaign. It could be your syndicated articles that you write for industry newsletters. It could be your referral base from past clients. It could be walk in traffic from a mall your store is situated in. It could be a display ad you run in your local paper.

What is the single most important driver in your business? When you get very clear on exactly what it is, then you can look for ways to systematize and automate it. Even better, you can look for ways you can expand or leverage it.

Question Two: What is the biggest bottleneck in your business? A bottleneck is a limiting factor. In your business, what (or who) is the biggest limiting factor in your business’s growth and success?

One way to spot a bottleneck is to ask yourself, if I could have more of any one thing, what one thing would I want more of to expand my business?

It could be more prospective customers coming into the front end of your business funnel, in which case your lead generation activities are your biggest bottleneck.

It could be more sales people to process and close all the leads you already have, in which case your lack of trained sales staff is your biggest bottleneck.

It could be more production capacity to handle more business in a quality manner, in which case your current production capacity is your biggest bottleneck.

Whenever you determine your biggest bottleneck, you can then focus your energies on how to push back that limiting factor so that it no longer limits your business. One way to look at growing your business is as a game of continually finding and pushing back bottlenecks.

Now in the context of creating a true Level Three business, you need to build the systems, team, technology, and outsourced solutions to help you push back your bottlenecks long term.

By the way, what do you think is the single most overlooked bottleneck in most entrepreneurial companies? YOU! That’s right, you the business owner are most often the real bottleneck. Look at your business, are you a the root of your company’s bottlenecks?

Question Three: Imagine you found out that you had one year left to work before you would be forced to stop working for the rest of your life (you could only check in for a MAXIMUM of ten hours per month.) You have 12 months to establish and grow your business to the place that at the end of those 12 months you couldn’t work in your business ever again (just check in for up to 10 hours per month), but you would be dependent on the business to provide you with steady cash flow to support yourself. What are the first three areas that immediately call out to you that you must focus on first?

In essence what this question is saying is how can you take your business to Level Three in the next 12 months. This is a very ambitious target for most business owners, but it’s a question that engages you. If it’s too much for you to imagine, change the time frame to 24 months, or 36 months.

Question Four: What three steps could you take in the next 30 days that would have the greatest impact on you hitting your goal of having a Level Three business by year’s end? Even if you can’t get that far in 12 months, the discipline of working on the highest return parts of your business will radically accelerate your progress to Level Three.

Final question…

Question Five: Who can you mastermind with to give you feedback and hold you accountable on your goal of building a Level Three business?

Too many entrepreneurs think they are all alone. Building a business in isolation is hard, grueling work. Building a business in association with a highly functioning mastermind team of other business owners in non-competitive businesses is fun, engaging, and infinitely more powerful.

I am not suggesting that you partner with these other business owners, just that you mastermind together and help each other reach your goal of Level Three. Truly there is power when you create a focused mastermind team to mutually support each other in your business aspirations.

I hope these ideas to build your business the right way make a difference in your business life and help you get to Level Three faster.

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3 Reasons Why Every Business Owner Must Learn to Be an Investor Too

by David Finkel on June 17, 2009

I got a posted comment on a blog about why I felt business owners needed to bother learning to invest. I thought I’d share my response with you all…

I believe strongly that every business owner needs to ultimately cultivate the skill of how to be a savvy investor.

Three reasons:
1) If you ever sell your business, knowing how to invest your windfall is essential (I’ve sold companies and had some real challenges switching gears… I was really only good at investing for equity growth and NOT passive residual income. Sure I could invest for active income… but that wasn’t what I had worked so hard for. Hence why I also focus on business owners as investors.)

2) Every business owner needs to learn to build wealth independent of their main business–not just because of point one above, but what if there comes a day that a business fails, I want you to have real independence financially because you’ve invested intelligently and built wealth independent of your business along the way. (That said your #1 investment will be your own business, just make sure it’s not your ONE and ONLY investment!)

3) If you want to go big with your business and need investor capital, you being a smart investor will help you understand better how to work with investors to attract capital and interact with your investors.

Hope the above insights are useful for you.

Resource to help you:
Join me and 3 of the Maui Advisers in Orange County, CA (at the Hyatt Regency) next week on Friday June 26 through Sunday June 28th for our “Level Three Wealth Workshop“.

The focus of the weekend:
Here are some of the agenda items that you’ll learn when you attend:
•    How to grow your business in today’s world and take it to the next level.
•    Wealth skills you must master to invest smarter and safer.
•    How to build a business, not a job.
•    A simple 3-step progression to transition from a job or active business to passive income.
•    5 wealth strategies to build your wealth systems so that you have both the money and the lifestyle.
•    What are best investment opportunities in today’s economy.

Not bad for $69 (and a suggested donation that you make directly to the 501c3 charity of YOUR choice — last time we held this event attendees individually donated $102,000 to their favorite charities!)

Here’s link to find out more and register.

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What Can We Do Today That We Could Not Do Yesterday?

by David Finkel on June 12, 2009

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Building Your Sales and Marketing Systems

by David Finkel on April 16, 2009

The sales and marketing area of your business is the part of your business that is responsible for finding clients, making sales, and generating revenue. This is the part of your business that makes it rain cash flow.
Too many entrepreneurs only focus on this area of their business because they have to, not because [...]

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