The 5 Mistakes Standing Between You and Your First Million
By Peter Voogd
Few entrepreneurs build million dollar businesses but many more would if they shifted how they do business.'
Creating a seven-figure business online was improbable ten or even
just five years ago, but as technology improves globally, there are more
seven-figure earners than ever before.
The total number of millionaire households reached 9.6 million in 2013, but has topped 10.2 million already in 2015.
With the technology, resources, mentorship, research, and information
available it’s becoming easier than it has in the past. Sadly, most
still won’t reach the seven figure annual mark.
Why?
Learning is not the problem for most people, and lack of information
surely isn’t the problem, as there is more than ever before.
It’s the lack of real awareness and consistent study of the right
information, mixed with inconsistent execution and implementation, that
holds back most back. You don’t just listen to something then remember
it.
You must put those ideas and strategies into consistent practice and
repeat those actions until they are habitual and automatic. You must
summarise the key ideas, sharpen your perspective, then take more
intelligent action.
There are a lot of reasons why most won’t reach seven figures, but here are the top five.
1. Most focus on perfection, not experiments
Seeking perfection has lost me more than R1 million the last couple
years. By the time a millionaire has tried and tested eight different
experiments without focusing on perfection, most people haven’t even
gone to market yet. Maybe only two of their experiments worked and were
deemed profitable. The point is they weren’t paralyzed by perfection,
but were driven by testing.
Test all your crazy ideas. No matter how crazy they sound, try them
out. Find out which ones work, then optimise how effective they are.
Test all variations of that idea. Find out which variation works best.
Ideas are nothing until executed and proven.
2. Few thoroughly think things through
“The more you sweat in peace the less you bleed in war”
One of the biggest missed opportunities for entrepreneurs is not
preparing for, or pre-determining what, they want. Truly productive
people know the result they are after and maintain acute clarity on it.
Armed with this awareness, they reverse engineer this big goal into a
series of small and actionable steps that they then put into a one or
two page plan of execution.
Strategically thinking through your future will prevent mistakes,
while increasing your ability to predict. When you’re intentional in all
you do, you mitigate against risk and can make more educated decisions.
Plan your long-term strategies before you plan your tactics. Strategy
shows where you plan on going, who you want to be and what types of
clients you want to attract. Tactics show how to get all of your
strategy accomplished.
You don’t have a real strategy if it doesn’t pass these two tests:
That what you’re planning to do really matters to your existing and
potential customers; and second, it differentiates you from your
competition.
3. Most never learn intelligent delegation
Getting others to do something as well or better than yourself is one
of the hardest aspects of leadership, but necessary if you’re going to
grow the business past the six-figure mark.
Before you strategically delegate and build a team you must
understand who you are, and what’s most important to you. Once you
determine your most important values, put them into writing and
operationalise them into company standards. Consistently systemise and
internalise those values.
Your team must be value based. If somebody can do something 80% as well as you, they should be doing it.
When you delegate a task, make sure the person you’ve hired has clear
and defined roles. Most entrepreneurs hire very fast, but fire very
slow. It should be the opposite. Hire slow, fire fast.
4. Most are making the wrong trades
Millionaires realise they will never become wealthy trading time for
money. It’s OK for awhile when you start, but at some point you have to
focus on scaling and leverage. You’re fighting an uphill battle if
you’re trying to make seven figures trading time for money. You won’t
get to seven figures only doing more of made you six figures.
Focus on the power of leverage and how to create consistent income
without trading time for money. There are many possibilities –
investment properties, membership sites, angel investing, building an
online empire, partnerships, affiliate marketing, different types of
programmes, etc.
Take some time to really analyse if you’re maximising your time. If
you are trading time for money, make 100 percent sure it’s an
intelligent trade. If you want to make more money, become more valuable.
It’s as simple as that.
Entrepreneurs who understand the power of leveraging and scaling
their businesses become millionaires by bringing more value to the
marketplace than their competitors.
5. Most are ego focused instead of customer centric
“How do we decide what’s really important to work on? I like to call it the ‘toothbrush test’: do our customers use it as often as you use your toothbrush? I guess that’s twice a day. We use Gmail and YouTube much more than twice a day. Those things are amazing.”
— Larry Page, CEO Google
People care about what your business can do for them. Most
entrepreneurs try to sell their experience and expertise. They believe
that people want to pay them for what they know, but people don’t. They
want to buy a solution or outcome to their problems and desires. They
want results. They want to solve their problem and reduce whatever
suffering they are going through. They don’t care about you.
Do you really understand at a deep level what your customers want?
Those at the seven-figure mark have a monomaniacal focus on this. You
must realise that the likelihood of the marketplace responding because
you want something is non-existant.
It’s about them, not you. Your customers are marketing geniuses, so
make sure you do your due diligence. Find ways to survey them, or talk
to them about their needs, wants, desires, passions, concerns etc.
Customers want a fun and personal journey through all points of
engagement. Do you deliver?
I’ve had several opportunities to get inside the minds of the richest
people on the planet. There are timeless lessons we can learn from. A
simple statement, quote or perspective shift can change the game for
you. Become aware of what’s holding you back from elevating your
business to the next level. Adjust your thinking, actions and strategy
in accordance to your new vision.
Lastly, execute flawlessly on tactics above and make sure you’re in
it for the long haul. I’m confident that by doing these things you’ll
soon see your prospects for a seven-figure business become clearer than
they ever have.
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