Time

Most new and growing businesses seriously under estimate how long it’s going to take them to be successful.

It’s certainly possible to create remarkable shifts in your business performance faster than most people think possible – and the information I am sharing with you here is designed to give you access to precisely those tools.

But it’s also true that masterpieces take time.

Most of us are seduced by the freedom and independence owning our own business promises us, but it’s hard work. You hear stories of “overnight success” but behind those overnight transformations there were a hell of a lot of long days and other, sleepless, nights. And don’t be deceived by the snake-oil salesmen on the Internet promising you the Keys to Success, the Universe, Life, and Everything for just $27. It’s never that simple or that easy.

And it’s always work.

It’s a real shame when you see Entrepreneurs with really good, solid business ideas suffer because they haven’t given themselves enough time. You need to have access to enough cash to keep you going, probably for twice as long as you planned.

How you do that is up to you. For me, when I started my business, it meant travelling 150 miles at weekends to do two days a week freelance work. You have to do what it takes and you have to give yourself enough time.

Cash flow nightmares, marketing hiccups, bad employees, interference from regulators and government, silly new laws, new technology, competitors, recessions, bad customers and clients, problems with vendors… we know them all.

The fact is, things always take twice as long as you thought and cost twice as much – that’s a good rule of thumb.

You can ameliorate this to a large extent by embracing the Pareto Principle – that is, by embracing the fact that 80% of the results you’re going to get will come from just 20% of the things you do. And one of the most profitable and effective things you can ever do in your business is devote some time and energy to identifying these 80/20 relationships.

They are there, I promise. You’ve just got to find them. And then when you’ve found them, you’ve got to act on them – which can itself be uncomfortable and require a lot of nerve and backbone (for example, “firing” your worst 20% of customers who give you 80% of your headaches takes some courage, even though the logic and sense of doing it is inescapable).

Finally, I know sometimes you might be tempted to leave it all behind and gain the “security” of a “real job”.

But that’s deceptive: all businesses face these challenges. The only real security you have is the security you make for yourself in learning the fundamental business and marketing skills I’m sharing with you here.