If you’re like most entrepreneurs, you started your business to turn a passion into a way to get paid … or because you saw a need in the marketplace you thought you could fill. You probably also wanted to make some great money and build more time freedom into your life.
But I bet that’s not what has happened.
Because if you’re like most entrepreneurs, your business is really just a job that you created for yourself. You’re working harder and longer than you did when you were employed by someone else.
And the money? It’s not anywhere near what you’d be making in a “real” job, is it? It turns out that about 95 percent of business owners are either earning far less than they’re worth – or they’re not paying themselves at all.
The reason is how many of us start our companies. We have an idea – and we go for it, whether or not we have the actual training and education to run a business.
Passion, bravery and innovation are great. But if you want your business to stand a chance of becoming a vehicle to build your wealth, it’s essential to develop financial literacy – including finding ways to increase your revenue enough that it can pay you what you deserve to be paid as the CEO.
Three areas where business owners most often misstep when it comes to their financials include:
- Underpricing their products and services. This is most likely the problem if you have cash coming in, yet end up with a loss at the end of the year. Cash flow can hide the slow money leaks that will eventually sink your business.
- Overestimating how hard it is to grow revenue. Bringing in more money, like everything else in business, is largely a mental game. You have to believe it’s possible to make it happen. If you believe that creating massive leaps in revenue will be hard or even impossible, you’ll sabotage your efforts to grow your wealth – and blind yourself to the opportunities in your business.
- Sticking to preconceived notions of what “revenue” must look like. Most businesses offer a core set of products and services. When growth slows, the business owners tend to think they’ve simply hit the ceiling in their market. Opening yourself to creating new revenue streams not only brings more money into your business (and puts more money in your bank account), it also allows you to better serve your clients by providing the additional products and services they want, need – and will pay for.
The truth is that growing revenue by 2x to 4x is not only more fun than growing it by small increments, it’s also often easier.
To learn more – and to identify at least 5 ways you can double your revenue within the next 12 months, join me for my newest online training, “Ramp Up Revenue: 3 Easy Steps to Uncover and Unlock the Profit Opportunities in Your Business.” Get full details and reserve your place here.
