Over the past 14 years, I have:
- Failed at one business - that really hurt.
- Spent far too long trying to understand what I wanted my business to look like and how I could make it work for me and my clients
- Served over 3,287 clients (and counting)
All of these things have taught me a tremendous amount about what matters in business, and what doesn’t.
These are my 3 cardinal rules for business:
1. Know Your Destination
If you don't know what you want your business to look like, how you want it to support you in your life, how much money you want to make, how many hours you want to work etc etc, then you will never get there.
Instead you'll end up creating a demanding Frankinbusiness that wants you to work all the hours you have, doing work you don't enjoy for very little reward as you continually take detours and chase shortcuts to a mythical nirvana.
2. Go Slow To Go Fast
!! This isn't about procrastinating or getting everything perfect - it never will be perfect, we are always going to evolve.
It is about doing that all important foundational work including deeply and intrinsically understanding the problem we solve, why it's important for our clients and the language they use.
It's the kind of work that enabled a 19-year old Todd Herman to create a carpet cleaning company that was later sold for 7-figures. That business was called "White Carpets Only" and specialised in removing the toughest stands and cleaning light carpets to new again.
Jonathan Boyd, founder of Breakthrough Guitar, exploded the business going from several hundred customers over 25,000 in 10 months because he spent 6 months speaking to customers so that he could deeply understand AND articulate
in a way that was meaningful the problem they were trying to solve and delivering on that promise.
Go slow to go fast.
3. Implementation Trumps Knowledge Every Time
Knowledge isn't as valuable many of us would like to think. Knowledge doesn't grow a business.
It's taking action, implementing our knowledge, changing our behaviours, getting out of our comfort zones just that tiny bit, day in and day out that gets results, grows a business.
Sometimes we will take the wrong action, sometimes it will be imperfect. That's ok because we can learn from it all.
Get out there, do the work, get feedback/data, learn and grow from it.
Always be producing 5x more than you consume.