Investment in Other Businesses

Perhaps one of the biggest advantages of doing well financially is an opportunity to invest in other businesses or projects.  There are three types of investment and I consider them in turn.

Gifts

This is the least engaged of the three types of investment.  You give away your money and do not expect any return.  At least, that is the purest form of gift.  Sometimes people offer gifts with strings attached.  Those who offer a gift or grant may ask you to produce outputs in return.

If you actively seek donations you are a charity (although not necessarily registered) and must spend the money for your stated purpose.  A corporate donor may therefore insist on outputs because their donation may in its turn be accountable under charity law.  Individual donors may be happy with an annual report or online feedback.

The Donor’s Purpose

From the point of view of the donor, giving to a corporate charity is perhaps the least engaged form of giving.  You hand responsibility to a charity and trust it to spend your money to meet its objects.

A more engaged form of giving might be to give to a local charity, where you can see for yourself it is effective.  You know the people who run the charity and are happy they take on daily responsibility.  Your contribution helps them carry out their objectives.

Of course, there are gifts to family and friends.  You give birthday gifts with complete freedom to use or spend as the recipient desires.  They are the charitable object, as it were.  Some gifts are given in response to an expressed need.  But here it may be worth considering some other way of investing your money.

Another form of gift is money given away to strangers, most commonly for those who beg for money on the streets.  This is usually with no expectation of any particular outcome other than perhaps the relief of immediate suffering.

Loans

Loans are a more engaged form of investment.  These are contributions made in expectation the full amount will be repaid, possibly with interest.

The most formal approach might be a loan from a bank or similar financial institution.  One very common type is the mortgage.  But it also includes formal bank loans and informal loans through credit cards.

Loans, especially when offered to individuals, are the main reason there is so much debt.  Interest accumulates and increases the amount owed until it becomes difficult if not impossible to maintain payments.

The problem is ultimately, especially where you are investing locally, the debtor must make a repayment.  To insist on repayment to schedule is to effectively close down the enterprise you have invested in, if it is not in a position to repay.  It is hard to see how there can be anything other than a negative outcome for one or both parties, where the investment has not borne fruit.

The debtor in effect depends on the good will of the creditor and this will depend on the confidence the creditor has in the enterprise.  The creditor may find closing the enterprise is the only way they can recover their investment.

This is not to say loans are not a valuable form of investment.  A lot depends on how their structure and local circumstances.

Equity

Of these three types of investment, equity is the one that implies the closest relationship between the donor and recipient.  The donor takes a share of the profit or of the losses made by the recipient. If the enterprise comes to an end, they share the remaining assets in proportion to their original investment.

The reason this works so well is the interests of the donor coincide the recipient’s.  The donor must be confident the recipient can succeed but it is also in their interest to be sure the recipient does succeed.

A family member might enter an equity arrangement with a young person, for example.  They might offer their business experience as well as finance to set the young person in business.  The donor will see this as an investment and not entirely for support of the young person.  Any return can be reinvested in the same or other enterprises.

Some people invest in equity to generate income.  Some do this through stocks and shares but it is possible to receive income from informal equity arrangements.  You would simply draw on the business in the same way the owner might, you are in effect joint owners.  So, if you own 50% of the business, you receive £50 for every £100 profit.  That’s the principle and life is rarely as simple as that.

Conclusion

The question for those who wish to support local business is which of these types of investment are likely to be most effective in support of the local economy.  It is not possible to categorically say which approach is the best because so much depends on local circumstances.

The main thing to bear in mind is if you invest, do so with money you can afford to lose.  Don’t back one enterprise with everything you have.

Has this post been helpful to you?  Please let me know, especially if you would like me to expand on any point.

Your Prospects’ Deepest Motivation

Your prospects may not know their deepest motivation!  Some find their values eroded by business pressures or other life events.  Their dreams are easily forgotten, especially if they were never fully articulated.   Others may have never thought through their deepest motivation.

Not all business-owners simply want to make profit.  Get rich quick does not appeal to everyone.  The reason people are in business varies.

Let me suggest three basic motivations for business owners.  Most people major on one or two but all are motivations people value.  They are: profit, values and time.  If their aim is work-life balance, your prospects need to work out how important each of these three are for them.

Let’s probe each motivation in turn to help you find the combination most likely to inspire your clients.  So, a business-person who is solely profit motivated would most likely prefer coaches who have detailed knowledge and understand of how financial systems work.  A values motivated prospect may find financial systems difficult, even if they need them.  A time motivated prospect may see some value in the profit-orientated coach.

Profit

The profit centred prospect puts profit first and excludes everything else.  Often this is a sensible starting point.  A business that generates profit is viable.  To put any other motivation first is to invite failure.  Most households need income and so it is not surprising many people put profit first.

The problem with this approach lies in the lack of any other motivation.  Sometimes lack of other motivation leads to loss of the incentive to get up in the morning.  Most people are not inspired by profit alone and want to contribute to wider society.  They get bored simply generating income, they believe there is more to life.

Another possibility is the business-owner loses sight of why they are there.  Business becomes solely an exploitative venture.  It is not so much the business owner starts illegal or misleading trading because they cease to care.  It is the ceasing to care that matters.  A pure profit motive atomises society and destroys community.  Perhaps if you are really good at making profit, you don’t need community.  The question is where that approach leads.

Values

The values motivated business person sets out with a mission to change the world.  Sometimes they have a skill or a trade of real value and enjoy sharing it.  Their mission or values take precedence.

Their problem is they can find they are not making money.  Every service offered for free or at a discount, reduces their income.  They own a business that has a purpose (clarity of purpose may be lacking) but not the means to make their purpose real.  In the voluntary sector, this leads to grant dependency and in the private sector to bankruptcy.

To be solely values led is to invite failure.  And business failure means the business-owner will have no means to pursue their dream.  They may need to seek paid employment and that will mean they have less time to do what they enjoy doing.

Nevertheless, we need more values centred business owners because the world needs people with vision to help turn around failing local economies.  Values based business becomes viable when it recognises profit is necessary for success and worth pursuing to make their vision viable.

This is an important intersection.  Values offer the profit orientated business a sense of purpose and profit offers the values business success.  Viable businesses must place their business in the intersection between profit and values.

Time

As more people find employment takes up too much time (working hours, overtime, travel) or find they are running between several zero-hours contracts, they begin to value the freedom to choose to take time out.

Often this is to spend time with a young family but it is true for all people.  I value the freedom to walk every afternoon.  I have no family but still value having time to use as I choose.

Of course, this motivation can backfire when self-employment results in even more hours of work.  Sometimes overwhelm arrives in fits and starts.  Perhaps a few hectic days or weeks followed by quieter periods but sometimes overwhelm sets in and never lets up.

Profit can relieve this problem as a time motivated business owner will seek systems that allow them to make a profit and have time for themselves.  If they have a strong values orientation, they may use their free time for voluntary activity.

The ideal for most people is where all three major motivations intersect; where they can generate profit to support their time out of the business and their values.

Conclusion

The key for you as a business owner is to find which of these motivates your prospects.   You can fine tune their motivation but the chances are whatever it is, it will fall in one or more of these three categories.

This will help you work out what their problem is.  Most business owners experience problems because they are blind to the consequences of decisions taken.  These decisions may have been unconscious or are perhaps forgotten.

Your offer may help them see the value of your support.

If your prospects are not business owners, their motivation may be different.  Can you work out the likely motivation of personal prospects?  If you found this post helpful and would like me to expand on some issue, please use the comments.

How Telling Stories Supports Your Business

Everyone seems to be telling stories these days.  Stories are a fantastic way to market your business.  A good story told well makes a big difference.  There is a lot you can do to shape your story, to get your message over.

I am leading a lunch and learn meeting about business story telling, starting next month.  If you are in the Sheffield area and can get along to The Rude Shipyatd, 89 Abbeydale Road at 12.15 on 2nd and 4th Thursdays, you can join a dynamic group of story tellers and business owners.

One thing I shall do is explore how we use stories in all aspects of businesses.  Here are five approaches to business story telling.

Your Personal Story

If someone visits your website or hears you speak, they don’t really know you as a person.  So, telling a story that speaks about your values, what really matters to you, is an effective way to become known.  A powerful personal story speaks on many levels and can help you find people who belong to your tribe.

This is perhaps the most common way business-owners apply story to their business.  A problem for some is they have no big story to tell.  In truth though, everyone has not one but many stories.  The challenge is to find a good story and make it compelling.

These stories work really well at step 4 of the awareness ladder, where your prospects seek more information about you.

Case Studies

Case studies are stories that draw on the experiences of your target audience.  They may be stories about your clients or people like your clients.  They may be accounts of their work with you as a coach or stories about problems they face.  Sometimes case studies can lead to questions: what would you have done under these circumstances?

The purpose of case studies is to show you understand and can solve your clients’ problems.  They can be used between steps 3 and 4 of the awareness ladder.  Testimonials may be a source in your clients’ own words or you can write a case study with your client.  They can also be effective at step 2, where you need to show there are solutions to the problems your audience experiences.

Business Origin Story

This is a story about the origin of a product or service.  You may be at the centre of the story and can show how you observed, identified a problem and developed a solution.

These are step 3 stories, where you show how your offer differs from other people’s’.

Cause

Many businesses have a cause, where they not only deliver a product or service but use it to change their wider community.  This may be a story about a neighbourhood or some issue you know your audience cares about.

This may be a step 1 story, a story that establishes a problem exists.

Your Marketing Plan

If your marketing plan is a story, everything you do is part of that single coherent story.  The story needs to be in all aspects of your business, its design, website, logo, advertising, packaging.  Everything points to the central story that makes your business stand out.

The aim is to build a business that stands out in people’s’ minds, so that they remember you and can find you again.

Conclusion

Telling stories and so making business can be a challenge, if you are to present a coherent narrative to the world.  We can all benefit from spending time together, working on our stories and as we explore each of these types, build a lively approach to business story telling.

So, please let me know if you can think of other story types businesses can use.  And if you can, come along to “Telling Stories: Making Business” and join in the debate!

Using Your Purchasing Power

In this sixth post about using money, I consider how you spend it.  With money you have purchasing power and you can use it to make a difference.  Imagine being able to purchase more expensive options because you know you can generate more money through your business.  The question is what to spend it on.

You can easily find inspirational videos that dwell on the fantastic advantages of financial freedom.  If you are a coach, the chances are you can do well but never achieve financial freedom, where income is coming in without the need to work.  Many coaches would not want it, as their coaching is something they enjoy.

Anyway, if owning a yacht floats your boat, then you know what you want and should go for it.  My concern is for those business people turned off by images of wealth and find them, well bad taste or even unethical.

Your Power to Choose

Making money is a powerful incentive.  I don’t intend to influence how you spend your money.  My point is an obvious one, really – if you want to make a difference, then you need to make money.  Why?

Not all these are essential.  But the third and last compete for your attention.  If offering a discount to a client in need, effectively means you can’t take your children on holiday, which do you choose?

Marketers will say in those circumstances you need to earn more.  Yes, I could earn more if I did something else, the question for me is do I want to do something else?  The choice is much deeper than: how do I spend the money I have?  It can amount to: am I doing the right thing?

How to Increase Income

So, what are the options, besides changing to another business?

The last three are all options that take time and time can be as scarce as money!  They are all worth considering.  Are there more?

Support for the Local Economy

Once you decide your lifestyle and find a way to generate the income you need, you have yet another choice.  One effective way to make a difference is support for your local economy.

To purchase from a local business achieves a number of things:

In summary, our purchasing power has an impact locally and so we should consider it a serious benefit our success brings to community.

Let me know if you found this post helpful.  Are there related topics you would like me to write about?

Prospects’ Objections to Your Proposition

Most prospects are suspicious of any offer and so will naturally think of objections, if only to give themselves time to think.

There is nothing wrong with time to think, so long as it results in a positive decision for mutual benefit.  Your objective in anticipating likely objections is you may be able to help the prospect’s  thinking.  This is an excellent way to show your competence as a coach.

It can be helpful to deal with as many objections as possible before you close.  At the point where you make an offer, simply ask if they have any questions.  This is where they can raise their concerns.  They may ask about your fees, which is usually a positive sign!

If your prices are realistic, the prospect may hesitate and raise objections like “I can’t afford it.”

I can’t afford it!

This is the most common and perhaps the hardest objection you will encounter.  My purpose here is to help you list likely objections.  So, remember many people, especially the British, don’t like to discuss money.  They may not always come straight out and say they simply can’t afford it.

Also, bear in mind, objections to money may be a means to buy time.  Your goal is to close at this meeting.  If you need to give people time, the chances are you won’t see them again.  If they need to consult their partner or an employer, give them a time limit and perhaps offer a small reduction if they respond before the deadline.

So, let’s assume you have received clear buying signals from your prospect and so need to close the deal.  They ask how much you charge and then they hesitate.

You are at step 5 on the awareness ladder and, if you have completed the other steps, the person is clearly interested in your offer.  Some people may have difficulty paying the full amount.  There may be various reasons for this but whatever they are, check out whether paying in instalments helps.

If someone really wants to invest in your coaching, the chances are they can find the money.  How they do this is their problem but they may need time to find it.  Again, instalments may help them marshal their funds.

Otherwise remind them of the benefits of investing in your offer and show why the benefits are worth more than their financial outlay.

Other Objections

Whilst price is often an objection, there are others you may wish to tackle.  This os the purpose of  step 4 of the awareness ladder.  You have someone with you, interested in your offer and possibly comparing it with others.  They may have questions and if you anticipate and answer to them in advance, you will have ready responses to hand.  You will also be used to thinking of responses to unexpected objections.

Here is a list I prepared from my experience with prospects, a couple of years ago.  These relate to my offer at that time, so use them to help plan the objections you list for your offer.

At the time I wrote this list, website design was my main offer.  These days I still offer to work on websites and spend a lot of time commenting on sites for my clients.  My current offer is a local marketing package.

Look for Patterns

Read your list and look for patterns.  Patterns might inform how you structure your marketing in the future.  For example, if you look at my list, some of the objections boil down to lack of time, whilst others are about values.

For the former I might talk about accountability and time management.  Many businesses fail because the owners don’t take time out to reflect on their business.  The time pressures they experience may in part be awareness they are not developing their business.

Values-centred businesses need help to understand the role money plays in their business.  It’s OK to make money because money keeps you going as a business.

Your aim is to rehearse a response for each objection in your list; building on what is already present in your marketing strategy.

If this post has been helpful, please tell me why and if there are any issues where you would welcome further information.

Marketing Plan Implementation Starts Now!

This will come as no surprise and several people have mentioned this in my presence recently; the best time to implement your marketing plan is now!  Implementation is something you must not leave until your plan is complete.

The principle is “imperfect action” and that means you start implementing your plan as early as possible.  Is this even possible?  Well, let’s consider three options …

Verbalism

If you are like me you prefer words to action.  To you, the plan is the thing and once it is perfect, every i dotted and t crossed, you can sit back and contemplate a job well done!

You will have heard the saying: “the best is the enemy of the good”.  This is especially true in business, where every minute you spend writing your plan is one minute less to promote it.

Activism

You can of course, take the opposite approach and follow every idea with immediate action on the basis you are at least getting out there and becoming known.

Becoming known as what?  Endless opportunities present themselves in business, how do you know you have chosen the right one?  You can waste a lot of time or get tied into someone else’s agenda if you have no plan.

Praxis

Your third option is Praxis or Action/Reflection.  Marketing Plans can be complex and take time to development.  But you can test elements of the plan while you reflect on other aspects.  As you encounter problems, modify your strategy in the light of developments.

Sometimes you need to pause and reconsider but aim to be an actor, a leader in your market, try not to become bogged down.  If one activity needs to be reconsidered, test something else in the meantime.

Praxis is a circulation between action and reflection.  Each cycle improves performance because you bring fresh observations to your thinking and new insights to your actions.  Ideas and insights  informed by actions, will bring a unique perspective, rooted in reality, to your business and so will make a real difference.

Let me know if you find this helpful.  Would you like me to expand on any aspect?

Do You Undervalue Your Business?

Whilst it is possible to overcharge for your services, most coaches and consultants undercharge.  When your prices are too low, you undervalue your business.  This is the fifth post in my series about money and pricing your business.

Undercharging is a real problem for your business and the wider business community.  You make a statement about the value of your work.  You may be brilliant at what you do but your message to the world is “meh”! 

Perhaps worse is the possibility you undercut your competitors.  Perhaps you have too many clients because you have a good reputation and low prices.  Then the chances are you are running yourself ragged and collaborating with others to keep their prices down.

I said competitors, didn’t I?  Leaving aside some of these may be potential collaborators, the chances are they have a niche next to yours and distinct.  They may seem to be competitors but if there are enough clients to go round, what’s the problem?  Of course, if you undercharge and they do, sharing clients is harder because you all need more clients.  If everyone increased their fees they would all need fewer clients and offer them a better service.

How to Increase Your Prices

You should charge what you think you are worth.  Indeed, charge more than that!  It is not difficult to increase prices.  Just do it!  However, here are a few things to consider :

So, let’s consider strategies to raise your prices:

How to Manage Overcharging

Don’t bring your charges down!  Perhaps you find it hard to sell at your current prices.  Reducing the price devalues your offer, so what to do?  Here are a few possibilities to consider.  You may need to find a strategy that fits your business, don’t assume it’s the same for everyone.

Remember, this is always to some degree trial and error.  As you get to know your market and offer, you become more adept at delivering something of value for what it is worth.

How do you keep your offers fresh, available to all pockets with realistic prices?   Tell me if this post is helpful.  If you have any questions about prices I would be delighted to have a go!

Places Where Prospects Congregate

Locating the places where prospects congregate is key to making contact with them.  These places may be online, offline or both.  It is worth creating new places for your prospects too.

Online or Offline?

Look for prospects online and offline, especially if your offer is B2B. If your offer is mainly Internet-related or to a global market, explore online media first.  Sections of the population who do not use online resources may be solely offline, eg elderly groups, although this is  less true year by year.

Social Media

Suggestions about how to contact Facebook and Linked-In prospects are in the circuit questionnaire.  If you find a group likely to interest your prospects, join it.  The next step is to take part in group discussions and start your own.  Try not to sell to these groups.  Once group members recognise and trust you, invite them to visit your website.

Publish lead magnets on your timelines.  Encourage people to share them or pass them to others who may be interested.  Twitter is another candidate and there are new media worth exploring, eg Instagram or Pinterest.

Don’t forget blogs!  If you find blogs published by competitors, read them to find out what they write about.  Can you improve on their posts?  They may inform your own blog posts or your website content. Avoid copying directly; respect copyright and remember anyone interested may read your rival’s blogs as well as yours.

Take their topic and prepare a better post.  You could write your post as a response to your rival’s.  Say their post inspired you and then write something that builds on and transforms it.

Your rival may aim for different prospects to yours and so if you comment constructively on their blog, there may in time be an opportunity to write a guest post for them.  Some blogs actively seek guest writers and so long as your prospects read their blog, an article by you may be fruitful.

Network Groups and Events

In real life seek groups your prospects are likely to attend.  There may be many networks and events in any town or city.

Network groups usually meet regularly, often fortnightly, and they are opportunities to share your elevator pitch, make contacts and occasionally speak at length.  Usually these groups meet over a meal and charge a small fee (about £10-15) for the food and other costs.  Some have membership fees and associated privileges, eg only members may deliver longer talks.  Others are specialist groups, eg WordPress users or social enterprise that attract people with specific interests.  Such groups may actively seek speakers.

Events are one-off activities, usually around a theme.  You can find them online through sites such as Eventbrite and Meetup.  These are almost always network opportunities and may be organised by people with offers complementary to yours.

Publications

Are there publications your prospects read?  If so, can you write for them?  Published articles can be powerful ways to raise your profile.  Bear in mind though, they are likely to be current for only a short time, so you may need to think carefully about how you build on a one-off article.

Reading a publication you know your prospects read may help you find topics of interest to them as well as events they are likely to attend.

Organising Your Own Events

Online or offline, if you organise your own events, this will raise your profile.

Online publish your ideas through a blog or webinars.  Video and audio recordings are popular too.  If you have online products, a product launch is a great way to promote your business.

Offline, organise your own events, workshops or network groups.  You may find the market crowded and so you need to find an angle that does not duplicate what is already happening.

The biggest problem you have, both online and offline, is marketing new activities.  Most people put a lot of time into designing events and relatively little time promoting them.  Try writing marketing copy first, promote it and see if you get a response.  Put in the time to design the event in detail if you do get a response.  If you get very few people, offer them a downsized alternative and close down the main event.

If you are interested in more detail about the possibilities listed here, let me know.  What related topics would you like me to cover?

A Few Reflections on Community Development

I received an email from Paul King, who had downloaded my ebook, “Community Development is Dead: Long Live Community Development”.  See below if you would like to download the ebook.  In his email he offers a few reflections on community development in his experience.  I reproduce it here with his permission.

Paul King’s E-mail

I downloaded your ebook out of curiosity, because I am engaged both politically and ecclesiastically in forms of community development – though not necessarily along your lines.

 

When training in 1960/61 to be an education officer in the Colonial Civil Service I was introduced to TR Batten (see the comments), whom you refer to a little.  The context then was encouragement and facilitating community development both in rural life based on subsistence farming and in urban areas made up of people who had come to town in search of a better life – sometimes finding it, sometimes not.  A grotesque feature of the urban areas was that social welfare was financed in part through profits from ‘beer halls- crude sheds for the dispensing of ‘cibuku’.

 

Because I was actually appointed to teach French in the country’s leading high school for African men and boys, I did not refer again to Batten.

 

My second brush with community development was in Stoke on Trent 1970-75 when, as a Methodist minister, I found myself collaborating to some degree with the post-Seebohm social workers and with an over-elaborate good neighbour scheme. This was at the end of the pits and pots culture which has now largely evaporated, I think.

 

Now, In Chesterfield in retirement I am both Secretary of Christians Together for Chesterfield and Membership officer of the local Liberal Democrats, where the sustaining and fostering of community relations comes under both my hats.   Chesterfield is a fairly neighbourly place, dating from the same pits and pots culture of 1970 Stoke, but its bourgeois estates are not strong on community except where a fellow I know in the Libdems is running a Facebook for his estate and has 90 members.

 

So I am not much use to you, I fear, with your interest more in community development in economic terms.  But have you met the Sheffield Local Renewable Energy people?  They sound to be barking up the same tree as  you.

Why Not Share Your Story?

It’s great to receive emails like this and if you have similar stories to share, please comment on this post.  Or if you would like to publish a guest post, to share your story, please let me know.

Making Profit Saves Time

Most coaches and consultants undercharge for their work.  It is just as easy to overcharge.  If you are not finding clients perhaps you are overcharging, although it is usually not a good idea to bring your prices down.  I shall explore this in more detail next Wednesday.  Today I shall explain how making profit saves time.

Work Life Balance

We hear a lot about work life balance, primarily because so many people in employment work overtime.  When the demands of work are excessive, to the extent there is little time to do anything else, many people start to question why they are doing it.  The question may be a response to some life changing event such as a heart attack or diagnosis with a problem such as diabetes or stress.  Sometimes someone will simply realise other people have time to do stuff other than work.

The same applies when you are self-employed.  There may be fewer checks on your excessive working because you don’t have managers or colleagues to question it.

I met someone the other day who told me she can offer 3 one-hour consultancy sessions seven days a week.  That’s 21 sessions a week.  So, I asked her wouldn’t she rather work only 4 days a week.  She would – the question is: how?   She needs higher prices.  How to get to higher prices is a non-trivial question but at this stage I’m making the point.

You may be good at something you enjoy doing but the pleasure begins to pall if you have an endless sea of working days ahead with no let up.

Anything you do below the market value is an act of charity.  There is nothing wrong with that but understand what it means.  Imagine the balance sheet of a conventional business, where you subtract expenditure from income to calculate your profit.  If you work at a low rate or for free, you are in effect donating your profit.  If you work out the cost of your charitable work, you can add it to your income.

You may find you would make a profit if you charged for charitable work.  Now, there’s nothing wrong with pro bono work.  Many social enterprises do this and record the costs of what they give away as part of their profit.  This is sometimes called the triple bottom line, where you account for social and environmental benefits as well as financial profit.

There’s no reason a self-employed person can’t do the same but be clear.  It reduces your profit and increases the time you put into your paid work.  Perhaps it would be better to wait until you are making a profit and then spend it!

Spending the Time Profit Generates

So, let’s consider the time you spend if you have time to spare.

First, the internet marketing gurus will tell you about the wonderful leisure activities you can partake in once you have money.  You can pay for staff, not only for your business but also for domestic life.  Staff free up time.  Now you can sit back and enjoy life!

Of course, life isn’t like that.  Leisure time may be eaten up by domestic responsibilities.  You could employ a nanny to look after your children.  Is that what you really want?

So-called leisure time is the time you need to pay attention to other aspects of life.  Family, health, education are all aspects of a fulfilled life.  They are essential and you will certainly feel pain if you neglect them.

Employing staff is not a bad idea.  I won’t enter into the pros and cons here but point out something you may not have spotted.  When you have time freed by your higher income, you have more time for your business.

The business owner I mentioned earlier explained if she filled 21 sessions, she would have 60-80 clients.  Now I think these would be 60-80 unhappy clients.  If she could generate income to cover her needs from just a few clients she could spend more time with them (they’re paying her more remember), do research on their behalf, improve her skills through training and genuinely have time to develop her business.

The extra staff may not be needed; the extra time may be sufficient.  But staff do free up time you need to do what you do best, while they do the routine stuff you don’t really need to do but do now because there is no-one else to do it.

And with more time, you can invest further in your community.  I shall write about spending money on charitable or community work in a later post.  With more time you can afford to seek new investments of time or money in projects that interest you and benefit others.

Conclusion

So, more time for leisure and family, for doing your business better and for making investments in your community or charity work.

The challenge is to get there.  I may move onto this in later posts.  My non-directive consultancy specialises in how to get into this enviable position.  I’m happy to talk to anyone interested with no obligation.

Let me know if this post is helpful and if you have any questions for me to write about later.