The purpose of business is not “just money” - it’s essential, but money is not the purpose of a business. A business can give you financial freedom, with the flexibility you want. I’ll show you how to achieve those here.
“Money is like air - it’s no big deal, until you’re not getting enough.”
I love that analogy, don’t you?
But the purpose of breathing is not “just getting air” - it’s essential, but air is not the purpose of life.
Having a business can be one of the most liberating and life-changing decisions you can make. And it can also be one of the toughest, most life challenging decisions you experience.
The main purpose of a business is to give you a life worth living. Maybe even the life of your dreams. And in order to have your dreams turn into reality you need "enough" money to be financially free.
Financial Freedom is the combination of two of the 3F's, the founding principles of what I teach - Financial security and Financial Freedom.
You need two key elements to create financial freedom through your business:
The right business strategy and the right personal character.
Starting with ...
Establishing The Right Business Strategy
Five factors affect the right business strategy for your business.
1. Setting the financial objective of your business
Deciding the financial goals for your business is the first crucial step in becoming financially independent.
In order to have financial security many people seek "more clients". Continually chasing for "more" makes you busier. It leads to the busyness delusion and moves you away from freedom. You probably need fewer clients than you may think.
I have a map - a software tool - to help you figure out exactly how few clients you might need for your specific financial target. It's called the FSTN map.
And you can download it for free here.
2. Finding the right clients
“Where do I find clients?” maybe the most worried about, most-asked question in small and early-stage businesses. More clients are needed to increase profitability, right?
While it’s an understandable question to ask, it’s one that sends the business owner into a flurry of busy activity. Here’s why: because finding potential clients is not difficult in today’s world. They’re everywhere - on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter or any other social media platform. They’re in your neighbourhood. They read papers, watch TV, subscribe to magazines, and an infinite variety of other “touch points”.
Finding them is not the problem - so it’s not the question that’ll create a breakthrough.
The better, more important question is: “How do I attract them to me once I’ve found them?”
Many entrepreneurs stumble at this point, as they don't realise the harsh truth:
Clients are not interested in you. They don't care about your skills, about your experience, about your backstory. At least not at first.
They care about what's happening in their own world and in their own life. And specifically, they care about the problems they're experiencing.
So attracting the right clients starts with diagnosing specifically the problems they are experiencing.
There's a world of (and significant income) difference between the PRESENTED problem your clients describe and diagnosing their REAL problems.
The highest value and the higher rewards are available when you can diagnose the real problem they're experiencing.
Having diagnosed the real problem and established the high-value problem it represents for your clients, it's time for ...
3. Creating a solution that stands out and solves the problem
Here again, many people go wrong. They package their solution into something that “sounds like everybody else”. And when your solution sounds like everybody else’s it puts pressure on your prices which in turn moves you further away from financial freedom.
Lower prices mean you'll need more clients - and, if you're not careful, you're back to the problem described above.
The route to having financial stability is not to have "more and more" clients. Financial Freedom comes from needing fewer, high-value clients. They're high value because you are delivering high value into them.
Hence, the objective is to create the perfect solution to a big enough problem. When you do that you stand apart from competitors and need fewer clients to increase profitability.
This brings us to ...
4. Packaging the offer
The offer is not the same as the solution you deliver. The offer is the way that you describe the help that you can provide to your clients. It's the packaging, the wrapper for the services you offer, and the solution you provide.
To have financial freedom, you need to be able to create offers that are "easy to say yes to". When you offer your services in such a way that clients say yes easily, financial freedom becomes so much simpler.
Talking of "high value" ...
5. Deciding your pricing strategy
Yet again, this is a decision many people get wrong as they are not sure what the best pricing strategy is for their business. They're "selling their time" and assume their rates need to be in line with what the market is charging.
If you have diagnosed the REAL problem your clients are experiencing, and prescribe the PERFECT solution to that specific problem, then you are likely tapping the "sweet spot", where there is INTENSE demand and VERY LOW supply.
Pricing is always determined by supply and demand, so when there's intense demand for our offer it pulls the price up. And, through smart positioning, when we're seen as one of the only rational choices for our clients there's low supply - which, of course, also strengthens the price and improves business profitability.
And now let's move on to the second main category ...
Building Strong Personal Characteristics By Overcoming These Typical Hindrances
Most people who have the courage to start their business are more capable and more courageous than they realise.
I’ve helped countless people transform their lives and businesses, not just through better “know-how” and a smarter strategy, but by helping them recognise the damaging stories they tell themselves.
Once they “get out of their own way”, it’s very usual to see their business thrive.
Here are four specific personal characteristics that can hinder your business growth:
1. Suffering from Imposter Syndrome
Many people recognise the term and self-identify as suffering from imposter syndrome. It's where we doubt that we are good enough.
The antidote and the prescription to the imposter syndrome is "self-acknowledgement". There’s a common misconception you may have been told: “fake it until you make it”. All that serves to do, is destroy your business confidence.
You need to recognise the truth - you do, indeed, "know some stuff" that can, indeed, be helpful for your clients.
Are you the best in the world? Probably not. And that's totally okay.
Can you learn more about your particular expertise and topic area? Yes, of course you can. And that's also okay.
You see, overcoming imposter syndrome does not mean you have to be the finished article. You don't even have to be "better than someone else"! Overcoming imposter syndrome is simply a way, of acknowledging that you do indeed "know some stuff" that is useful and helpful for your potential clients.
It's not a comparison with other people who have more experience. It doesn't matter if others may be "better" than you. It is simply a truthful acknowledgement that you DO know and you DO have some experience, resources, skills, and know-how to help your clients.
Imposter syndrome is a self-imposed condition.
Hence, it's also possible to decide and acknowledge to overcome it.
2. Copying others rather than being yourself
One of the mistakes many people make, which takes them away from having financial freedom in their business is to follow and copy what other people are doing. What those other people are doing might be working for them ... yet it doesn’t mean it's the right thing for you.
They might be experts in a different topic. They might be offering a solution outside your expertise. They might be attracting people who aren't "right" for you, and who don't suit your character.
Yes, it's tempting to copy what others are doing when it looks like they're successful. It may look like they're getting financial freedom.
Your financial freedom will be achieved through you being you. This will also be a differentiator for you. It will make you stand apart from any competition. So it's important to understand and recognise and acknowledge your own strengths, your own advantages.
Your qualities, your talents, your resources, your experience, your know-how are what make you ideal for the best clients for you.
3. Procrastinating and avoiding being productive
This is the bane of many people's lives - putting off until tomorrow, what you could be doing today. Procrastination often feels like an "overwhelm" problem: "I've got too much to do." In reality, it's not an overwhelm problem, nor is it a problem to do with "too much".
Procrastination is a decision-making problem.
So how do we overcome a decision-making problem and therefore overcome procrastination?
The answer is in two parts: (1) clarity, and (2) focus.
Clarity is "knowing what to do".
Focus is "doing it".
Often procrastination feels like "I'm not focused". In fact, what's in the way of "getting on with it" is that you're not CLEAR "what needs to be done first". So the answer - the prescribed solution - for procrastination is to get clear.
What IS it that you're wanting to do? What's the objective? What's your method? What are you going to do? Get clarity, and then you'll have focus and get on with it - and procrastination becomes a thing of the past.
Often busyness and success are confused. You can be successful without being busy. More often than not, if you are extremely busy it’s likely you’ve not quite found financial success. Being busy makes us feel like we are doing useful things, however, avoiding busyness is one of the keys to financial freedom.
Define what you aim to earn, set a financial goal then figure out how to get there. Once you know where you are going it is far easier to uncover the how and become financially secure.
4. Complicating things that can be simple
People running their own businesses love to make things more complex than they need to be.
They define and design “smart” strategies with lots of moving parts with the aim of improving profitability.
Business is a very simple game at heart. All you need to do to attract clients is make offers that are relevant to them.
If you don't have enough clients coming to you at the moment, make more offers.
Did you make any offers yesterday? Did you make any offers the day before yesterday? Did you make any offers last week?
Your answer to those questions will reveal some of the reasons why you're not getting enough clients coming to you.
Keep things simple in your business.
Complexification will slow things down. It will also give you a very seductive reason to "do more stuff" rather than make offers. And this in turn is really just another form of procrastination which isn’t getting you any closer to financial independence.
Simplification requires clear thinking. Complex solutions are often the result of unclear or lazy thinking.
When you can simplify your business, you will move faster. When you move faster, your results will come quicker. With those results, you're moving towards financial freedom.
Conclusion
There’s never been a better time to start and grow a business. Seeing those who thrive can be the spark of inspiration that creates a new venture.
Often, once the initial excitement has passed, the dream (freedom) turns into a different reality (busy just earning money) - a job with less security.
And yet this hamster wheel is completely avoidable - with the right strategy and overcoming the unhelpful personal characteristics.
The journey to financial freedom can be truly thrilling and rewarding.
And it starts with a decision: to make things simpler, by choosing a smarter, superior strategy.
Such a strategy starts with three components - your target, your clients and your pricing. You can now use [THIS TOOL] to see how your own business can work in that superior, simpler way.
