What's Your Point?

I was asked a very interesting question yesterday...

Do I think that 99% of people are in the wrong jobs?

I had to answer 'No'.

I think people are smarter than that but I also think that there has to be a caveat in addition to this.

People are not stupid but they are definitely under-educated when it comes to personal development.

Less than 3% of the world actually understands and actively pursues their optimized self.

The rest are a combination of luck, compromised decision-making and peer pressure which leads to the same mindset as a poker player who decides to stick with a 'better-than-average-and-could-have-been-worse' hand.

I think that most people have jobs rather than being an entrepreneur because they don't know they actually have choices.

Banks encourage early credit card debt and student loans so the first thing going through a young person's mind may be how to get rid of the financial guillotine as quickly as possible. A steady job will do that. For a while at least.

So this leads us to wonder what questions should each person truly be asking themselves in order to make different career and lifestyle decisions?

Here are 10 with which I suggest you should start...

1) How much do you actually care about this?

It's going to be hard work with desperate times and very lonely at the bottom. Am I ready to deal with that in order to work towards that silver lining after the rain?

If the answer is anything less than 80%, maybe you should just get a good job after all?

2) Who am you and what are you actually offering that people would want to buy?

Similar questions that need both introspective thinking plus brutal honesty. Of course, anything is possible and you can get education, go on part-time courses and coaching programs to hone your craft but if you don't fully understand your product or service, why should anyone else want to?

3) Who wants what you offer?

Is there a market for this or do you just hope one will open up at some time?

You need a market, ideally one you can dominate. Someone else should be already in it but servicing people's needs badly enough to leave a gap for you to profit. If it's a flooded market and you want a tiny piece of it, your resources may be too limited to finance any major changes or create enough of a dent to allow you to grow.

4) Am I scalable?

There is a very limited growth roadmap if you are the business. You only have 24 hours in one day, don't get paid when ill and have to be a genius to fight off the copycats that will come along as soon as you start doing well.

Can you hire others to be you? Can you create a product that does what you do and then mass sell it to a hungry market? Think Microsoft's Windows, Apple's iTunes and Instagram all great products but their appeal is so viral that the cost of constantly tweaking and improving is balanced by the millions who are paying to use it, even if that revenue only comes from advertising.

5) Are you at the mercy of the market?

People pay you for 2 things:

1. The effect of the job you do.
2. How easily you can be replaced by someone cheaper.

Are you able to position yourself as a premium brand and justify why customers have to pay for you above all others OR can they constantly beat you down by asking for a better price until you are lucky to break even?

When you go to work to break even, maybe it's time to have a good hard think about your business model.

• Can you tweak it?
• Can you jettison the non-profit making parts of it and capitalise on the lucrative elements?
• Are you just emotionally attached to a sinking ship?

6) How protected are you from the dangers?

There can be so many elements that burn you daily.

1. Suppliers pricing.
2. Cheaper copycat businesses.
3. Incompetent copycat businesses that kill the market.
4. Staff issues.
5. Defending your position as market leader.
6. Unreasonable customer demands.
7. Logistics.
8. Marketing and advertising spend.

Most can be solved by throwing more money at the problem but some key vulnerabilities need better planning and tough compromises.

Do you know which ones and how to deal with them?

7) Is my roadmap right?

Initially you looked deep into yourself to start your business but where do you get your inspiration from now?

Plus...

• Do you have a role model or industry maverick to copy?
• Are you financing your business correctly or could you benefit from sponsors, partners or a long term business loan?
• Are the staff that you started with STILL the best ones to be able to move you forward today?
• Are you too close to your product or service to be able to see the wood for the trees?

If so maybe you need to do a market survey, hire a new manager or work with a consultant for a while.

8) Can you go online and save a fortune?

The retail, hospitality and travel businesses are all reinventing themselves to be driven from apps and the home of the customer. It saves a fortune for you if you don't need a shop front to sell your goods, just an outsourced delivery service to drop it off. It's cruel for your employees but smart for your bank account and unless you are delivering an unbelievable customer experience someone else may reinvent your wheel before you do so.

Keep on top of trends not just in your industry but changes that are revolutionizing other ones too.

9) Can you upsize and profit more?

Your market may be a shiny village but every supplier is in a price war. Can you expand to new territories and limit your USP but appeal to many more potential buyers? Google, Facebook and Linkedin and other online advertising channels allow a much more targeted approach to reaching your customer. They also offers indisputable analytics and fine tuning opportunities. maybe you should take them?

10) How are you eventually going to get out?

Do you have an exit strategy or must you keep working until you die? Seriously. Have you got a business that doesn't need you to run it with blood, sweat and tears every day? One of my best friends has retired to Thailand and left an infrastructure of loyal and highly competent staff in place to he can run things from the comfort of a laptop next to his swimming pool. Video cameras, Whatsapp groups and monthly sales and motivational visits allow him to live a relatively stress free existence whilst still making millions.

As you get older what do you want from life? You may not want to be a slave to your job forever. You may want to do something spiritually important but financially useless. How will you maneuver your business to cope with this?

These are just 10 things that you need to consider before starting your business or feeling complacent in it.

That's why I am now doing less speaking and more teaching others to do so.

Make sense?

See you at the beach...

Maybe I can interest you in a speaking career over a cocktail?

https://davecraneglobal.com/speaker-training/

Dave Crane recently won the Al Arouwad/ MTV award as the best motivational speaker in the MENA region. His events include 17 years hosting Emirates Airline Dubai Rugby Sevens .

He is also an award-winning broadcaster, NLP hypnotherapist, author and speaker coach. In his career, he’s run radio stations, coached many of the world’s favourite brands and worked alongside some of the biggest names in entertainment and sports.

Connect with Dave directly and watch his online motivational TV show ‘Turbo Charge Your Brand TV’ for business tips and interviews with Jack Canfield, Brian Tracy and Dr John Grey.

Find out about Dave’s Comedy Stage Hypnosis Show too.