Money First

Regardless of whether money is the product of your business or the by-product of your business, it needs to be the focus of your business.

If you're a stockbroker, the whole point of your existence is to make money. If you're flipping houses, or flipping cars, the whole point of your business is money. In other words, you make money. That's what your business does. If, however, you're a service-based business, perhaps a coach or a mentor, maybe an accountant, then making money is a by-product of what you do. If you give a great service, you deliver a desired result and when you do that, you make good money.

Now I know that if you're flipping houses, money is a by-product as well. You have to make good business decisions. You have to make sure there's money in the property. I'm not meaning to insult anybody who’s a stockbroker, in the property game or flips cars for a living. What I really mean is that there are several businesses where the whole aim of the business is just to generate cash or make money. There are many other businesses where the focus is on delivering a service or an outcome, and they make money as a by-product of doing a great job.

And here's the thing I want you to think about.

Regardless of whether money is the product of your business or the by-product of your business, it must be the focus of your business.

You need to make money your number one priority. Whilst I know that's challenging for so many people to hear, it doesn't mean that you stop operating any of your other values. It doesn’t mean you stop doing an amazing job delivering great service, helping and supporting your clients, etc. I just want to take money from being low down on so many business owners' list of priorities to the top of the priority list. In other words, get the money right.

· Make sure your business is designed in a way that it generates money.

· Make sure that you get your pricing right.

· Make sure you negotiate the prices with your clients.

Get all the money right and then continue to deliver. I was once delivering coaching and mentoring for about 40 hours a week. On top of that, there was all the other work in the business. Tracey, my partner in life as well as in business, was also delivering 20-25 hours a week. With the networking, sales, marketing, etc., we were absolutely maxed out - completely and utterly flat out. We loved what we were doing, we were great at it, but the business was maxed out and we were very quickly becoming exhausted. We soon realised this was not a long-term strategy, that there was no way we were going to be able to continue to operate at that level, and so, I made a commitment - a commitment to myself, to Tracey, to the business - to put money first.

Across the business this became a theme. It didn't mean that we became money grabbing. It didn't mean we lost any of our higher values. In fact, if anything, we doubled down on our other values as well. What it meant was very simple. Get the money right up front. Before you say yes to something, make sure the money's right. Before you take the new client, negotiate your fees properly. Make sure it works for you. Make sure it works for your agenda, for your goals, for your business ambitions. Make sure it's right. Get it right and then you can continue to do everything that you're doing today.

I see so many small business owners putting money third, fourth, fifth, even bottom of their list in terms of priorities. I really want you - and I urge you and challenge you - to take it from the bottom, or low down on your list of priorities, and make it the number one thing. For many business owners this can be incredibly challenging. I totally understand that. However, I have helped many business owners just like you overcome their blocks and barriers around this concept of money being important and when they do, they and their business literally transform. And none of them, I want to repeat this, none of them have sold their soul to the devil!

None of them have made money such a priority that they no longer care about their clients or their services. They still care deeply about their mission or their purpose in the world. In fact, when money comes first and there’s an increase in revenue, and you start to become more profitable as a business owner, you feed that money back into your cause. You feed that money back into your mission. And what that enables you to do is double down on the very things that you're trying to do well right now.

If you're rejecting the idea of money being important, the most important thing in your business, you are holding your business growth back. If you have the idea that somehow you are going to be a bad person, or somehow, you're not going to deliver great service, or you're being greedy, or you're not making your clients a priority, forget it. My challenge to you is really simple. Regardless of whether money is a product of your business or is a by-product of your business, it needs to be the focus of your business. It needs to be the number one priority.

Get the money right and you get to do everything else even better than you're already doing, right now.

This is an excerpt from episode 3 Money First from the podcast Levelling Up: Extreme Business Growth.

Check out the full episode https://biggerbrighterbolder.co.uk/money-first/