I know you don’t have enough time in the day to do all you have on your plate.   You’re working hard, long hours as it is, so when I share ideas on how to grow your business, part of you says, “But David, don’t you understand how maxed out my schedule is already?   Where am I going to find the time to implement all these great ideas you’re sharing?”

I get it.   I was talking to one of our newest consulting clients Josh who is working 90-100 hour weeks in his business already!   I’m going to tell you what I told him–working harder, longer is not the answer, it’s part of the problem.

The more you personally do in your business, the more you have to keep on doing.   What’s worse, the more you solve your business challenges through your own personal production for your business, the more dependent your business will become on your presence to keep it operating.

It feels like you’re stuck.   You need more time to build your systems, grow your sales, expand your team, and implement intelligent controls inside your company–BUT–you’re so busy doing the job of your business, you don’t have the time or energy to do those things.

Today I wanted to share with you 7 concrete suggestions to help MAKE the time you need to build and develop your business as a business, not just doing the job of your business.  

This is such an important topic, that I’ve spent the last few months creating a whole new module   to deal with just this issue.   The session is titled, “The Six Steps to Create 6+ Hours per Week to Build Your Business.”    

What would you do if you had 6+ freed up hours each week to step back from the job of your business to instead build and develop the business as a business?   Would you be able to increase sales?   Would you be able to finally start building systems?   Would you be able to leverage your team more?   How about just take a deep breath!

From my work with our business consulting clients we’ve shown that it isn’t as impossible as it seems.   In fact, when they applied this 6-step process, our consulting clients averaged 8 hours or more per week in “created” time to invest back into making their businesses more successful.   Take the example of Wayne.   He and his wife run a successful $5+ million business in Oregon.   When we first started working together they had a solid, very profitable Middle Stage Level Two business that totally relied on him and his wife to produce most of the key work for the business.  

When he applied the concepts I’ll share with you today   he literally freed up an average of 12 hours per week in time that he reinvested back into his business.  

How did he use this freed up time?   He built out many of his business systems.   He hired on two key executive hires for his business.   He opened up a second location for his business on the east coast.   And he increased his profits and sales at the same time.

Do I have your attention now?   Good, then let’s go into 7 specific time tips to start the process of making the time to grow and develop your business.

1. Working harder almost always means “working harder doing more low value tasks”.   The first step you’ve got to take to upgrade your personal use of time is to clearly lay out–o paper–what in fact you do that creates the most value for your business.   (For those of you who have read our last book, Build a Business, Not a Job, you’ll remember how in Chapter Five we called these activities “A” and “B” value time.List out on paper the 5-7 things that you do in your business that truly create the highest value for your business.  

    

2. Identify the low value “mass” that takes up 50-80% of your time.   Before you can minimize, delegate, or delete it, you’ve got to know what it is.   So write it down.   The longer and more thorough your list of low value (“D” activities) the better.List out at least 10 of the low value activities you find yourself stuck doing on a frequent (at least monthly) basis.  

    

3. Learn to put boundaries around your email inbox.   Email is one of the most self-reinforcing, addictive activities known to business owners.   It’s like a business drug if you ask me.   You’ve got to start putting it in its place.   If you constantly let yourself be interrupted by email all day long I promise that you will be wasting 20% or more of your day on totally wasteful email activities.   The problem is it feels like motion and hence is self-reinforcing.   Try this (and the next two tips) to tame your email inbox:Turn off the “notifications” that you have email (either the ding or pop up envelope).     Turn off your auto send and receive function and instead make it where you have to manually push to check for new email.   At least this way you have to consciously “get” new email and have a chance of making better choices.  

    

4. To get less email, send less email.   It’s a fact that the more email you send, the more email you get.   So send less of it.   Also, age your non-time sensitive email a day or two or longer before you send it.   Over time these two steps will reduce the email you get.    

5. Create “prime time” blocks where you turn off the phone and email and give yourself 60-90 minutes of uninterrupted time to work on your highest value activities and projects.  Each day schedule in at least one definite appointment with yourself to have 60-90 minutes of prime time.   (I suggest you turn off the phone, and turn off your email program!)  

    

6. Leverage technology, but don’t become its servant.   There are amazing web services, mobile phone apps, and computer software tools to make you more productive.   The key is to use them, not let them run, control, and use you.   For example, using some simple technology tools to get your team to update you on project progress in a simple, visual way that takes 2 minutes or less of your time… Or a simple system for using teleconference lines to organize, record, and leverage your meeting time.   Here are a few of my favorites:   timetrade.com; freeconferencecall.com; Microsoft “Groove” and “Onenote”; google voice, and dropbox.com.      

7. Consider hiring a full or part time personal assistant.   This is such a key to creating the time.   It is much cheaper than you think.   A part time assistant could cost you as little as $500 per week and still save you 20-40 hours over the course of an average month!  If I gave you 20-40 hours of free time couldn’t you earn more than $500 of net income for your business with that time?     Of course you could.    

There you have 7 specific time tips to create more time in your business. Pick just one of the above tips and apply it in your business and watch the difference.

I hope you have a great week ahead of you.  

Build a Business, Not a Job: How to Build Your Business to Sell, Scale, or Own Passively

Get your copy of this 176-page classic from Wall Street Journal Best Selling author David Finkel.
Or for more information on growing your business visit David on the web at: www.MauiMastermind.com

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What would happen to your business if you the business owner weren’t there to run it for an extended period of time?

I call it the “Hit by a Bus” Test… and in order to build a business not a job you MUST ultimately pass it…

If you (or any key individual inside your company) were hit by a bus (or if you prefer a softer version of this test imagine you or any key person in your company choosing to live in a monastery with no phone or email for 5 years) would you still have a business?   What would happen to your business?

For most business owners the answer is shocking–if they get hit by a bus their business folds.   That means that there is NOTHING for their family… there is nothing for their employees… there is nothing for their customers…

Did I get your attention with that?   Everything you’ve worked so hard for could literally disappear in a moment.

The Solution

So what do you do about it?   You need to build a business, not a job.

This means you build a business that relies on four key legs: systems, team, intelligent business controls, and scalable solutions.  

This is a step-by-step progression and one that I’ve shared a lot about over the years.   You know this because I’ve been sharing insights with you about building a successful business for a long time now.

We recently posted a new 8 minute video including live workshop footage and interviews with several business owner clients who are using our road map to build their business.

—> Link to business road map video
For those of you who want help to take your business to Level Three please call or email my office and talk with our team about how the Maui team might be able to help you take your business to the next level.

You can reach us direct toll-free at 866-214-6619.   Or you can email us at programs@mauimastermind.com.

In either case I hope you use today’s blog post as a wake-up call to do something about your business’s dependence on you.

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Before I share these 5 insights with you, I wanted to give you the chance to get a complimentary copy of our newest book,  

 Build a Business, Not a Job: How to Build Your Business to Sell, Scale, or Own Passively.   It’s one of the shortest, most concentrated business books I’ve written (just 176 pages) but it will give a detailed road map to build your business from launch, to stabilizing your revenue, to scaling up, to your eventual sale or going passive with the business.

As you know, we are committed to teaching a generation of business owners how to build businesses they can sell, scale, or own passively and value your help in accomplishing this mission.   I’m hoping that you use this new book as a tool to help you succeed in building your business the right way.

Here is the link to get a free copy of the book:  http://www.mauimastermind.com/page/custom/freebook

Now on to those 5 insights on selling your business:

One:   You’ve got to plan for your sale at least two (and ideally three) years in advance of selling.  It takes time for you to improve your margins, reduce your customer concentration issues, etc.   If you wait to do this until the time you want to sell you’ll end up with a lot less than you could have.

Two: Pull non-normal expenses out of your business and into a separate business so that your financials are “normalized”.   This includes things like that company car, corporate meetings in exotic locations, huge benefits you pay yourself, etc.   Sure you could try to explain away these expenses to a buyer, but from my experience they will negotiate hard here.   MUCH better for you to only keep expenses in your business you’re going to sell that are normal and will be stable with your new buyer.

Three: There are a lot of reasons why you might end up selling other than just wanting to “cash out.”   You might want to find a financial partner who will buy a majority of your business but still retain a sizable ownership stake, and with the new resources your partner brings you can scale your business to the next level.   Or you might want to “sell” part or all of your business to your kids.   Or you might want to end a partnership. Or… All of this is to say that even if you don’t think you want to sell your business, you never know.   Life happens.   And since you will likely only have a handful of businesses you get to sell and the value of the asset will be relatively large, start now to educate yourself on how this process works.

Four: Start building your selling advisor team at least 12 months before you sell your business. If your business is under $1 million this probably means working with a business broker.   If your business is selling for over $1 million (and definitely if it is selling for over $3 million) you’ll probably want to be working with a great investment banker to guide you through the process.   In either case you’ll also need a solid business attorney and CPA on your team, and if the dollar value is high enough, you may also need to work with a financial advisor on what to do with your funds after the sale.

NOTE:   Having sold several businesses in the past I want to give you one more piece of personal advice that I wished someone had given to me: after the sale, give yourself at least 6 months before you invest the proceeds into any type of aggressive investment.   For that time I suggest you choose liquid, ultra conservative options so that you can give yourself a chance to get used to post sale life before you make your next major investment moves.   Yes you’ll be giving up return, but I promise you that you’ll save yourself a LOT from the cost of making a rushed, ill prepared (emotionally and functionally) investment move.  

Five:   Conduct your “Buyer’s Audit” on your business.   No matter what level or stage your business, take some time this month and do a Buyer’s Audit.   This means look at your business through the eyes of a buyer.   Who might this buyer be? A competitor looking to take over your customer base?   A complementary business who wants to make a strategic acquisition?   A financial buyer who sees the growth value in your business if you just had some more resources behind you?

What would they be willing to pay for your business?   What formula would most likely be used to value your business?   A gross revenue multiplier?   An operating profits multiplier (the famed “EBITDA” multiplier)?   Each industry and business type has a most common valuation method.   Learn yours and the factors that most influence which of the range of multipliers your business can command.   This will allow you to build your business to maximize its value.
Also, look at what things about your business would be risky for your buyer.   Do you have one major customer or joint venture partner that is responsible for the majority of your business?   If so, this may concern a potential buyer.   Anything you can do over the next 2-3 years to mitigate these risk factors will increase the value of your business in the eyes of your buyer and hence help you command a higher price.

I hope these 5 insights on selling your business help you make the most of your biggest wealth asset – your business.

Have a strong finish to your week and if appropriate, may I ask that you help us spread the Maui business building insights by forwarding this (and the link to get their own complimentary copy of our newest book,
 

 Build a Business, Not a Job: How to Build Your Business to Sell, Scale, or Own Passively to your friends and business associates.

We are committed to teaching a generation of business owners how to build businesses they can sell, scale, or own passively and value your help in accomplishing this mission.

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I hope you’ve been having a great week.   Heather and I have been doing lots of outdoors playing with the boys.

Today I want to talk with you about what I see as the two most important reasons to build a business (my guess is that most people who are reading this never really gave deep thought to the second of the two reasons.)

The Two Biggest Reasons to Build a Level Three Business that Most Entrepreneurs Never Thought About

Most business owners started their business to generate active income for them and their families.

And this is solid strategy–building an active business is often the best way to generate active income quickly.

You invest your time, your passion, your creativity, your business skills, and your courage and find a way to profitably bring value to the market.

But too many business owners think that active cash flow is the real reason to build a business, and I’m here to tell you why this is immature, Level Two thinking.

In fact, focusing on building a business solely as a source of active income can cause an entrepreneur to overlook the two biggest reasons to building a successful Level Three business.

First, active cash flow is great, but creating passive residual cash flow is the real goal of the game.   And this means building a business that independent of any dependency on the owner of the business.  

This requires many things, but a quick list of some of the most important elements that will help you take your existing business to Level Three includes:

• A realization that there is a Level Three… believe it or not, many business owners never reach Level Three simply because they cannot imagine it’s a possibility for their business.   You don’t have this excuse.   You’ve been listening to me for quite some time both stress the important of Level Three thinking and giving you simple suggestions to make the successful transition.

• A commitment and culture that adheres to building a systems reliant company… it’s not enough to get the job done, you’ve got to get your business to do it in a consistently repeatable and scalable way… this means business systems.

• A willingness to intelligently let go of areas of your business as you have built the systems and team to take them one…   notice I said the intelligent letting go.   I’m not advocating you simply dump and run, but rather that you incrementally build in the capacity via systems and team to have your business run more and more without depending on your daily presence.   This also requires that with each key system and area you build in smart scorecards and measurements that allow you and your team to KNOW how your business is doing in that area.   This allows you to head off problems when they are small and spot weak links that need to be corrected before they can cause too much harm.

• The humility to understand that you won’t get it all right out of the gates… it’s going to take you time to make this transition.   I tell my clients that it will take most businesses I work with a minimum of 18-36 months to make this transition, and for many businesses it can take longer, but the wait is worth it.   This requires that you have the humility to learn from your mistakes, learn from your team, and learn from outside experts who you invite in to help you with specific areas of your business.   If you aspire to a Level Two business then it’s okay to do it all yourself.   If you aspire to owning a Level Three business then you’ve got to let other people in – and have the openness to truly listen to them.

While passive residual cash flow is a great reason to build a Level Three business, it’s not the only one.   There is one more reason that is every bit, if not more, important.

When you build a Level Three business you are using the most powerful tool available to quickly build significant net worth.  

Think about it–on average a Level Three business is a minimum of 10-20 times more valuable than its Level Two counterpart!

For example, one of our Maui participants built up a successful company on the verge of going Level Three and sold it for $4 million dollars CASH!   He did this in less than 5 years time.  

Or another Maui participant built up a successful manufacturing business worth over $15 million!

Imagine for a moment how powerful a forced appreciation wealth tool a business can be as it literally is an asset that you can create out of thin air and make it worth millions in a very short time.   Where else can you invest 5-10 years of your life and build an asset worth $5…10…20 million or more?

Remember, Level Two businesses rarely have much of a value beyond their tangible assets such as their inventory or client relationships (and these usually valued at a discount to their hard cost!)   But a Level Three business has a real value beyond these things.   And it’s this intangible value that exists in the business systems, the business’s stability and future earnings potential, that makes it so much more valuable.

So my advice to all your entrepreneurs out there?  

Simple, don’t aim to build a successful business–aim to build a successful Level Three business.   This means you’ve got to invest the time and energy in building a business that is more than just an extension of you, but rather is system reliant and has key team members who lead it.  

This requires that you balance your needs to maintain your current business (cash flow, fulfillment, sales, etc) with your need to build something more than you currently have (future capacity, business systems, key team members, intelligent business controls, etc.)

This is a process that takes time, but the final reward is a 10-folding or more of your net worth in 5 years or less!

I hope my message to you today sparks some serious thinking  for you.

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I want to share with you one of the most important insights I’ve gained after over a decade of working with thousands of small business owners. This single insight is the critical ingredient to getting yourself on the path to building a business that you truly can sell, scale, or own passively.

To Get to Where You Want to Go

You’ve Got to Know Exactly Where You Are

Before you are able to take your business to the next level, it is essential that you deeply analyze exactly where your business stands. What are its true strengths? What are its most vulnerable weaknesses? Where are its greatest opportunities?

With our consulting clients we always start this process by having each of them use a comprehensive business diagnostic tool called, The Level Three Business Auditâ„¢. I designed and developed this 126-question assessment tool help business owners like you dissect your business and uncover exactly where it can generate the greatest payoff on time and resources you invest (and which areas you should absolutely let go of for now because it’s a costly waste of your resources.)

Can you imagine what you could do to rapidly grow your business if you had a clear road map in front of you of listing out the 3-5 key leverage points and top priorities for your business to focus all of its energies on, along with a list of the things you need to “stop” focusing your business energy on?

The discipline to act on your priorities and harness these key leverage points comes easy if, and this is a mighty big if for most business people, if you know and can trust that you’ve accurately assessed and uncovered the real priorities and most profitable leverage points.

In the absence of this clarity you are always left unsure–doubting your impressions and second guessing your decisions.

With consulting clients we sit down and analyze their business audit results together via tele-conference. This way after our private strategy session they have absolute clarity about what they needed to do in their businesses and where the real leverage points lay to help them take their businesses to Level Three.

“But David, they had you!”

And before you say something like, “Aren’t your consulting clients lucky, they get to spend one-to-one time in a private strategy session with you or one of the other Maui Advisors where you just give them the answers to where to focus their business energies for maximum growth and long term success,” understand this:

The real value for business owners wasn’t the result of the answers we gave them, but rather the direct outcome of the systematic and thorough questions we asked them plus the follow on questions we structured into the strategy session.

This should make you very happy indeed because it has some compelling and far reaching benefits for you and your business.

First, the discovery process we used is replicatible. That means you and your business can use the same process to uncover your business’s strengths and weaknesses, and its greatest leverage points. It’s a repeatable process and pattern and as such you can use the process to get comparable breakthrough results for you and your business.

From the Level Three Business Audit’s 126 questions to the patterned structure of the follow up strategy session, there is a defined and proven process for you to follow.

If you were there with us for several of these hour long strategy sessions you’d quickly observe the regularity and consistency of the questions I asked.

What do you think would happen if you asked the same questions about your business?

Of course you’d also get very clear and valuable insights about your business.

Second, the fact that we’ve already created this winning combination of analysis tools to focus on your business means you don’t have to go through the same trial and error learning curve.

Hundreds of other business owners have already helped us validate the process so you get to go straight to the questions, in the proper sequence, that will mean the biggest and most dramatic difference to your business.

Here’s What This Means for Your Business

• No more guessing what’s the best and highest use of your time inside your business    

• No more worrying about where to focus your team’s time and your business’s limited resources    

• No more uncertainty as to whether your game plan really is the best one for you to be following

All of this allows you to move past the discovery and strategy stage and instead focus all your considerable resources on the execution of your plan and the regular review and refinement of this plan over time.

When you do this, in that order, success is virtually guaranteed.

This is how the top companies all got that way.

And this is what it’s going to take for you and your business to get to the next level.

Your Next Step – For Serious Students Only!

So what do you do now?

Simple…

First you schedule in the 90 minutes of uninterrupted “Prime Time” you’ll need to complete the Level Three Business Audit. For those of you who already own the,, you’ll find this tool on pages 29-41 of the manual.

For those of you who don’t yet own this powerful business building course, I strongly recommend you make the investment in your success and . (In just a moment you’ll have the chance to take advantage of a limited time special offer to own the complete business building system and even arrange a private one-to-one strategy session with me!)

Next, schedule in a 2-3 hour mastermind session with your company’s key team members to analyze the results of your Level Three Business Audit and to clarify the key leverage points and priorities for your business, and the specific game plan you’ll follow to get you there over the coming months.

In essence you’ll be using the exact same pattern and action plan we use with consulting clients, only this time you and your business will reap the rich rewards.

Finally, build in the accountability you’ll need into your game plan so that you actively generate the results you’re committed to.

Remember,

I look forward to working together building your Level Three business

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This question has come up at least 3 times in the past week from consulting clients so I am going to do my best to give you a clear answer to know when to hire (and equally important, when NOT to hire) additional staff.

I understand that when you want to grow and you’re feeling like you’re at your limit of work and time, of course you think about hiring on to help you grow your business.

Below are 5 “tips” on when and whom to hire based on my personal experience building multiple businesses.

Too many business owners don’t build a business, they build a job for themselves.   And they end up trapped inside the very businesses they working so hard to build.   If they don’t show up each day, or something happens to them, their businesses die.  

Okay, on with my 5 tips on when to staff up…

Five Tips on When to Hire More People (and when NOT to hire more people)

1.      Only hire as cash flow can afford to pay for your new hires.   Too many business owners get in trouble by staffing up in anticipation of increased sales but when they don’t see fast results it strains their cash flow and they end up having to lay people off or worse, suffer negative cash flow.  

To protect yourself, hire only as your business can afford to pay for your new hires (with a cushion.)

I can already hear you say, “But David, I need more help so I can free up more time to sell more.”   With the exception of a personal assistant (see Tip 3), beware the lure of hiring in advance of sales. You may need to get creative.   Can you hire on sales staff on commission (Tip 4) or pay an outsource contractor based on results such as a flat fee for a specific type of production?   You may pay more this way, but you’ll only pay as you need to and you’re limiting risk by paying a set fee for a result. This result could be per sale (commissioned sales person), per completed project (contract sub-contractor), or some other arrangement.

2.      When you’re looking to staff up to scale, always lead with sales… then marketing… then production…and then and only then with “admin”.   Okay, “always” may be a strong word, but 95 percent of the time you will want your staffing up to begin with expanding your sales team (more sales people, perhaps even a sales manager). Then you’ll want to hire on more marketing talent.   Then as your production capacity to fulfill on your sales is strained because of your increased sales, then you will hire in your production area (whether you make a product or deliver a service).

When you lead with sales, then marketing you are hedging your bets. First, most sales people are wholly or at least partially commission based, which means you are paying only when they bring you profitable business (assuming you set up your commission structure wisely.)   Second, hiring on more sales talent is often the fastest way to increase sales.   Third, sales people generate revenue.   They are a cash producer.

Marketing is next to make sure you’ve got the lead flow and upsell/cross sell/referral and other marketing systems in place to stabilize your revenue streams.

Obviously you will at some point need to increase your production capacity, just make sure to let this decision be driven by sales and not by your love of making your product or service, nor by your fantasy of all the business that will soon materialize.  

As for admin help, if that admin help replaces admin work that YOU personally must do, then by all means, hire that help early (see Tip 3) but when hiring admin help to have a more orderly and precise back office, I feel strongly that you’d do well to invest in sales, then marketing, then production/fulfillment capacity first, then   and only then to staff up your admin team.   Your admin team is a cost center for your business (a needed one surely, but still not a revenue producer.)

3.      Hiring on a personal assistant (full or part time) to leverage your personal time so that you can produce more for your business is almost always a smart immediate hiring decision.   Considering you can pay this person a fraction of what you are able to generate, why in the world would you stay mired in the day-to-day low level, low value tasks that you could quickly and easily hand off to your assistant?   The answer is you shouldn’t!

This same tip applies to hiring a book keeper and other early admin help that frees you up from low level, low value work that you are currently stuck in, provided you can use the freed up time to quickly increase sales, and produce more value for your business.

4.       Where possible, when you are not certain of the result, pay more but pay for results and not for time.   Take the example of Peter, a consulting client with an internet marketing company.   He needs more help to fulfill on programming   projects he’s taken on, and the cheapest way to hire that talent would be to hire a programmer full time.   I cautioned him from doing this because he doesn’t yet KNOW he’ll have the work to fully utilize that person.   Instead, I suggested he pay a subcontracting programmer, even though when he does that he’ll have to pay more for this freelance talent than if they were a full time staff member.

Guard your cash flow!   Hire sales people on commission so you pay only for profitable new business… Outsource to part time contractors you can control the time and expenses of more closely than you could a full time employee.   Yes you’ll pay more, but you’ll have the flexibility to adjust as you need.

Once you are certain of your needs and of the results you can reasonably expect, then by all means hire versus contract.

5.      Beware measuring success and growth by headcount!   Once upon a time I thought the number of team members in my business was a measure of how far we’d come.   “Oh we’re up to 15 team members…now we just hit 50!”

The truth is that the number of team members is a distraction, and even at times an impediment, to your business’s success.  

Instead measure your business by more meaningful numbers such as your gross margins… your operating profits… your sales per employee… your profit per employee…

I hope you found these tips provocative and useful.   Staffing up is often a winning strategy to help you grow, you just need to make sure you do it intelligently.

I hope you finish out the work week strong!

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I hope your week has been going well so far.   I had three amazing one hour calls with three different Maui Mastermind Wealth Summit participants this week, and I wanted to share with you some of my key observations from those conference calls.

I think we learn best when we model successful people’s strategies and behaviors, hence the heart of today’s letter is based on what these top level clients are doing to grow and expand their businesses.    

But first, for those of you who want to understand more about the Maui Mastermind Wealth Summit event (and why over 60% of attendees enroll in the next year’s Maui event!) I want to give you a link to a brand new 7 minute video that describes this unique $30,000 per couple event.   (Aren’t you just a little bit curious why people would invest that kind of money for an event like this–and come back year after year?   The video will give you a real sense why.)

—> Link to a Short Video Describing the Maui Event (Including multiple client reviews)

Insight One:   To grow your business, you’ve got to KNOW your business!

Talking with one of our Maui grads, Jennifer, it was clear that she had reached the dangerous “comfortable” plateau in her business.   She was making a lot of money, took every Friday off, and wasn’t sure exactly what she wanted to grow the company into.

Thankfully Jennifer understood that she needed to figure out what in fact she wanted to do with her business because in today’s world you cannot stand still.   If you stand still, given the pace of the world, it’s like you are moving backwards.  

But how do you really decide what you want your business to be?   What matches up with your personal goals and passions, and your value system?  

For Jennifer, since we’ll be seeing her in about 4 weeks at this year’s Wealth Summit event it was easier.   She’s going to think on paper what her goals and vision for her business is (and why.)   Then she’ll put down the strategy she sees to get her there.   From this, myself and several of the other Maui Advisors can give her personalized feedback (not so much on the vision, that is personal, although if we see things that may be powerful for her to reconsider we’ll be direct about that) on her strategy to reach her business dreams.

Now maybe you don’t have access to an advisor team like the Maui Advisors, fair enough.   But at the very least, write down your business vision on paper and get your trusted advisors to give you feedback on your plan to reach those dreams.

Insight Two:   When you scale, be careful to keep your focus TIGHT.

My next insight comes from talking with Tiffany, who will be joining us in Maui for the first time this year.   Tiffany’s business is growing over 100% a year right now and she’s dealing with the normal growing pains of fast growth.

 
One of the areas we talked about was with her marketing efforts.   To fuel her growth she needs to keep expanding her lead generation.  She was about to make a big mistake with her marketing that too many fast growth companies make.   The business was generating great revenue so she thought about doing a large increase across the board to triple her marketing efforts (approximately.)

But not all marketing channels and strategies are of equal value to her.   The advice I gave her, and I’m giving to all of you, is that start with determining the top 10-20% of your marketing winners. What specifically are they?   Then determine your lowest 50% marketing efforts.

Always start scaling your marketing by quickly reinvesting what you were spending (time and money) in your loser marketing efforts into your top 10-20% winning efforts.   IF and ONLY IF you can’t scale up your current, proven winners, spend the time and money to try out other marketing avenues.   Why go to something new and unproven when you have tested and powerful winners that will produce for you if you only feed them better?

Insight Three:   Sell or license what you do to similar businesses outside of your specific marketplace.
The final grad I talked with on Tuesday was Derek.   He had built an amazing business model, marketing system, and I.T. system that cost a LOT of money to create.   He only needed it for one geographic area.

My suggestion for him?   To explore selling his system and model to “competitive” businesses outside of his marketing place, either for a cash price, or more likely, for a residual licensing fee over time.   Since he’s already sunk the costs into the development of all this infrastructure, the revenue this generates would be almost all pure profit (with some selling costs and some minimal costs to package the systems up for these other businesses.)

What I.P. does your business have that you could sell or license to other businesses?

Why Maui Grads Are So Much Fun to Work With

It was so much fun to work with these Maui folks–here’s why…

Each of us has an individual “Wealth Operating System ^®, the emotional associations and belief systems you’ve accumulated around wealth, money, and your ability to earn and enjoy it.

As I watch the impact Maui Mastermind Wealth Summit has had on the lives of people, this is perhaps the single greatest difference I see–Maui Grads have VERY high Wealth Operating Systems.   This is both a combination of who the event attracts, the work we do in Maui, and the peer group you connect with at Maui and beyond as those relationships deepen.

I see people like Kelly, an ex-cop who has literally made millions with her businesses…

People like Kathleen who’s built a 7-figure passive, residual income with her business…

And people like Derek who’s used what other people have called “the worst recession in history” to radically grow his business (and successfully launch a second one.)

It all starts with your Wealth Operating System.   Whether you’re a business owner ready to sell, or a start up on the front end of the journey, how you personally feel about money and success, and the beliefs you hold around this subject dramatically impact your results.

Personally, I think that’s why Maui grads have enjoyed such transformative results, because the event creates a unique environment within which to expand your Wealth Operating System, plus it plugs you into a ready peer group to keep those changes alive.

In the end, peer pressure, and the “givens” of the people you spend time with, is the most immediate way to upgrade your Wealth Operating System.

Conclusions:

Most business owners are so mired in the day-to-day that all they think about is the “job” of their business, not how they can grow and scale it.
But the most successful business owners consistently focus on the ways to grow their business beyond the day-to-day job.

Strip the lessons on building and expanding your business to their core and what is clear is that we all need a place and a community of other people to push, stretch, and inspire us to go after our dreams.
Didn’t you find the examples of the Maui grads I shared with you today inspirational?
The world’s default setting is to dampen your fire and dull your dreams.

So let me ask you, who is it that plays that role in your life?   Who is it that pushes you to play big?   To supersize your dreams?   To hold true to your ambitions, even in the face of doubts and fears?

If you have ever dreamed about joining us in Maui for this one-of-a-kind business and wealth retreat, then I urge you to take the next step–apply to join us in Maui.
One of our team members will set up the first of two interviews (the final one is with me personally) to make sure the fit is there.   You can call our office direct to find out more at 866-214-6619.

After doing Maui all these years -year after year–the one thing I know is that if you take that step and are accepted, your life will never be the same.   Our grads call it “life before Maui… life after Maui.”
I encourage you to watch the video to find out why.   See the link below.

Your friend,

David Finkel
CEO
Maui Mastermind ®

P.S.   Here are those two links again.   I strongly recommend you check them out and if appropriate, apply to join us in Maui this November.
—> Link to Overview Page about the Maui Mastermind Wealth Summit Event

—> Link to a Short Video Describing the Maui Event (Including multiple client reviews)

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I wanted to share with you three things I do every Monday to get off to a strong start for the week. Two will be pretty straight forward, but the third may just surprise you.

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