Archive for the 'quitting your job' Category

Jul222008

Tuesday Top 5: 5 Minutes a Day to Results

I was talking to a real estate investor the other day and something he was saying during the conversation kept jumping out at me. At first, I couldn’t figure out what it was. I leaned in, listening closer and closer. Still nothing.

Driving home later that day it hit me - this investor was telling me everything they were doing, but I couldn’t tie any of it back to an end result that made any sense (sense in this case equating to profitability). This individual was going to implement a certain system for ‘X’ or a process for ‘Y’ and so on. I could definitely tell that they had spent some time as an indentured servant in cubicle-ville.

I reflected on this for a while and realized that it wasn’t really all that uncommon that former employees turned entrepreneurs struggle with being 100% results focused. They never had to be at their jobs - they just had to be good at their part of the process, perhaps not even knowing what the end result or ‘big picture’ was.

To break yourself of this mindset, take 5 Minutes each day and do the following. This has helped me tremendously.

zen

Minute 1: Clear the mechanism

Push all the junk out. You mind becomes cluttered beyond imagination. I think if you took an X-ray of most people’s minds it would look like the belly of a Great White Shark.

Minute 2: Reflect

Take stock of what your strengths are, what makes you unique and give you an edge.

Minute 3: Visualize

Picture where you want to be, what you want to be doing. If you want to move past a certain physical obstacle, picture yourself beyond it already in your mind’s eye.

Minute 4: Focus

Focus on YOU and become cognizant of the fact that you have all the tools within you to realize your vision. All of your collective experiences, thought processes and knowledge are ready to be tapped at any time.

Minute 5: Get energized

When you have a clear focus and sound mental picture, your energy level will automatically increase.

You need not be a Zen master to get something out of this practice. Sometimes, just being still and in the present moment will benefit you greatly. You may even take more than 5 minutes with it.

This practice has helped me re-tool each day and strip everything down to a ‘bare bones’ level of importance. Knowing what is truly important and key to your objectives will do more to drive results for you than anything else.

Published
by
Adam Davis
on July 22, 2008
in Productivity and quitting your job
. 3 Comments
Jun32008

Tuesday Top 5: 5 Things You Should Know Before You Start a Business

I am often asked a lot of questions about what to expect from people who want to start their own company or quit their job to join the entrepreneurial world.

Usually, there is a recurring theme to my replies and I wanted to jot a few of them down for you today:

1. Your business model will change and evolve

The business you start might not be the business you finish. I think of businesses as a means to an end, not the end in and of themselves. I often get a lot of resistance when I say this. “What do you mean, I was born to do such and such?!” is usually the response I get or “what about my passion?” My answer is: these are all well and good, but the whole point of being in business is to make money. If don’t go into business with the #1 objective to turn healthy and sustainable profits then you might as well not make the jump.

In this vein, if your business is a vehicle, you may have to fix, tune-up or change vehicles altogether to get where you want to go. I don’t think this is a bad thing at all. A lot of successful companies started with one idea only to be built around another one.

2. You will have to work harder than you think

Hard work should go without saying, so I hate to waste the bits and bytes to write it. But, I find to often that people (usually) expect success to come far more quickly in their businesses than other areas of their life. I think a lot of people expect the “30 day Slim Fast” weight loss results to translate to their company.

Believe me, it’s a whole lot different to compete against a wide-open market than it is against yourself. You know what your own moves are going to be but you don’t know what your competitors are going to do next. There is an old saying that goes: “life is a marathon, not a sprint.” I would argue that business is like a 3,000 meter steeplechase race: it’s pretty fast and there are plenty of obstacles.

3. Starting a company is a much bigger deal to you than anybody else

When you quit your job to start a company, you really feel like it is a big deal. You want everyone to know what your are doing and how you are taking control of your life and your financial future. Guess what? Nobody really cares that much (outside of your spouse, perhaps). This is not cynicism. It is simply a reality that most people don’t think about you before they go to bed at night - they have their own problems to deal with. So, don’t expect a lot of high-5 and backslapping from your golfing buddies because you fired your boss. Give yourself a quick pat on the back and then a kick in the pants and get moving…

4. Your standard of living will change

Whether you like it or not, your standard of living will change when you start a company. Whether you are opening a pizza franchise or you are going to start flipping single family foreclosure houses full time, you will need to make some initial adjustments to your standard of living. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you will make less money. However, when you are first starting out, it is wise to feed your company and reinvest so you can continue making money. The worst thing you can do as an entrepreneur is to rob your company of the growth fuel it needs to put you over the top. Way to many entrepreneurs take too big of a salary or draws from their business before the business can prove the ability to sustain that.

Get it in your head that you will have to change your standard of living, at least temporarily. Reschedule those family vacations, sell your second home, get ride of your jet-ski and snowmobile. It will be worth it when you can have these things back 10 fold with a thriving business that pays for all of them and more.

5. Results are all that matter

When you work for a company, you can get good performance reviews and even pay raises and promotions for simply showing up and contributing to a project that never gets done. In the entrepreneurial world, results are the only thing that matter. Period.

The results you are after in business are profits. You don’t have to be out to create the next Microsoft or Berkshire Hathaway, but you do have to be focused on making money and running your business well. Having a relentless focus on the result will help you cut a lot of the crap out of your way that will impede your progress.

There you have it - another Tuesday rant. Read. Enjoy. Apply. Prosper.

Cheers!

Published
by
Adam Davis
on June 3, 2008
in Entrepreneurship and quitting your job
. 3 Comments
May62008

Tuesday Top 5: Practical Outsourcing Tips for Part-Time Entrepreneurs

After a brief hiatus, The Weekly “Tuesday Top 5″ is back (hey, give me a break, business is on fire here!)

Some of the qualities that I value most in business are: clarity and focus. This is the impetus for the Tuesday Top 5: it is my attempt to provide some nuggets for you to use right away. If you have noticed from my prior posts, I am a very action oriented person. Having something clear and concise to work with does wonders for my psyche.

Many entrepreneurs start their businesses part time. They work a full time job and run their business at night, from home and through email and cell phone calls during the workweek. What I want to do is to give some practical guidance that will help part-time entrepreneurs be more productive so they can drive revenues higher and fire the boss once and for all.

1. Delegate non-marketing/sales functions

As an entrepreneur and small business owner, marketing is the single most important activity that you will undertake. Therefore, you should start outsourcing any activities that prevent you from spending 75%-80% of your time on marketing and selling. Some of these activities include: accounting/bookkeeping, payroll/human resource management, order fulfillment, inventory management, logistics, etc.

You will find these areas to have more redundancies and you can make them system and process dependent much faster and easier as a small business than the marketing and sales functions.

2. Go for quality over quantity

I often talk about using ‘best cost’ providers instead of ‘lowest cost’ providers. What does this mean? It means that you need to chose service providers that give you the best ‘bang for your buck’ - in terms of price, turnaround time, quality and professionalism and communication. The level to which you ignore this principle will directly correlate to dollars drained out of your bank account. Trust me.

3. Use a consistent method of communication

Chose a communication medium that works well for you and your service provider. Examples are: email, private message board and instant messaging services. I strongly advice you to use the same communication method for all interactions with your service provider. This will come in handy if there are ever any issues or problems because you can refer back to prior conversations to sort out any problems in communication or instructions or feedback.

4. Use escrow payment methods with your service providers

Escrow payment methods can provide protection for you if you feel that your service provider has not performed to the agreed upon terms and metrics. Websites like elance and guru provide this service for free and also provide a good website community.

5. Don’t be afraid to fire your providers

You must demand that your service providers perform to your expectations. Make sure you outline your expectations and performance requirements at the beginning of the business relationship. If your system breaks down with an outsourcing vendor that you are using make sure you fire them right away. After all, you are paying them - not the other way around. There is a big world of potential providers

Remember: always focus on revenue generating activities. As an entrepreneur you have to relentlessly focus on your top line and managing your cash flow. Far too many start-up businesses put the brakes on marketing and sales only to see their pipeline dry up at the most inopportune times. Keep stoking the fire.

The Top 5 for today should give you some serious ammunition that will allow you to focus more on sales and marketing. Don’t forsake this aspect of your business. To me, outsourcing is the best weapon that entrepreneurs to focus on the truly important aspects of building a business.

Here is an example of what I am talking about in action in our real estate investing business:

Our revenue generating activities surround providing both experienced and new real estate investors the best deals that fit their financial parameters and investing goals. Our daily activities focus on obtaining new investor relationships and cultivating existing relationships.

As you might guess, there can be a lot of paperwork and administrative overhead involved with real estate. It is very easy (I know from experience) to get bogged down in the process of buying and selling houses (not our business) instead of focusing on the people (this is our business). Our business is about helping people achieve their wealth accumulation goals through real estate investing. Therefore, we outsource any function we can that does not help us reach more people and bring them closer to what they need with real estate.

Since technology has opened the floodgates of globalization, we can focus more and more on helping our clients. This has the added benefit of increasing our productivity and standard of living (we can work from anywhere if we choose).

My challenge to you is to implement today’s Top 5 with gusto. Give me your feedback and make sure you email me with questions or problems you have in the process.

Published
by
Adam Davis
on May 6, 2008
in Productivity, outsourcing, quitting your job and time management
. 3 Comments
Jan262008

Put Your Business on Autopilot and Enjoy Life

Coming from Michigan (a GREAT state, but just a little bit cold this time of year!), let me tell you how great it is to wake up to sunshine and palm trees.  I have been in Miami for the past few days, working a little and playing A LOT.  You see, one of the mantra’s that I live my life by is: “work hard, play hard.”  

Life is just too short to not enjoy the small things.Building a business that relies heavily on turn-key systems and outsourcing non-core functions has a huge upside: it allows you to be anywhere whenever you want!   

Here are some pics of me enjoying an escape from the Michigan cold and snow and having a good time in Miami.  

Adam - Living it up 

Who says you can’t have what you want in life?!   

Adam and Rebecca

My lovely wife, Rebecca and yours truly. 

Also, my latest podcast is available HERE.  You can listen to it live on the internet or save the file and drop it into your favorite mp3 player or burn it to CD.  

If you want to start building a business that works without you; a business that you can set on autopilot, then this podcast is a must listen for you.  Please send me your feedback.   

Published
by
Adam Davis
on January 26, 2008
in Inspiration, outsourcing and quitting your job
. 1 Comment
Nov182007

Get Rid of the ‘If” Factor

“We will either find a way, or make one!”
-Hannibal, 218 B.C.

All too often in conversations I have with people that are either interested in starting their own business or looking to expand their existing business, what I call the “dreaded ‘if’ factor” rears its ugly head.

The ‘if factor’ usually goes something like this:

“If I get that pay raise, I’ll be able to start buying some income producing real estate.”

“If we have a big holiday season, we’ll look at putting more money into marketing.”

“I don’t know if I can take the risk of starting a business now…maybe if I was 10 years younger I would think about doing something like that.”

It is at this point during the conversation that I wish I had a time machine. Besides the fact that it would be really fun to travel through time, I would really want to see what would happen when their ‘if’ conditional is fulfilled. Would this person really go forward with buying an investment property when they got a raise? Would the holiday season really be the deciding factor in whether or not this business owner spends more to grow their company?

Many people live their lives by a conditional function: if this, then that. The problem is that life throws a lot of unexpected events at you. You put yourself into reaction mode versus proactive mode when you rest your future actions on events or situations that are often beyond your reach of control or don’t even directly tie into your goals and dreams.

The most successful people that I have encountered have a strong sense of purpose and conviction and they rarely put conditionals on their goals and dreams. I have heard successful people say things such as:

“I will buy 10 investment houses next year, no matter what.”

“We are going to plow money into marketing, based on a strong plan, so that we can double our business next year.”

“I am going to start a company now, because there is a great opportunity.”

Whatever you do, don’t put conditionals on the level of success you want to achieve. Keep moving forward and, if there isn’t a way – MAKE ONE!

Published
by
Adam Davis
on November 18, 2007
in Motivation and quitting your job
. 0 Comments
Nov92007

Corporate Stink Think

When I was working for a large multi-national company, I used to daydream often about the businesses that I was going to start and the money I was going to make once I mustered up the courage to fire my boss. Having several friends that were entrepreneurs, I had gained valuable insights into the problems they were encountering and how I could solve these and other problems on a larger scale and make a viable business model out of it.

After I gave my boss the boot and launched out onto my own, I quickly came to the realization that the education and experience that I had gained in Corporate America had grossly ill prepared me for the rigors of business on my own. I had developed a ‘corporate think’ mindset (Those of you that work for big companies will know what I am talking about more so than others).

I couldn’t understand why my customers did not appreciate my ‘value proposition’. They didn’t care about the nice spreadsheets and power point presentations that I put together to show how becoming a ‘strategic partner’ with me was going to give them a ‘scalable business.’ Sitting in front of my computer and endlessly tweaking my website or spending 15 minutes trying to articulate the most eloquent email was not correlating to increased zeros in my bank account. How was I supposed to make decisions in only 2 minutes instead of calling a meeting and having a 10 person sounding board?

The small business owners that I was targeting only cared about one thing: MAKING MONEY. After several dozen sales calls, I felt like I had been chewed up and spit out. After being regurgitated by a few veteran entrepreneurs that I was pitching, I came to realization that, while my corporate and career IQ were reasonably high, my street smarts were far below passing grade.

The bottom line is that nothing; no books, no seminars, no courses, no websites nor college classes could have prepared me for the butt kicking that I took (and still routinely take) in the business trenches. Nothing can prepare you for being a business owner other than becoming a business owner. You learn to walk by falling down. You learn to ride a bike by falling off and getting back on again. At the end of the day, the only school with a degree that matters, when you are in business, is given by the school of ‘Hard Knocks.’ Corporate ‘stink think’ WILL SINK you when you are in business for yourself.

Published
by
Adam Davis
on November 9, 2007
in Management and quitting your job
. 0 Comments