Module 11
Section 5: Your Ongoing Actions
Building your long-term financial success means taking the concepts and
principles we’ve discussed up to this point and expanding them into sustainable
Cash Machines – businesses that can support you in reaching your goals.
You are already discovering your unlimited earning potential hidden within the
skills you already have – and you know that your efforts can payoff with
committed action and a great plan. But what’s next?
If you’re going to really make strides towards financial freedom, you will have to
get this new money working for you – use it to attract even more money into your
bank.
As the money starts pouring in you will be faced with some important decisions
about what to do with that money. There are limitless possibilities and you may
find yourself distracted by all the options.
Obviously, a portion of the money you create through your Cash Machine will go
directly to you as your salary – you must always pay yourself as you would any
other person working in your company – on time, and fairly. But what about the
rest of the money? What do you do with it?
The Sequence of Spending
In the previous few sections, you have taken the action that will result in your first
cash coming through the door and in to your business. As your Cash Machine
generates more and more cash, you will need to make new commitments and
build new models around how you intend to spend the money your business
brings in. You will make decisions like, how you will pay yourself, and when you
will add new team members.
These are obvious concerns and decisions because it will determine the growth
of your business and the rate you can expand. You’re now in the process of
building a Cash Machine that will support you for the rest of our life – stay
focused on your goals.
The more money you make, the more compelling the choices will become. At
this point, many people make the crucial mistake of falling into what I call the
“Lifestyle Cycle”, and spending the money in a way that cannot sustain itself.
This leads to living beyond your means. This is the main reason that so many
people are in debt and is also a big part of why some businesses lose their initial
momentum.
When the cash starts coming in they get excited and start buying the things they
never had and lose track of building the business. Next thing you know, they
have an oversized mortgage, several luxury car payments, and a pile of
expenses that come with this new lifestyle.
It’s important that you understand, this program is about building wealth and
creating the lifestyle you’ve always wanted, but it must be sustainable. For that
reason, I want all of my clients to abandon the “Lifestyle Cycle” and embrace the
“Wealth Cycle”. This is where your money works for you and gives you the
sustainable income you want so you can buy that nice car or home and know
that you will always have the resources to support it. No more bad debt, no more
stress, no more struggling to make it all work – just pure financial freedom.
This type of money will help you expand your cash generation beyond just a
business and create stability for the future. This process is so important that I
created an entire product package called “Building Your Wealth Cycles” just to
teach this one concept.
As you grow, you will want to become an expert at the Wealth Cycle process,
and your personal coach can talk to you about that when the time comes, but in
the mean time, you need to focus on building this Cash Machine and getting that
new money in your pocket.
However, in this section, we will look specifically at how you spend the first
dollars that come through the door. Just as you have committed to a future of
marketing and sales, you must also commit to leading your wealth and driving
your financial future focused on growth and financial responsibility. These
decisions will be crucial to your long-term success.
No “Planning to Plan to Plan”
Many entrepreneurs are under the impression that maintaining a business will
require a long-term business plan that can take months to create. What you may
not realize is that you have already done most of the work to create that plan in
our previous modules – this is no time to start complicating things.
Think about it, you have already:
• Leveraged your existing skill sets into an entrepreneurial venture.
• Defined the product or service model that you will offer to clients.
• Created a marketing plan to bring your business to the public.
• Developed a daily sales calls strategy for your business on a daily basis.
In most businesses, even large corporations, there are six key areas that drive a
company to success, and we have covered four of those major areas already.
Here are 4 key areas that will help you to succeed in business:
• Marketing
• Sales
• Customer service
• Product or service development and fulfillment
The only major areas missing from this process are technology and
accounting. You may have already identified some of the major technology
components you need when you worked on the marketing Action Steps.
We talked about free and paid technology resources and we specifically
discussed focusing on databases and CRM (customer relationship management)
systems – that’s a good place to begin since your list will be the life-blood of your
business.
As your list and your business continues to grow, there should be one key
element that stands out to you about this entire process.
You will notice a VERY important element to your success:
You need a Team!
Don’t be a Lone Ranger – Build a Team
If you look up the definition of “entrepreneur” in the dictionary, you won’t see the
word “alone” or “solo” anywhere nearby. In fact, they’re in totally different
sections of the book! Most of the time, the reason entrepreneurs choose to stay
alone is related to either fear of a takeover or the loss of control. Unfortunately,
there’s no balance. Living in fear means you delay your ability to grow; and every
time you pass up to the opportunity to add someone to your team you are literally
passing up dollars.
You might be worrying about how you will be able to pay a new team member in
order to expand your Cash Machine. This is an example of scarcity based
thinking, and it’s time to get rid of it. The question should really be, “How much
more money can I generate by adding this new team member?” If you can make
more money by bringing on a team member, then do it! But, be sure to to track
your results and make an adjustment if necessary.
Throughout the process of building a business, your mind should always be on
expansion and growth. Every step you take in building your business is always
an evaluation of COST versus BENEFIT. For example, if printing flyers costs $10
but you generate $100 in new business, that’s a $90 profit and an obvious WIN!
The same calculation is true for new team members – if what they cost is less
than what they bring in, it’s profit!
Every additional hour you invest in your business can generate additional
revenue. Every teammate that is on your side is adding an additional hour to the
effort. You cannot grow fast enough alone, it take a team to super-charge this
Cash Machine!
I recommend that you look at adding teammates in the following order:
Home Support
Have you ever wondered how many hours per week you spend running errands
or performing duties in your house? This could be anything from cleaning the
house, doing the dishes, walking the pets, or driving around your children.
Without a doubt, you spend HOURS a week engaged in these activities.
Since most of you will be staggering out of an existing job, managing your time
off-work is especially important. The longer you burden yourself by completing
these home-based tasks, the less time you have to spend on revenue-generating
activities. Therefore, the first team members you need to add are on the home
front.
You are getting someone to ease the burden on your time and resources that
your home creates. For some people, this team costs you nothing more than
having a frank conversation with family members and getting them to step up
their involvement in home-based tasks. Others may be looking to hire someone
to come in and support the house.
From the moment you hire your first teammate, you must make the commitment
that the time you regain will be invested in your business. This time is not for
other hobbies or distractions – you’re not freeing up your time just to lose it again
in an activity that doesn’t pay you back. You need to be out in the streets shaking
hands and offering your product or service. The more money you create, the
easier it will be to continue expanding.
Bookkeeping
Menial tasks such as filing, organizing receipts, and maintaining records is very
important, but can be an extremely tedious task for a business owner – as
important as it is for your success, it is also VERY time consuming to do it
properly. As more and more transactions take place and you make purchases
for your business, you will need to stay on top of your books.
At first, this role could be filled by a skilled secretary or assistant, but once you
grow large enough, you will likely need someone who specializes in the field of
financial record keeping and knows how to prepare documents for tax purposes.
Sales and Marketing Support
Because of the importance of your sales and marketing activities, getting support
team members in this area will directly impact your revenue. Among your first
hires should be someone to schedule appointments and help with your
promotions – this could be a personal assistant. Eventually, you will want to
expand your sales efforts and have other people getting appointments and
closing sales. These roles can be incentivized based on their performance or
even completely commission-based – it means nothing out of your pocket to get
them started, they get paid when they bring in money.
Marketing professionals can be paid based on the number of confirmed leads
generated for your business. Appointment setters can be paid based on the
number of appointments they set. If a salesperson is commission only, they
should receive a percentage of the overall revenue they generate.
All of these are ways to decrease your initial overhead while increasing these
areas of your business.
Accounting/Tax Specialist
Although this area fits hand in hand with your bookkeeper, it is a distinct and
important specialist who will help you in this area. As you earn more money, you
will need to understand how to maximize areas such as corporate structure and
expenses. A good accountant team member can guide you through this process
and get all the records organized.
Proper corporate structure is a key way of keeping more of your money and
dealing with the tax laws. It’s such a big part of your growth that I have an entire
program that focuses on this aspect of the Cash Machine. In some of our other
programs, we spend a great deal of time discussing these advantages. When the
time comes, talk with your personal coach about the available resources for your
business.
Technical/IT
Establishing your technology, ranging from your regular in-house computers, to
websites, and to CRM (customer relationship management) systems will require
a specialized touch. Some of this work may come on a contract basis as you are
setting up marketing processes (such as websites), but ongoing management
and maintenance will be required. Having a technical team member will make
sure that the technology is supporting the growth of your business rather than
hindering it.
Management
Eventually, as you implement more systems in your business, you will be able to
move from personally working “in” your business to simply focusing “on” your
business. You will go from being the owner and operator of the company to just
being the owner, allowing your team operate the business for you.
This means that you will require a management team that can handle the day-today
aspects of your business while you are focused on expanding and
generating new revenue opportunities.
Before bringing on new members of a team, it is crucial for you to scope out what
work that new team member will take on. Although this does not need to be as
specific as a complete job description, at least a basic list of tasks is required.
The way in which you grow your team and build your business will be determined
by the type of Cash Machine you have.
Since there are so many different types of businesses, it can be challenging to
know who to add to your team and when. That’s why you have a personal coach.
Your best asset for moving your Cash Machine forward is your personal coach.
They are the first member of your team, so use them. They will take all the work
you have already done and fill in the blanks that are specific to your Cash
Machine.
If you have not already, call my office 888-XXX-XXXX and see if you qualify to
work with one of my coaching staff – it’s the best thing you can do to get your
Cash Machine from the idea stage to the money-making stage.
Leading Your Team
Simply building a team is not enough to make a successful business. You also
have to effectively lead them in reaching your business goals. Whether you have
one person working with you, or a team of 100, how you lead, inspire, and
incentivize your team will mean the difference between success and failure.
Everyone has a different leadership style and different methods for trying to get
what we want. Some people are direct and to-the-point, they don’t add
unnecessary explanations – they see something needs to be done and they
mobilize the troops to do it; other people are much more engaging, they explain
the logic and engage in a discussion about the project at hand – they want
everyone to agree that this is the correct course of action and feel good about
doing it; and there are many in between.
There is no right or wrong way to lead. The true measurement of success is in
the results. Happy team members, happy customers, and a happy owner means
great leadership – anything else is not acceptable.
Understanding your leadership qualities is vital in this process because you want
to know your strengths and weaknesses. The personalities on your team must
complement your abilities as much as possible. If you are a direct and to-thepoint
kind of leader, then you want people on your team who respond well to that;
if you’re more prone to discussion and “group think” then you want people who
will work well in that environment. However, a big mistake you can make when
selecting team members is picking people with the exact same professional and
personal qualities as you.
You will want your teammates to have the same values, but not necessarily the
same personality. As a result, your team will often be vital in helping you explore
and capitalize on new opportunities. For example, if you are not a “sales brain,”
you’ll want your teammates to have more of that skill set.
Over time, it will be up to you as a leader to determine which activities constitute
the highest and best use of your time. However, regardless of your skills, these
should ALWAYS include at least some sales and marketing activities.
Every single person who starts a Cash Machine ultimately needs a team. The
most successful visionaries are also great leaders, and great leaders inspire their
team to be great. In the end, money follows effective leadership.
You will constantly be perfecting areas of leadership – capitalizing on your
strengths and building up your weaker areas. You might have never led a team
or managed a project, so you will be learning this all from scratch. You may
need to develop skills in areas where you have been weak in the past.
Evaluating your leadership skills is just as important as evaluating the team itself.
Most companies perform regular employee evaluations to see how everyone is
growing in the business, and you need to do the same for yourself. Complete a
leadership evaluation every three months and see how you are advancing. You
expect your team members to grow and excel, so you should too.
ACTION STEP: Determining Your Leadership Qualities
Even if you have never thought of yourself as a leader, you have leadership
skills. Some may be strong, some may be weak, and some you may never even
considered. This exercise is your opportunity to take a look at your leadership
skills.
Let’s begin by looking at the following areas. You are rating your proficiency at
each of the tasks. Rate yourself on a scale of 1-10, 1 being low and 10 being
high or the best..
Leadership Area Your Rating
Recruiting
Training
General Organization
Delegating Tasks
Project Management
Creating Timelines
Meeting Deadlines
Leading Meetings
Bookkeeping
Accounting
Technical Skills
Offline Marketing Skills
Online Marketing Skills
Making Sales/Deals
Motivating and Inspiring Yourself
Motivating and Inspiring Others
Managing Conflict
Providing Leadership Vision
Customer Service
Product or Service Fulfillment
How long did it take you to complete this Action Step? What I find among my
coaching clients is that many people either overestimate or underestimate their
abilities in certain areas.
Take a moment to review the Action Step again. How thoroughly did you think
each area through? How you complete the Action Step above is actually just as
important as the answers themselves!
Which areas did you identify that you need to work on? What steps can you take
to improve your skills?
If you’re not sure, or you’d like to get another perspective, find someone who
knows you well (a friend, family member, or co-worker) and ask them to rate you
based on their experience of you.
You may be surprised to see that you underestimated, or overestimated your
abilities. If there is a big discrepancy, be willing to ask some questions and find
out why they rated you the way they did. This is not an opportunity to get
defensive or confrontational; it’s simply their experience of you. Learn from the
information you get and be willing to make some changes. Ultimately you want to
get a 10 in all of these areas, so until you do, this is all a learning and growing
process.
In which area is your leadership the strongest?
In which area is your leadership the weakest?
You might choose to begin your business with a partner or a family member. In
the event that both of you are running the business together, you should both
complete the Action Step above to identify the gaps that will be filled by team.
Building a Business Team
Your leadership qualities and strengths will be the first step in adding the first
teammate to your business. Although you’ll be adding home support first, you
should always maintain a vision of how your business will grow in the future.
This means that you should always be thinking of your next teammate.
ACTION STEP: Identifying Your First Teammate
What is the next area of your Cash Machine you need a team member to support
your growth?
What is the role or title of the person who will fill this role?
Make a list of 3 people you know who may be able to fill that role.
Person #1: _______________________________________________________
Person #2: _______________________________________________________
Person #3: _______________________________________________________
Should I have family on my team?
If you plan to make money with your spouse or a partner, ask that person to list
his or her skills too. It can be very fulfilling to enroll others to partner with you.
Often times, it seems that family is a great resource for building your Cash
Machine and maximizing your team, but that is not always the case. Just
because they are available, doesn’t mean they are a good fit.
Be careful to team up only with others who share your positive, can-do attitude. If
a friend or spouse tends to be negative, then he or she is not going to keep you
excited every day. You want to work with someone who is going to add, not
subtract, from the experience – you want to be surrounded by people who are
committed to the success of your Cash Machine and motivate you to be
successful.
For this reason, you may not want to include your parents or relatives in this
process. You may find that some of the negative attitudes you have about money
may have come from your parents – and your siblings have the same hang ups.
They’re not to blame. They are only perpetuating the same fears and myths they
learned from their parents.
Family members, even well-meaning ones, often want to keep you locked into
your historical roles, because that is how they’ve always related to you. They
want you to stay the person they’re used to, the person with whom they’re
comfortable.
Check in with yourself and decide how much to involve relatives to help with your
cash machine before beginning to invite them to participate. It’s okay to start slow
and test the waters. Let them prove themselves before you give them additional
responsibilities.
When you turn to family for advice and counsel on money matters, you often
receive the same information you have already incorporated into your life and
that hasn’t been working for you. So, be careful who you ask for advice and
always put it in perspective.
I have a rule; only ask for business advice from people who are considerably
more successful than you. It’s this concept that made me create my personal
coaching program in the first place. I had too many clients who had no place to
turn for real world business advice. So I gathered a group of extremely
successful business leaders and asked them to mentor my clients; and the rest is
history.
You may be facing a lot of fears financially, but you are not in it alone. Talk to the
successful people who have gone through the same types of issues and ask
them for their advice – call your mentor. Talking about your financial fears will
help you get it off your chest. In the process, you will become a new person
liberated from your fears.
You’re not looking for a bunch of yes-men and yes-women, but you also don’t
want a bunch of no-men and no-women. You want to receive constructive
feedback and support throughout this process for advice and insight. You need
people you can consistently turn to who can give you informed feedback and
useful insights.
Should You Involve Your Friends?
Friends may be great at encouraging you as well as offering a shoulder to cry on.
But, what about actually making money together? Your friends can be a part of
your team. Just be aware that some business relationships go bad, so be careful
whenever you ask a friend to join your team.
Most of the time, we embody both the best and worst of our friends. When
looking around you, ask yourself a few questions about the people you associate
with the most. When getting these answers, you will likely start to notice a
pattern.
It’s likely that your friends are in very similar situations to you. They have similar
jobs, comparable living arrangements, and the same struggles. It’s also likely
that you spend most of your time sharing your experiences about the same
issues.
These activities could be either a good or a bad thing depending on the context
of your conversations. Do you find that you spend most of your time complaining
about your current situation or talking about ways that you could improve your
life? Do you walk away from these conversations feeling energized, or feeling
tired and drained? All of this will give you a clue as to the potential success of a
partnership.
How do you approach the conversation? It’s probably simpler than you think.
Say you’re building a business over the summer, and people ask what you’ve
been doing. You’re going to say: “I’m building a Cash Machine this summer. I’m
very busy and I’m focused on building a business that is going to make me a
minimum of $50,000″.
If their response is encouraging, tell them more about your plans. If not, you’ll
have to start making hard decisions about your time. As we’ve stated repeatedly,
your time is the most important resource you have to offer.
Life is short. You are building this Cash Machine and you get to choose who to
work with. You get to choose who will play on your team. Building a Cash
Machine is challenging enough without being attacked by naysayers or having
your time eaten by distractions in the form of friends. You need people who will
offer solutions and help you build momentum.
If you’re friend fits the bill, then welcome them aboard. But remember, even if this
is your BEST friend in the whole world and you trust them implicitly, you will still
put this relationship in writing and clearly define the expectations for this team
member, just like you would for anyone else.
Friendship is no reason to put aside good business practices. If you’re friend is
not willing to sign an agreement, then it’s best to keep them as a friend then risk
complications down the road that could cost the friendship and the business.
Upgrading Changing Your Life
Part of your success will come from simply changing your life and the way you
think about success. The fact of the matter is, if you were not standing in your
own way, you’d already be the success you dream about.
It’s interesting to note that most people who do not reach their goals actually
sabotage their own success. And they did it for years! Sure, everyone talks about
getting a better job, buying a nicer car, and having a fancy coffee every morning.
In the end, many people simply choose to repeat their old behaviors and are
never able to make their dreams come true. They keep doing the same thing day
after day and expect a different result. It’s crazy, but true.
Rather than making the changes in their life that would create the success
they’re craving, they make excuses – always placing blame on other people for
the state of their life. They have many reasons why they aren’t financially
successful but it doesn’t stop them from wanting to be more successful.
Even worse, most of them go into serious debt in the process by trying to gain
that lifestyle without having the income. The sad part of this cycle is that they go
into debt so they appear to be successful – buying things they can’t afford just so
people will see them and assume they’re successful. The truth is, these people
could actually have this lifestyle without getting into debt – it just takes a few
extra dollars here and there.
That’s what this first Cash Machine is all about.
Most people who are in debt are there simply because they don’t know how to
create cash. This line is thinner than you think – most people are only missing
an additional $500-$1,000 per month to fill that gap. That breaks down to $25
per day. For most of you, that’s only one sale per day.
You’ve made an important decision by coming this far in the workbook and you
will make many more as you build your business. Becoming an entrepreneur will
allow you to upgrade your lifestyle and live life on your own terms. However,
along the way, I guarantee that you will need to make unpleasant changes in
how you’ve been living your life. Sometimes, the people around you just won’t
come along for the ride and they may become distant memories as you move
forward.
Imagine for a moment you’re an Olympic runner. You’re running the race of your
lifetime and everyone is passing you. It’s confusing at first because you know
that you’re an incredible athlete with the ability to break world records, but
everyone is passing you. You look down, to your horror, and see that you’re
wearing a weight vest that’s adding an extra 50 lbs to the weight supported by
your legs.
Building this Cash Machine is going to feel a lot like that. You may wake up one
morning and realize that habits you have, or relationships you’ve carried for
years are now weighing you down. Friends you used to spend all your free time
with are now standing in your way.
This conversation is about addition through subtraction. Over time, you must
eliminate as much of the negativity from your life as possible. This could include
friends and even family members who consistently drag you down. The time will
come where you have to throw off that weight vest and kick it into high gear;
these friends and family can run along with you or fade into the distance.
This time needs to be spent doing the things that keep you focused and energized.
Reclaiming your time back from friends or family doesn’t have to be a messy
process full of fighting or arguing. Most people have routines with their friends –
heading out for dinner on a Friday night, going to the movies on a Saturday, or
just chatting on the phone after work.
If you need to reclaim that time for your Cash Machine, simply become
unavailable at those times for legitimate reasons. It’s time to put your success
and your Cash Machine first. You are going to master your schedule and put
your business priorities on the front burner. When all your work is done, you can
divide the remaining time among the friends and family that support your effort
and let the rest of the world find something else to do with their time.
We all need friendship and support, especially when we are reaching out into
something new. If you have never had this type of support, it’s time to find it. If
your friends or family have never stepped up for you in this way, demand it! You
deserve it!
Being an entrepreneur isn’t just a choice, it’s a lifestyle. You get to live your life
how you want, where you want, and do things when you want. Most of us people
are trained to work a steady 9 to 5 corporate job and being paid what someone
else thinks you’re worth. These two ideas don’t mesh at all. That’s no way to live
your life.
To be successful in all areas of your life, you need to grow your network. You
need to surround yourself other success-oriented people – they will inspire and
fuel your passion. These people are everywhere, but it is up to you to find them.
One of the best places to find the right people is at seminars. People who attend
seminars understand the value of investing their time to improve their skills, learn
new ideas and develop relationships.
They understand that people help peopleand success inspires success.
They know that they will become more successfulif they surround themselves
with other people who are successful. It is just as important that you
understand this balance and give back to others. Everything in your life will
change as a result of this simple decision.
How Do I Involve My Children?
One of the untapped resources you have at hand is your children. For thousands
of years, parents have turned to children to give a hand and help in the family
business. Today, many parents exclude children in an effort to protect them from
the “real world.” Is that really unfair to their children? Wouldn’t they be better
served in later years by learning from their parents and developing skills and
building relationships that could help them as they grow up? Business skills do
that.
Unfortunately, our educational system provides no guidance for children in these
areas. There are few quality programs available even for adults! How else will
your children gain experience in this area and learn the financial skills they need
to be successful if you don’t teach them?
In my experience, children have a natural desire to start new business ventures.
Why do they enjoy this so much? It’s simple – children do not have the same
hang ups about sales and marketing that adults have. Most kids understand that
they are providing something valuable when selling lemonade on a hot day or
helping shovel snow for a neighbor.
The stigma around teaching our children comes mostly from adults who believe
that money is evil and the people that have it are somehow bad. By teaching
these negative ideas to children, they are simply maintaining the cycle and
breaking our natural desire to provide service to others.
My children are involved in virtually every aspect of my Cash Machine, as well as
maintaining several of their own. Encourage your children to look for
opportunities to make money. This is a lifelong skill that will instill a sense of
accomplishment and reduce the sense of entitlement.
You have a unique opportunity to raise money-savvy kids. Teach them how to
earn money, as well as how to save and invest it. Let them experience the
principle of compounding. Teach them how to invest in mutual funds and stocks.
Show them how to hunt for a real estate property. These are valuable lessons
with lifelong implications that will put them miles ahead of other children.
Do not be afraid to make your children a part of your team. Allow them to take on
tasks and even projects. Let them interact with customers. Have them work with
other members of your team. They will thank you, one day in the distant future,
and likely even sooner.
As you would with any other team member, write out the job expectations for
your children and have them sign an agreement. This is the first step to creating
an accountability relationship, and makes it easier to correct any behavior that
doesn’t fit with your business model should the need arise.
The Evolution of Your Business
When you start building your cash machine, you will wear a lot of hats. You will
be responsible for everything that needs to get done. To answer this challenge,
you will need to maintain focus on your long-term business vision. Your team will
eventually take many of these roles from you and help you grow.
Even when you add your first team members, they must understand the
importance of your overall vision. Often times, your first teammates must be
among the most flexible, as they will likely be a part of almost all of your business
activities and will likely wear multiple hats too.
These roles will change over time as you identify specialties and skill sets among
your teammates. Your team will also be valuable in providing you with a different
view of how the business could expand.
Just as you will evolve, your team will evolve so it’s important to be flexible. Don’t
allow yourself to get into a rut and ignore the emerging skills from your team. You
may find that someone you never expected is the perfect sales or marketing
asset- just the person you need to expand your vision. Move that person into that
position and find someone else to fill their old job.
Getting the right people doing the right job is critical to your success, so always
pay attention to the evolution of your team and maximize the resources you
have.
Finding Working with an Experienced Mentor
Now that you’ve looked into all of the resources you currently have around you,
it’s time to start looking into your community. In the early stages of your
business, most of the resources you need aren’t very far from your
neighborhood. You are the most likely to find team, support, and mentorship
within your local area.
The first thing you need to find is your local business groups or associations.
Every single community has some form of association, such as a Chamber of
Commerce, that exists entirely for the function of being a resource to business
owners.
You will typically find representatives from these communities at local events, or
you can search for them online. The goal is to find a structured program that
brings a group together to network and develop relationships. Specifically, your
goal will be to learn more about other local businesses and what has been
successful for them in the past. Although you will do a lot of listening and
learning, you must also be prepared to share your product or service at all times.
At every point in your business, there will be new challenges that you have not
experienced before. The demands of your market are always changing and
become more demanding as your company grows from generating its first
hundred dollars to its first thousand and so on.
There are two ways to deal with these issues. You can go it alone and learn
through a painful series of mistakes that could repeatedly set you back. Or, you
can find another business owner or colleague who has overcome these
challenges in the past and learn from them.
A qualified mentor is someone that has their “feet in the streets” on a daily basis.
They have built successful teams, led projects, and created sustainable
businesses. Your mentor should always be at a level slightly higher than you. If
you are making $500 a month, you need to find a mentor making $1,000 a month
or more to take you to that next level. Once you have achieved your goal, you
will need to find a mentor at the $5,000 a month level.
Successful entrepreneurs will have role models for life. You must always be
prepared to do new things and expand into fresh challenges.
In over twenty years of doing business, I have never been without a mentor.
Typically, I work with two or three at any given time. Without them, I would never
be where I am today!
*Structuring your Cash Machine
Tracking your Results
How do you know if you’re successful? You need to set goals and track your
results. In the end, you have the power to achieve all of your goals.
How quickly can you build your Cash Machine? It depends on your level of
commitment. It depends on how deeply you learn the principles in this workbook.
It depends on whether you seek out coaches and mentors to help you move to
the next level in your business.
What will your life be like 6 months from now? A year from now? I’m going to take
an educated guess that a year from now, you’ll be happy you started today! You
will have more cash in your pocket and you will be building an asset that will
continue to grow. That’s exciting, isn’t it?
I encourage you to stay in the conversation about cash. We are here to help you
every step of the way!
What can you do to improve your business once you are earning money? You
need to monitor and track your results for historical trends. If you don’t track it,
you will never control it. Whatever you focus on, you will start to see an
improvement in that area.
You need to identify metrics to track. A metric is a standard of measurement.
What are the most important things to know about your business? The number of
new leads you get each month? The number of referrals? The number of new
customers? The average sales amount? How many calls you make? How many
appointments you set?
You have the opportunity to identify what is most important to you. And you can
change what you track over time. But, there is value in being consistent about
what you track so you can look at historical trends over time. If you don’t feel like
you have enough time to track the information, then delegate the task to your
team.
Spreadsheets are a great tool for compiling simple reports. It’s easy to track
results weekly or monthly and then compare results over time. Be sure to list
both your goals and the actual results for each period. This is one of the best
ways to measure your results to make sure you are on track.
Identify what you want to track:
Metric #1: ______________________________________________
How often do you want to track? ________________________________________
How will you measure it? ______________________________________________
Metric #2: ______________________________________________
How often do you want to track? ________________________________________
How will you measure it? _____________________________________________
Metric #3: ______________________________________________
How often do you want to track? ________________________________________
How will you measure it? _______________________________________________
Expanding your Product Line
You can increase your revenue by adding more products and services to
your core business. I call these additive products. You are adding to your
product line. You should have a strategy to add new products and
services over time. It is very likely your competitors will. Don’t fall behind.
Stay ahead of the crowd. It’s a dog eat dog world. Only the strongest will
survive. You need to stay at the top of your game to continue to grow
your Cash Machine.
Start thinking now about what other kinds of products and services you
can add to increase your revenue. If you select a service, think of how
you can leverage someone else’s time to offer the service. If you
determine you want to create a new product, how quickly can you create
it and start earning revenue? You can pre-sell a product in advance, just
be sure to fulfill on those orders as promised. You can create a portion of
the product and launch it early. Be creative. Always look for the fastest
path to cash.
Here are some examples:
Business Core product or
service
Additive Products
Event
Planner
Public and Private
Events
promo items, photography of
event- momentos – video
service – travel services –
outside entertainment
Senior
Concierge
daily chore and
errand service
Lawn care, home
maintenance – transportation –
pet care – senior social
activities, Pick up groceries,
dry cleaning, stamps
Social
Media/Web
Marketing
getting your
business
online
Copy writing, sponsorship –
online videos – stock photos –
online merchanting – database
management
Financial Baseline
How much money do you need to earn to make your life work? It’s hard to
answer that question without knowing where you are today. Take a look at how
much is coming in and how much is going out each month.
I call it your Financial Baseline. This is where you are financially right now. It’s an
overview of your current financial situation.
You need to look at your assets, liabilities, income and expenses. This is your net
worth. You need to be honest and list your current reality so you have a true
starting point.
One of the most important rules of finance in the Wealth Cycles is “thou shalt not
commingle.” Do not commingle personal and business funds. You need separate
bank accounts and separate books. Don’t violate this rule!
When you start your Cash Machine, many of your personal expenses will
become business expenses. This can create a tax savings for you. So, evaluate
your personal expenses and see if there is a business use. Consult your CPA for
advice.
You also need to look at your Profit and Loss Statement (P&L) frequently. You
want to see where you are achieving and where you are failing. Likewise, look at
your cash flow weekly or even daily. Whatever you track, you will give focus to it
and see an improvement.
Freedom Day
Most people will never experience true financial freedom in their lives because
they are stuck on a perpetual treadmill. They are like hamsters running around
and around in a circle but getting nowhere. I don’t know about you, but I don’t
want to be a hamster. I want to live powerfully. I want to play a big game. How
about you? So, what’s stopping you?
Are you ready to create true financial freedom in your life? It’s time to plan your
Financial Freedom Day!
The amount of cash, revenue and assets that you need to be financially free or
financially self-sufficient is what I call your Freedom Day.
Your Freedom Day includes your goals and objectives financially in the coming
months and years and accelerating into the future.
You need to determine how much in assets you need to acquire to generate the
amount of passive income you need per month to live on. Have you taken time to
figure that out? If not, then you have some homework to do. If not now, when?
Gap Analysis
The Gap Analysis is where we look at the difference between where you are
now, your Financial Baseline, and where you want to be, your Freedom Day.
By looking at this difference, we can chart a plan for getting to where you want to
be.
To determine your Gap Analysis, ask yourself the following eight questions.
Some will find some of the answers by looking at your Financial Baseline and
Freedom Day.
ACTION STEP: Take time to answer the following questions and be accurate:
What is your monthly pre-tax income?
What are your monthly expenditures?
What are your assets?
What are your liabilities?
What other assets do you have?
What do you want?
What are the skills you use to make money?
Are you willing to create and execute a plan for wealth
I encourage you to read my book The Millionaire Maker’s Guide to Wealth Cycle
Investing for a more detailed explanation of Financial Baseline, Freedom Day
and Gap Analysis. In fact, there’s an entire chapter devoted to Assets in the Gap
Analysis.
Business Licenses
At some point in the process, you will need to obtain a business license. You can
visit your local city or county office for more details on how to get a business
license. You should be able to find details on their website.
There is usually a fee and you will probably also have to get a fictitious business
statement. Usually, you need to have the fictitious name for your business
published multiple times in a local newspaper, business journal or other
publication.
To complete the paperwork, you will need to know how your business entity is
structured.
Structures and Systems
In order to do business, you will need to establish a business entity. You will
need to determine whether to run your business as a sole proprietorship, CCorporation,
S-Corporation, LLC or other type of entity.
Entities are legal structures, such as partnerships and corporations, that help to
protect you and your business. The purpose of an entity is to take advantage of
the government’s intention to support entrepreneurship. There are dozens and
dozens of tax incentives for certain legal entities. Yet many business owners
don’t take advantage of these opportunities.
You will find more information in my books, The Millionaire Maker and The
Millionaire Maker’s Guide to Wealth Cycle Investing.
You must set up an entity for each of your Cash Machines so you can retain
more income and feed your Wealth Cycle.
Just as entities are important, so are systems. You need to establish systems to
help run your business. You will need an accounting system. You need
marketing and sales systems, including a customer database. You need
information technology systems.
Ask mentors, coaches, colleagues, and friends for advice on what systems to
select. Look for people that have strong technology skills.
Case Study #1 Update: Jennifer and Todd H.
Jennifer and Todd knew exactly where they stood, which is why they ended up
starting their senior concierge business in the first place. They had spent years
helping build their bosses business and this Gap Analysis was just what they
needed to validate what they already knew and actually build a plan around it.
Case Study #3 Update: Samantha W.
For Samantha you can see how this may have not been a fun activity. It’s hard to
know where you are going when you don’t even know where you are to begin
with. But once that financial baseline was set, she became very clear about
where she did not want to end up and became excited at being able to calculate
what she needed using this simple spreadsheet.
Case Study #4 Update: Joe O.
Joe O’Conner was shocked that his Business Administration degree had not
given him all of the financial skills he needed to be successful. The financial
calculations not only helped him launch his business but also allowed him to
build a future portfolio that would allow him to prepare financially to get married
and have children.
Congratulations on Building your Cash Machine
Congratulations! You made it to the end of the workbook. You are well on your
way to building your Cash Machine. I’m proud of you! And I look forward to
working with you in the future.
Be sure to refer back to this workbook as you build your Cash Machine. There
may be certain steps along the way that didn’t make sense as you went through.
As you become a savvy entrepreneur, you will understand this material at a
deeper level.
Explore all of the resources in this workbook. Do the exercises. Refer back often.
Join our community and be an active participant. I want to hear about your
successes and I also want you to encourage others to take the journey to build
their Cash Machine. We need more entrepreneurs in this world with a can do
attitude who can get things done.
Ready, go!
Section Recap:
Here are the major ideas covered in Section 5:
• Planning for success
• Building a team
• Finding people to help you
• Leading your team
• The sequence of spending
• Financial baseline
• Freedom day
• Gap Analysis
Now that you have completed the workbook, I recommend you start over and
read it again. Repetition will help you learn and master the concepts in this
workbook.