North Star Coaching

10 Key Strategies for Any Business Owner to Earn More, Work Less, and Enjoy Life!

 
 Let me ask you a few simple questions:  

- Do you currently earn all the money you want in your business…enough to live in the homes you want, drive the cars you want, and invest for your family’s future?

 - Do you take regular time off…including time daily with your family
and vacations completely away from the office, cell phones, pagers, and email?

 - Are you truly happy with and enjoying your life?  Is your business
and personal life fulfilling to you financially, emotionally, and spiritually?

 If you’re like most business owners, you’ll find you couldn’t answer

all those questions with a resounding, “Yes.”  Most people start their business with the hope and dream of working for themselves.  They imagine how fulfilling life will be when they’re no longer under the boss, and get to run things their own way and enjoy the fruits of their own labor.  Their dream of business quickly becomes a nightmare as they find themselves unable to cope with the marketing, customer service, personnel, and product/service fulfillment.  

 The average business owner works long hours.  They have no time to  relax.  They find themselves constantly stressed out about money and other responsibilities.  They become burned out and lose all enthusiasm and joy for their work.  There is an old joke about being an entrepreneur.  It says, “Become an entrepreneur and you’ll only have to work half days.  The other 12 hours a day you can do with as you want.”

It doesn’t have to be this way.  You’ve been following old business models that restrict you to a certain way of doing things.  You’ve been struggling to get past barriers without the tools and information you need to be successful.  In fact, several of the principles I’ve found to help you be more profitable while working less hours are almost never discussed in any business book, marketing course, or seminar program.  

  In my business, I work Monday through Thursday, normally about 8 hours per day.  This means my average entrepreneur work week is 30 to 32 hours per week.  I also take regular vacations completely away from the business (including away from email, cell phones, etc.).  Right now I don’t even own an iPhone or any type of portable Internet access device.  You’ve got to be kidding!  When I do travel to speak from time to time, you’ll see business people speaking on the phone even while they’re in the restroom.  They need to get a life away from their business.   

I’ve built a business and a lifestyle that suits me.  I know other entrepreneurs who work significantly less than this!  They only work 3 hours a day five days a week.  Others prefer to work on marathon type sessions (where they may put in 70 hours for the week) and then take the next week off.  It’s all about having systems to get the work done as quickly as possible…and knowing how to use leverage to maximize your business results.

 When I talk about building a business online, I want you to think  about it from this viewpoint.  It’s not just about the money.  The money is great.  It’s about the lifestyle you create at the same time.  Your goal may be to earn $100,000…$1,000,000…or $10,000,000 a year in your business.  That is only one of your goals.   At the same time I want you to write what your lifestyle goals are.   

- How much time do you want to work per week?  
- What hours do you want to work?  
- Where do you want to vacation? 
- What will you do for fun?
- What will you spend your time at work doing? 
- What will your company look like?  
- What types of products and services will you offer?
- How many staff or outsourced workers will you have?  
 

  And most importantly, what is your step-by-step plan for reaching those goals?  See, I’m not someone who just tells you to put out your request and wait for it to occur.  Nope.  Figuring out exactly what you want is only the beginning.  Next you come up with a step-by-step daily plan to reach those goals.  If you just “imagine” it, it’s called dreaming.  The person who accomplishes it is the person who takes daily action.  
 
What Does Success Mean to You?
 If you have a billion dollars, but are out-of-shape, lonely, and  miserable, you are not successful in my book.  You’ve traded the “completeness” of your life for something worth so much less. 

Ask the billionaire who is dying of a disease if they’d give up their money for their health.  They would.  So why would you trade your health or your family for money which is worth so much less.  You can have it all, but only if you make a choice…and take the action to do so.  

You’re unique.  You’re special.  You’re gifted. 

You may have been told you couldn’t accomplish anything as a child.  A parent or a teacher might have told you how stupid you were or how you’d never amount to anything.  They simply didn’t recognize your value. 

Many people talk about how the youth today are messed up.  The only problem with today’s youth is no one has told them how much they’re worth!  No one has told them they have value. 

If you don’t believe in the value of something, you’ll misuse it.  You’ll neglect it.  You’ll mistreat it.  That’s the problem most of us have in our own lives and the lives of those around us.   I’m not just trying to hype you up here.  I want you to see the truth. 

You’re unique and have unique gifts and talents that make up who you are.  In all your business life and training, it’s likely no one has ever taught you how to let your uniqueness shine through.  They always try to put you in their limited box of how things should be done.  Trainers and teachers try to make clones of themselves, and you’re no ones exact duplicate!  

I’ve trained thousands of people to succeed through Internet based businesses in the past 10 years.  There was a disturbing trend I found with the people I worked with a few years ago.  There were two types of people. 

The first one bought every product they could get from everyone and would usually try putting a mish-mash of different ideas together to create a business.  It rarely worked…and all it created was information overload, long hours, and confusion.   

The second group of people bought a few products and then worked with a proven system while adding their own personality and ideas to the business.  Those were the ones who created the amazing success stories.   

That’s so important you need to read it again.  The most successful group of people I’ve trained were those who took what I taught and added modifications with their own personality and skills.  It has taken me years of working with and training business people to realize this principle.  Everyone wants to buy a “turn-key” system that always works for everyone, but that would only work if we all had the exact same talents and backgrounds!    

Think about any really successful business person you know.  I’m not just talking about financial success.  I’m talking about someone who has the money, the time, freedom, and the relationships.  They’re fulfilled in their life.  Are they someone who follows all the normal patterns for their business?  Do they market in the same way everyone else does?  Do they have the same message as everyone else?    

No.  The people who are successful are the ones who march to their own tune.  They do things in a different way than other people in their market.  When they go to a seminar or read a book, they don’t try to take dozens of new ideas out of it.  They have their own unique viewpoint and angle to it.  They take one or two steps…or a few principles and then apply them directly to their own situation. 

If you do what everybody else does, you’ll simply have what everyone else has.  If you’re a real estate agent and simply market like other people in your area, you’ll simply have what they have.  If you want more, then you have to do something different.  And if you want excellence, you have to do something that allows your gift to shine.  

 In many cases, you simply need to look outside of your current industry to find successful principles that can be reapplied in your marketplace.  For example, when I first started online I studied everything put out by Jay Abraham along with several other direct mail consultants.  I took what they taught as a basis…and then tested and modified the techniques for online marketing.  I don’t know if ever came up with a 100% original idea.  I didn’t have to.  All I had to do was find what was working in another area…and then test that approach in different niches online.  

More to follow

 

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