What’s the key ingredient of a successful entrepreneur?

So, You want to be an entrepreneur! 

Welcome to “Club Fear!”

It’s all about being a lifelong learner 

No university can prepare you for the life of an Entrepreneur! 

The Ingredient is Knowledge - how to get that knowledge - how to use that knowledge 

Part of the entrepreneurs DNA 🧬 is to be a lifelong learner - and eventually he/she becomes a professor of the school of hard knocks !!

Knowledge is power - and you build knowledge through lifelong learning! 

As Albert Einstein said – perhaps the most famed of all Nobel Prize winners – put it, "Once you stop learning, you start dying."

Henry Ford once said, "Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning stays young."

Staying mentally sharp and focused on identifying new opportunities involves more than just dumb luck – it is a continual absorption of new information and knowledge! 

Even an entrepreneurs failed venture is merely a learning experience for the next successful venture .  (and let me tell you - there will be many failed ventures)

A Successful entrepreneur never stop learning, from as many sources as possible. And, of course, use those learnings to their advantage.

So what is an entrepreneur ?

 "An entrepreneur is an individual who creates a new business, bearing most of the risks and enjoying most of the rewards. The entrepreneur is commonly seen as an innovator, a source of new ideas, goods, services, and business/or procedures".

Generating new ideas means learning about what already exists, where there are gaps in the market and what could be done to fill those gaps.

What do the need to learn

Think about the various areas of knowledge demanded of any founder to get a startup to market:

• The actual product or service
• Negotiations
• Sales 
• Marketing
• Systems
• Branding
• Finance 
• Project management
• People management
• Time management
• Customer service
• Technology
• And the list goes on 

So - how do you learn?

Learn by reading 

What do all successful entrepreneurs have in common? They read. Lots. 

• Warren Buffett reportedly devotes around 80 per cent of each day to reading. 
• Bill Gates strives to read one book a week. 
• Mark Zuckerberg needs two weeks to read one book and share it in his online book club. 
• Oprah Winfrey selects one of her favourite books every month for her book club. 
• Sir Richard Branson might wow you with his impressive bookshelf – particularly given his well-known dyslexia.

Of the five entrepreneurs above, only Buffett and Winfrey have a college degree. The rest are dropouts.

Learning by doing

While knowledge is indeed power, it takes action to build profit. After all, actions create experience. And as Einstein famously said, "The only source of knowledge is experience."

Put simply, entrepreneurs keep learning by what they do. They put new-found knowledge into action. They use the experiences of others to trial and test their own new ideas before pursing the most favourable course.

Whether knowingly or not, entrepreneurs will keep reading, keep creating new experiences. And all the while learning.

Learning by collaborating 

Sharing ideas

Collaborating 

Leveraging off others 

Knowing where the levers are

Join a BBG Forum 

You Cannot do everything yourself - find people who can join you on the journey. Be a great leader

Because “ leadership is the ability to influence others - no more - no less” John Maxwell 

Inspired by 

Alan Manly - the CEO of Universal Business School Sydney and author of The Unlikely Entrepreneur.

How to be happy

• Live  in the now
• Narrow the gap between expectation and reality
• Be kind - treat others the way you want to be treated 
• Be in flow 
• Find something bigger than yourself to believe in

10X selling

 

The Best Referral is from your Clients - speak to them - meet with them - listen to them

Great reminder  from Ed Chan  at Wize Accountants - talk to your clients 

Accountants are busy - but most are looking for more of the right clients and are keen to grow.

One of the best sources of warm prospects are from your client base... and the best way to do that is to communicates for collaborate with them. 

It’s more than completing their work and getting them to sign their BAS or tax return.

It’s about building a relationship with them 

Getting referrals really starts with getting more face-to-face time with your clients and the best way to do this is to speak to them  about their results and not just send the completed work for signature.

Be interested in their business - and think about how you can add value by potentially referring them to someone .

Call them for a tax planning meeting prior to finishing their work and  take them on the journey instead of just completing their work and sending it to them in the post/email.

#10X #bbgforum #10Xforum #referron 

10 Strategies to Thrive and Survive in a Recession

1. To avoid losses , cut costs quickly and deeply.... unless there is a planned strategy for growth 
2. Eliminate pay increases, but retain incentives (if affordable).  It is not unheard of for leaders to request the entire company take some degree of pay cut (usually a higher percentage for higher paid employees) with reductions in their own pay leading the way.
3. Accumulate “fruit on the sideboard”  (a cash war chest)
4. Renegotiate their vendor agreements
5. Cash Flow Cash Flow Cash Flow 
6. Watch Accounts Receivable closely, account by account, and politely but crisply cut off customers who don’t pay or chronically late pay. Manage inventory and potentially delay paying creditors. Create a great relationship with your bank and shareholders 
7. Come up with creative new solutions and services, and go to market strategies and marketing campaigns which attract and address the three top concerns of decision-makers: cutting cost, reducing risk and driving Revenue.
8. Spend on demand generation. Invest more, sooner, in marketing and selling in the face of a recession than do the lower performers.
9. Leaders get  out in front of employees, customers and prospects more frequently and visibly. Make a reason to visit the other businesses in your building 
10. Your family and health is most important 

The 4 key drivers of a succesful business

From Brenton Ward 

In order to make serious headway and transform our fledgling business into a successful, profitable enterprise, we realized that we had to learn the precise drivers of a successful business. 

It took some time and research but we eventually worked out that the four key drivers listed below are behind every profitable business — regardless of the industry:

Great advice to scale your accounting practice

Great Advice from Ed Chan from Wize Mentoring  - move from an unscalable “brain surgery business” to a highly scalable “nursing or pharmacy business” - where customers can still feel the personal touch - true for financial planners and mortgage brokers as well 

Hi Ivan,

We’ve received some varying feedback from one of our recent Friday tip emails called "Increasing your prices" so here’s a follow-up email about this topic.

In this email, I explained the difference between a Business versus a Practice and the concepts of "value-based pricing".

To further delve into this topic, let’s break down the 3 types :  

1. "Brain Surgery" type Practice where the owner does the majority of work himself/herself and his/her income is limited to the hours in the day (not scalable) often to earn more, they work very long hours and a slave/prisoner to their Practice, unable to take time off because without him/she doing the work, the work doesn’t get done and his/her income ceases.

An Ordinary model that relies on Extraordinary people who are hard to find and difficult to scale. Often "burnout" is a common complaint. Owner dependent

To earn more money he/she needs to increase their rates and justify it by calling it "Value Pricing". Suited to unique service offerings. Only has a P&L Return and no Balance Sheet/Goodwill value  

2. "Nursing or Pharmacy" type business provides a very personal service but anyone can do it as long as they are trained to give really good personal service. This business model relies on Ordinary people who are abundant to source.

Clients are willing to pay more for that personal touch. Highly scalable and not owner dependent. An Extraordinary model that relies on Ordinary people. Has both a Balance Sheet/Goodwill value and a P&L Returnsince it’s based on Systems and teams to deliver great services  

3. "Supermarket" is a volume business and it's very competitive and competes on price so margins are very low and need to be super-efficient.

The one that makes the most money is the"Nursing or Pharmacy type" because of its ability to scale. Staff are easier to find as it’s not "highly skilled" and clients are willing to pay more for personal service.

In the Nursing/Pharmacy type business, you increase your income by increasing the size of the business versus increasing the size of the fee as in a Practice.

It’s the difference between buying your Medication at the supermarket (no service and low prices) or paying more for your medication from a Pharmacy where you can get advice and personal service.

Or after an operation, you need Nursing services and the patient is willing to pay more for the personal attention, and often the costs are paid for through private health insurance

The Tax Compliance business falls into the "Nursing/Pharmacy type" client because it’s highly scalable and the government drives the business to us since it's illegal not to lodge an annual tax return.

It relies on running the Business efficiently but one has the opportunity to turn it into an investment that pays a passive income without your direct involvement (giving you more choices in life) as long as you have the systems and staff to do the work.

Systems and procedures and formal reporting lines are required.

There are enormous benefits to this:

1. Your income is not limited to the hours in the day. In fact, it's unlimited because its highly scalable
2. You are no longer a prisoner of your practice and you have more choices in life.
3. Tax Compliance is an annuity income stream since it's illegal not to lodge your tax returns. Annuity businesses have both a Balance Sheet/Goodwill value and a P&L return versus Brain Surgery Practices only have a P&L return and no Balance Sheet/Goodwill value
4. If the Business is working hard then the owners do not have to. The harder the owner is working the less the Business is working. Businesses are working at optimum when the owners have zero charges on the clock and the staff is fully chargeable
5. Potential to turn your business into an investment that works without you and pays an EBIT/ROI of 25%pa or more (after Owners wages).

Hope that makes sense.

Ed Chan (bio)
Founder / Chairman (WIZE Mentoring)
Founder / Non-Executive Chairman (Chan & Naylor)
w: www.wizementoring.com
Sydney l Melbourne l Dublin