If you own a business this post is gonna hit you in all the feels. On paper and on social media, owning a business sounds like the cool, fun thing to do. In reality it’s a massive grind and can take years off of your life.
Sure, we business owners have the fortitude to be able to do whatever it takes, in order to see our plan and dreams come to fruition. It’s all the other moving factors that can get in the way of making it happen.
I’ve been a business owner since 2004. I started my first business at age 25 with 2 other partners. Those partners didn’t pull their weight and I had to shut it down. I started out on my own in 2005 and built an 8 figure business that I lost due to a divorce.
It wasn’t until I was on my 4th business that things started to take off and stabilize for me. I rode the roller coaster of business ownership for a decade before I got it dialed in. The ups were great, the downs hurt like a motherfugger.
I read somewhere that 20% of businesses fail in their first year and less than 50% last past 5 years. It’s safe to say the odds are stacked against us. Most people quit after their first business fails. I was determined to own a successful business. I felt like it was my calling in life.
I’ve helped 1000s of business owners grow, scale and stabilize their businesses in the last decade. It’s my passion to help other business owners win. I’ve spent countless hours on the phone, on site, and in masterminds with other business owners, helping them dial in their dreams.
I’ve compiled a list of 5 things damn near every business owner struggles with and gets massively frustrated over. I’ll not only give you the problem in this post, I’ll offer solutions as well. Business owners pay me a lot of money for the advice you’re about to read here for free. Don’t dismiss the simplicity and brevity of it.
Low on capital: More money is always needed. Whether you’re just starting up or you’re scaling to billions, it seems like we always need more money. Money to hire employees. Money to pay for advertising. Money for pretty much everything.
There’s really only 3 ways to get money when you own a business. The easiest and best way is to simply sell more of your product. After all, the more you sell, the more money comes in. Find you a stone cold closer and send him or her off to hit the pavement of the prospects.
Another way is by creating a relationship with a bank. You can get a loan against a CD, SBA loans, lines of credit and more. I personally don’t like debt, but for a lot of businesses, it’s impossible to operate without it. If you keep all your cash with a local bank, they will usually work with you and supply you with what you need as long as you have the ability to pay it back.
The other way is to raise money from investors. This means you’re giving up equity in your company in order to get cash from outsiders. There’s lots of regulations when it comes to doing things this way, so make sure you consult an attorney before you do anything with investors.
Employee turnover: This is probably the biggest issue any employer faces. We hire someone we like and then spend a ton of time getting them trained. They then go on to either let us down or quit. The average employee stays on the same job for only 12 months. 30% of the workforce changes jobs more often than that.
I’ve had employees quit to do their own thing and try to take my clients. I’ve had them work for me so they can get free training. The list goes on. Lately, I’ve assembled a team that’s been with me for years and I trust them 100% with everything.
In order for me to get this team together, I had to develop core values, standard operating procedures, and compensate them well enough that they won’t want to leave. I have weekly meetings, set goals with them and encourage them to be creative.
Before I hire anyone I have them take a personality test and get interviewed by 2 other executives in my company. If all 3 of us agree they are a fit, I have the long term talk with them. I’m looking for life long people to work with, not part time people to work for me.
Not scaling fast enough: Nothing is worse than having a great month in sales and production, following it by a slow month that you spend playing catch up. Scaling a business is the balance between growth and customer satisfaction. When you can grow your business and still make clients happy you are scaling.
The issue is that when you start to scale up and get more clients in the door, you must also scale operations to handle client demand. Often times we make a ton of sales and can’t deliver on the promise made to the prospect. Or when you sell too much and you must pivot to take care of the clients, while letting sales slump in the process.
The way to scale a business properly is to have goals. Once you have your sales goals and customer retention goals in place, you should know how many employees you need in order to hit your goals. Always have an operations staff that can keep up with the sales.
Advertising doesn’t seem to work: Most people think you should see an ad one time and they customer should buy. The truth is the prospect might need to see your ad 10-20 times before they click it or take you up on your offer.
Advertising isn’t a quick fix. It’s a long term play. You should always be advertising and getting in front of your prospects because you NEVER know when they will be ready to buy. Your job as an advertiser is to stay top of mind, so that when they think of X they think of your product.
The advertisement you run today, may not yield a customer until 6 months from now. Once you have been running ads for 6 months or so, you will start to see the pipeline fill up and prospects start feeling like they are familiar with your company and products.
All the damn taxes: Nothing like earning a million dollars and the IRS telling you they want $430,000 of it. All the sudden, that million dollars isn’t a million dollars any more. For the first couple of years in business, you can easily write everything off and pay little to no taxes. As you start to make money and profit the tax man holds his hand out like a homeless guy on a street corner with a gun.
There’s some ways you can minimize your tax exposure and lower your tax bracket from 43% down to 10-15% while being legal and safe. I believe we should all pay our fair share. I think of taxes like food for the golden goose. If the goose don’t eat, I don’t get the golden eggs.
Two great ways you can minimize your taxes are with life insurance policies called infinite banking and trusts. This allows you put money in a vehicle you can access and use to grow but only pay capital gains tax instead of regular income tax.
Another great way to lower your taxes is by setting up a self directed IRA or self directed 401k. When you are the director of the vehicle, you don’t just have to buy stocks. You can buy anything and defer the taxes until later in life.
Owning a business is tough. We gotta be a leader, a tax strategist, a builder, an employer and everything else. We wear a lot of hats but when we get those hats to fit, it’s one of the most rewarding things you can do in life outside of being a parent.
If you own a business and want help overcoming any of the above 5 issues and more, apply to join our Apex coaching program at https://apexentourage.com
