Recently I was spending the day with Larry Winget and his wife Rose Mary. Larry asked me what I thought was wrong with entrepreneurs. I told him what I thought and he said, “So what you are saying is that entrepreneurs are AFRAID, CHEAP and LAZY.” After the initial shock I thought yep – that’s what I am saying.
So let me explain why these are the 3 things that stand between you and what you want.
1. You’re Afraid! I’m not talking about your fear of spiders or the dark. I am talking about your fear of making a decision. Your fears that are keeping you from doing what you must do to build your business and make money. So what is the biggest fear that is holding you back in your business? Maybe it is the fear of taking a stand. Choosing one thing that you want to be known for and then putting yourself out there. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is not to chose a path. We all have lots of things we can do, we have many talents but when we are a doer of many things, we’re a master of none. Maybe it seems too risky to commit to one thing and let the others go – after all you may lose out on a sale.
Maybe your fear is picking up the phone and doing the follow up. Let me tell you that I have seen many brilliant business owners go out of business because they wouldn’t do the follow up. It all comes down to one thing – YOU MUST LEARN TO TAKE RISKS! What do you have to do to get past this? You have to feel the fear and do it anyway. Trust me as a shy introvert there have been so many times when I had to feel the fear and do it anyway.
2. You’re Cheap! Fix this and you can double your income in seconds. When I say you’re cheap I mean that you aren’t valuing yourself and your products and services like you should. I would lay odds right now that you are not charging enough for what you do. You’ve probably heard that little voice saying “Who in their right mind would pay me that much?” “My clients won’t pay that much.” “My competition doesn’t charge that much” or “I’m not as well known as she is so I can’t charge that much.”
Businesses usually compete on one of three things – price, value or convenience. When you are having these thoughts you are competing on price. You don’t want that – you don’t want to be the Kmart or Walmart of your industry. You want to compete on value or convenience. Let me ask you a question – do you think a $3 ink pen that wrote in purple ink could ever be worth $100? Well what if we were in a room and I said to you “If you sign this piece of paper in the next minute I will give you $1 Million. Oh and it has to be in purple ink.” Would you give me $100 for that $3 ink pen? You have to learn how to articulate your value.
3. You’re Lazy! This is a hard one to swallow. You’re probably sitting there saying “How dare you! I work from the moment I get up in the morning to the minute I go to sleep at night.” The problem is that doing doesn’t equal profit. What I see most entrepreneurs doing is the stuff that they love to do but they aren’t doing the hard stuff. You should be focused on Income Producing Activities. Things like networking, speaking, making sales calls, etc.
OK so now it’s time for you to start making the changes. You can stop being afraid, cheap and lazy. Making these small shifts will make you more money. For more advice on being a highly paid entrepreneur, check out my new short but helpful videos here.
