STOP CHASING THE MONEY

5 Rules to Growing Your Business

As an entrepreneur and small business owner I can honestly say that I have made every mistake in the book. Am I proud of this? Not terribly proud, no, however I have learned some invaluable lessons that I’d like to share with you.  What’s even better is that others who have been very successful have authored some incredibly good books that deal with how to do it better and t hose I will share with you as well. These people I don’t know personally (yet) but view them as mentors through their writing, videos and webinars. 

Rule # 1: Get out of Your Own Way

By getting out of your own way, I mean stop letting your ego dictate.  If you are intellectualizing what successful people are telling you then you’re not listening and if you find yourself still struggling, over-worked and frustrated then it’s time to look at why.  Chances are you are well entrenched in the fear factor and saying to your self “I can’t possibly do that” meaning getting rid of bad clients, low return practices or resources or refusing to chase the money.  As one of my real life mentors: Jeff Lord of Logograph has said to me over and over; Tell the Truth or if you can’t face it then you can’t fix it.  I can’t tell you how many times I ignored him or worse, believed I new better. Well he’s been making real money for a long time so you would think I would pay attention. 

I think the one thing that really hit home for me was sitting with him in a Montreal Café over (several) glasses of Pinot Noir when he just came out and said it. What’s it?  Ellen you’re an idiot. You’ve thrown away millions by not doing what I told you to do.  He was right. That's right, I said it. He was right!

Having been a very successful Senior Executive at a Multinational, I held the belief that I already new how to do this and I also hung on to the “stuff” that comes with position. You know what I"m talking about; car, house, money, status.  Now maybe you aren’t coming from that place but trust me when I say running something on your own is nothing like working for someone else and what you used to enjoy as proof of your success can leave fairly quickly. You are watching the money as well as chasing it, working 24/7 and doing a lot of it yourself- well - you know.  You have to be OK with that kind of shift nd firmly understand that stuff comes and goes and it will come again only this time with a new attitude. 

Stay tuned for rule # 2: Play From the End Game. This is Ellen Smith at EnCourse signing off for now.