Making money is killing your business highlights

gistfile1.txt

==========
Making Money is Killing Your Business (Blakeman, Chuck;Seeling, Caleb)
- Added on Thursday, June 19, 2014 10:07:49 AM

We’re too busy making money to get to the important stuff. As a result everything is backwards. We build a business and take whatever lifestyle that business happens to throw off for us, which at best usually involves having money, but rarely a lot of time, and almost never significance.This isn’t surprising because “he who makes the rules wins,” and we too often let our business and the business world around us make the rules for us.
==========
- Added on Thursday, June 19, 2014 10:23:04 AM

If we gain clarity about where we are and where we want to go, and a measure of clarity about the first few steps to get there, that gives us hope. Not hope in the modern sense of wishing, but hope in the correct sense of the word—believing with conviction that I can do it.
==========
- Added on Thursday, June 19, 2014 10:48:29 AM

The Tyranny of the Urgent creates a business that is like a threeyearold that never matures.
==========
- Added on Thursday, June 19, 2014 10:48:53 AM

The Important things sit quietly and patiently in the corner and whisper, “I’m really Important. But you’re right; taking care of me today won’t make you more money right now. So I guess I’ll try to nudge you again next week as you go flying by.”
==========

- Added on Friday, June 27, 2014 5:12:38 PM

The Tyranny of the Urgent keeps us focused on making money. The Priority of the Important helps us build a business that makes money for us.
==========

- Added on Friday, June 27, 2014 5:25:53 PM

It’s critical to ask yourself, “How can I use this task to build a business while I’m on vacation?” Ask that every day of every activity in your business, and your business will change dramatically and begin to grow up.
==========

- Added on Sunday, June 29, 2014 8:36:33 AM

A mature business has at minimum two attributes: The business owner is not the producer—if he is, it’s by daily choice and not because he has to. Because of number one, the business makes money while the owner is on vacation.
==========

- Added on Thursday, July 3, 2014 5:28:15 PM

True Startup only comes when you finally commit money and time to getting started. Until then you’re barely in any stage of business, because you’re just dreaming.
==========

- Added on Thursday, July 3, 2014 5:37:33 PM

Most of us spend way too much time thinking, researching, and planning. We would be better off getting a very basic plan in place and acting on it, and perfecting it as we go.
==========

- Added on Thursday, July 3, 2014 5:37:43 PM

The number one indicator of success in early stage business is simply speed of execution.
==========

- Added on Thursday, July 3, 2014 5:38:52 PM

Get intentional about getting your business through startup as quickly as you can.
==========

- Added on Thursday, July 3, 2014 5:40:01 PM

Most of the great ideas come at this point because Survival is a very strong motivator—we’ll do whatever we need to and be as creative as possible to help us get out of this stage.
==========

- Added on Thursday, July 3, 2014 5:47:13 PM

At some point in every business I’ve started, I’ve had to say “I didn’t think it would be this tough.” I was burning fuel like mad.
==========

- Added on Thursday, July 3, 2014 5:52:23 PM

With outside funds gone, you need money, and to get money you need clients. Sales become everything.
==========

- Added on Friday, July 4, 2014 4:15:10 PM

business maturity really isn’t about the business at all; it’s about your lifestyle. The only way to really know that your business is mature is if you are living the way you want to as a result of owning it. The size of your business and how much money it makes doesn’t matter; the lifestyle you are experiencing is what counts.
==========

- Added on Friday, July 4, 2014 6:00:11 PM

Remember, you need to measure the success of your business against your lifestyle, not against itself. The test is what happens when you go on vacation, or more importantly, when you get back. Can you go away for weeks at a time without chaos ensuing?
==========

- Added on Friday, July 4, 2014 6:33:00 PM

Be willing to let a few Urgent pingpong balls get away to build a business that can hold thousands under the water without using any of your own fingers.
==========

- Added on Friday, July 4, 2014 6:37:06 PM

What are your lifetime goals that you can achieve through your business? Get a clear picture of what you want to do with your life and you’ll have a bigger reason to be in business than just making money.

==========

- | Added on Wednesday, May 24, 2017 11:46:55 PM

the American myth of the Rugged Individualist has found a home in business ownership more than anywhere else in our culture. When we get married, we have community; when we move into a house or apartment, we have community; when we get a hobby like golf, we have community; but when we buy a business . . . well, “Good luck with that, you’re on your own.” From the day we hang our shingle we’re supposed to have it all together with no issues. “How’s business?” is always followed by “Great!” Meanwhile, we’re dying inside wondering if we’re driving our business straight toward a cliff. If there is anything you get out of this book, please get some Outside Eyes on your business that can give you direction and encouragement. There is nothing that will help more.
==========

- | Added on Wednesday, May 24, 2017 11:58:40 PM

What is your brand? 1. Your brand is who your customers think you are, not who you think you are. 2. Your brand is what they are buying, which might be entirely different than what you are selling. Have you ever asked your customer, “What are you buying that I don’t even know I’m selling?” You might have had them at “hello” and are pushing the wrong things on them. 3. Your brand is your ethos, what makes you uniquely you, what the company really believes in and promotes with their actions, not their words.
==========

- | Added on Thursday, May 25, 2017 12:00:46 AM

Don’t ever sell anybody anything—ever. Just serve them where they are in what they need, even if their need has absolutely nothing to do with what you sell. If you were disciplined enough to stop selling your product or service and simply figure out how to serve the people you meet, your sales would increase exponentially.
==========

- | Added on Thursday, May 25, 2017 12:03:39 AM

I dare you to not even bring up your business. Just serve people where they are, not where you want them to be. You’ll make more money in less time.
==========

- | Added on Thursday, May 25, 2017 12:07:58 AM

Do you have processes in place that create a consistent experience for every customer every time? If not, stop working on making your product so great and start pouring your energies into creating that consistent customer experience. The guy who makes the best chair does not have the most loyal following. It’s the guy who “manufactures” the best, most consistent customer experience who has the most loyal followers.
==========

- | Added on Thursday, May 25, 2017 12:11:40 AM

Do you know what story your numbers are telling you? If not, you need to learn. You can’t ignore this fourth element. The best book I know on the subject, written so that business owners can actually understand it, is Financial Intelligence for Entrepreneurs (there are different versions) by Berman, Knight, and Case. Leading and Lagging Indicators—Your Most Important Numbers.
==========

- | Added on Thursday, May 25, 2017 9:25:12 PM

If you don’t have a plan for your own life, you’ll become part of somebody else’s plan for theirs.
==========