We talked last time and I've spoken to several other individuals and guests.
And one thing, very few talks about an exit strategy.
So when we spoke about it, you said that it would be a great idea for those that are going to start their business to have an extra exit strategy.
What key steps do you recommend for creating an effective exit strategy before they start their business?
So the first thing is two things. You want to have a time stamp like what date, you know, five years, ten years, twenty years, what are you thinking?
The second thing is how much is enough? That's a really big question to ask yourself before you start it.
I know when we start a business, we all have these ideas of grandeur, right? We're going to make a gazillion dollars.
But let's try to dial it in and go, how much do you really want?
Because when you decide how much is enough, you also decide how much work you're going to put in.
So it's a really important step to understand because you can be an Amazon or you can be someone only the people who matter know.
But you still make a great living and a great exit and everything else, you know, but you're not world famous.
But you have an incredibly good living you can make and a great exit and everything else.
So the date, which is five years, three years, whatever the plan may be for yourself.
And what you said that was super important is how much is enough.
So it takes me back to when you were saying you needed to scale down.
Are you so are you at that point when it comes to traveling?
You know, so is it in specific areas where you define how much is enough?
It has to be because when you want to create, you can create there's standard of living in this quality of life.
Right. Standard of living easily described is you you live to your means, meaning that if you make more, you spend more.
You buy the jet ski, you buy the boat, you buy the better car, you do it and you keep it in the bigger house.
Quality of living is time. How much time do you have?
Where can you spend your time?
What things can you invest in both monetarily and personally?
Because you have the margin to do so. You're not caught in your business.
So I think that's the decision you need to make.
So you define standard living as living in living to your means and then quality of living is basically the time.
And you've been doing this for remind me, is it 20 years?
Oh, man, I'm over 30 years in business. I'm almost 35.
Yes. I just look really young. Yeah, you do.
Definitely do. And and I know these are just going to be random questions, Richard.
So just roll with me. Are you tired yet?
No, I feel like I just getting started.
Honestly, I am just ramped up.
I'm so so keyed up just to make this vision of helping 10,000 business owners create freedom, profit and impact in their business.
I'm like, I just feel I feels new. I love it.
What's what what's that recharge? When did when does that occur?
And when do you find it recurring? Because if you're going 35 years, this is a recharge that has had to have happened over and over and over again.
Yeah, I think I find the new thing and I don't mean a new thing as in shiny object stuff.
I mean, the thing that's going to drive me and excite me, what's the next level in my business I can go to?
Or is there another business I need to exit from this and go to that because I'm finding a different skill set or more joy from doing one thing or another.
So if something really starts to drag me down, I really have to look at first what I'm doing in that business.
Should I not be doing that? Most likely that's yes. Is there another avenue I should be focused on systemize and delegate that off and get to something that's more energizing for me.
So where I'm at now is high energy, a lot of excitement, loving to build, love to coach people, love to help people, love to build a company that does that.
So for me, that's really the recharge is getting that new is redefining your vision.
I guess the easiest way to say it.
I love that. And you know the saying in corporate world or I guess in any world, but I don't really hear it in the world of entrepreneurship is burnout.
Is there such thing of burnout? Oh, yeah. Yeah, for sure.
Yeah. And I think what happens to burnout comes from kind of what we talked about last time too is when you're wearing all the hats and you're trapped in your business as that owner person, right?
Escape the owner person we want to do. When you have to do everything and you just feel like you're the only one who can do it, burnout is around the corner.
You're just not going to be able to maintain that. And I've seen it and it's pretty and it might take 15 years.
Yeah. That's the thing. And then you're just haggard. Business doesn't run well.
You've got I mean the list goes on and on with the problems, right?
But you stuck out because you don't want to fail. But at the same time, you actually are. Yeah.
Because you don't have any freedom from the business. It's a horrible place to be in.
So burnout is very real for entrepreneurs. And it's like I said, I remember being in the corporate world and I was getting burnt out from doing the same thing over and over and over again as to a point to where you can do it with your eyes closed.
But as I become newer in the entrepreneur world, I don't foresee that because we I believe that my vision is what drove me to it.
But I guess in my world, I didn't see that vision ever burning out in a way that I did as the corporate world because everything is changing.
So I thank you for answering that. That was that was definitely helpful.
And then how do you help business owners move from chasing money to achieving consistent profit and freedom?
We speak about freedom a lot. So it's a big deal. And I tell you, if you ask entrepreneurs why they got in business, freedom is usually number one because it's really a control of my time and I do what I want.
I can build what I want. There's no limits. Right. That's all freedom.
That's all freedom based. So how we move from chasing money is to understand your vision, to know the real impact you're trying to make with your business.
Who are you truly helping? You're helping everyone. OK, can't do that.
So who is it specifically your ideal client profile or ICP? Once we understand that, now we can now we can drive, we can serve that person at a high level.
Right. So it's really important that we understand who we're serving, how we serve them and why we serve them.
Makes a lot of sense.
And it's interesting because social media for myself, as we look at that.
I see freedom, but I do see money. You know, I see people wanting the money and it tends to feel like money is what is driving the people and erasing the vision. And sometimes I feel sad when I say that out loud because it can take over such as influencers.
Right. They tend to.
That's what they want. Right. They want the money and it's and it's a marketing tool. It's two things. It's a marketing tool.
Make money now. Make more money. Great market. Who doesn't want to do that? Right. I mean, let's be real.
But the second thing is the problem is they get focused on that. They get focused on let's make money. And that's when everything else gets skewed.
And again, we go back to quality of life. Yeah. OK. You can make money, you know, but if that's all you're driving for, it's a it's a hollow victory.
It's a very hollow victory when you get there, because in order to just make money, there's a lot of compromises are going to be made to your values, your ideals and things like that, because you're going to because your only goal is to make money.
That's your only scorecard. And I feel bad for people who are in that position because they'll get to the top of the mountain, Javonka, and they'll sit on their pile of money with no friends.
Yes. Yes. They'll have no no real life. They sacrifice everything for that chase of money.
You know, but if you can balance it, you can have both. You can be incredibly profitable if you take the step back, slow down, systemize your business, delegate, automate, delegate and eliminate.
Right. We talked about you do those three things. You can still make great money and then have a real life.
Yeah. You know, you don't spend it all at the office. See, and that's that's that's definitely a shift, a shift in everything.
You know, when when marketing is about money, making it and spending it how you want.
And I think that there's this belief that the more money you have, the easier things are.
But like you said, then there's something else that's off balance because of your focus.
That's why I believe it's so important with with your business, sharpen the sphere.
Coaching is because you can they can actually understand that. Right. That's nothing that they talk about in school.
A lot of the things that you're coaching about, that's not in a business major.
And I think that you have you know what? I just had a thought. Have you ever thought about going into a college and I mean, I did a podcast last week for University of Wisconsin business stuff.
The the challenges.
I'm not throwing it on the bus here, but real world business and collegiate education doesn't really jive.
It really doesn't because they can't program it. They can't program. Do this, this, this.
I was telling somebody the other day, you can go to these, you know, score and some place to help you start a business.
He's their public assistance, like SBA and stuff like that. They're really good government programs.
And they all 95 percent of people never even follow through. That's what they're telling me. I go, well, you know why?
I went to one of those in 1987 and it was horrible. Yeah. All it was like, give me this wicked homework of stuff.
I had no idea. You have to do all this. I'm like, I thought I have to make money. Yeah. Yeah. OK. And I had to make money. Right.
So they've got all this gnarly nasty stuff you've got to do that was just suck the life out of you.
You'll have no ambition to create a business. You go, this is the beginning of business. I want nothing to do with it. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Teach that way. What do you got? You got a product idea. OK, let's run through it. Let's work it out. Let's build it up.
All right. Go sell some. Yeah. Sell it to somebody. Tell your mother. I don't care. Go sell it to somebody.
Let's make some money. Let's that's real proof of concept. Right.
So we pay for something that's true of a concept, not an A plus on it on an essay about the business you're going to start.
You remember they like failed FedEx when they presented theirs in college. Exactly. Yes. Look at them now.
Yes. And and that you think about a lot of businesses. I did not believe that Amazon or FedEx or UPS or, you know, would be as big as they are.
But I tell you that shift when when we got into the pandemic, it was a different ballgame for all of those individuals.
And you you say you you said something that's really important.
And that's there are things out there that will help an individual start a business, but it's not textbook.
You know, that's that I remember being in college and they're like, OK, now it's real life. Well, they didn't say what real life really was.
Right. That's the nose, the ghost, the shows and all of those things.
And so when it comes to it, it's it's it's it's a challenge. Right.
So when you are coaching someone, what are the strategies that you use to help business owners maintain a competent team?
If it's just themselves and it is growing, how what what strategies do you use?
Well, we really go back to that strategic vision. That's one thing in my program that we do.
Yet that's your cornerstone and foundation. Right.
So if you don't have that, it's hard to really plan, build and know the real direction you're going.
So that's why you get kind of stuck on the hamster wheel because you don't know, you know, who when do you hire this person?
When do you hire this person? How do we move forward? When we take our next big market share?
When do we start gaining that? What does that look like?
So I think it's just really important to understand if you don't have a vision, how can you go anywhere?
It's just it's so important to have that. And yeah, it's a little bit.
It's not complicated, but it's difficult because you really have to walk through this process
and understand again the who, the why, the who, the how and the why of your customer.
How do I build that in a business for real? Right. Like how is this going to work?
So everyone can read it and follow it and get into it and buy into it and drive for purpose.
That's really how you do it. So I think without that, you know, the, you know, the people without vision perish. Right.
That's the whole thing. You have no vision. You have nothing. You don't stand for anything. You don't drive for anything.
You have no you have nothing. You just want to be fed. Yeah.
And circus time. Right. It's all that nonsense. So, yeah, that's that's what I think they need.
And it's it's one of the things that when I ask that question that really sat with me is the competent part.
You know, sometimes you you get to a point where you're watching people make it and make it further than you.
They're making more money. You're doing more things and you lack confidence. Right.
And then that confidence ends up showing up in your business. Right.
And now you look to to not seem like you're competent enough to be able to maintain a business.
There is I don't know if I was able to ask you, why do you believe most businesses fail?
Well, really, really simply, they don't sell enough product at a high enough price.
That's the real reason. OK. We said that. But let's let's do part two on this. I'll give you this other one.
I think what they don't understand is when they get it, it's hard work when they get into this.
But they really don't. I'll go back to not knowing where they're going.
I think they fail because they don't actually get help. Right.
So I did my first 20 years. It took a big collapse of what you're trying to take me out.
But it was going to happen eventually. Anyways, it just sped up the process because I didn't ask anyone for help.
People saw the holes in my business, tried to suggest things. I was unwilling to listen. Yeah.
So if you want to compress time, if you want to save 10 years of bad decisions,
costs and mistakes and failing business, right, help get the coach, get a mentor, do what you have to do.
There's no excuse not to get one these days. I can at least say didn't have the Internet back then.
OK. But now it's all at your fingertips. And if you want to not fail, get help. Yeah, I agree.
What are the greatest joys of what you do?
It is watching businesses escape the owner prison.
Guys have been in five, eight years, 10 years, 12 years, whatever.
And if they open the door, the business doesn't start, doesn't keep going.
They sacrifice their families, their children, all that stuff to this, everything to do in this business.
When I flip that and now they have that quality of life.
And a wife calls me and says, Rich, I never thought we'd be able to do this.
We spent a week on the beach with our five kids. He never he was never on the phone.
It was amazing. This is the guy I never thought in eight years of all that.
You know, that's the joy when you can do that for people because it's not money.
It's they make money. But that that quality of living, that margin of time to be with the real recently got business.
So they can do that with their family. But they sacrificed it. So that's it.
And it's a lot of sacrifice when when it comes to starting a business or maintaining a business.
Give me two things that people sacrifice the most.
They'll sacrifice time with family. Number one.
They'll also sacrifice being this weird being paid what they're worth or being paid at all.
Everybody else get paid their last to get paid.
They'll take this crumbs from the table and they'll sweep it in their hand and they'll take a little nibble because that's all they got.
They've messed up their priorities. You are the captain of this ship.
You drive this. This only works because of you. And you're not going to reward yourself.
Yeah. That's why you need the right plan so that you get compensated and your people get compensated.
If you build it right, you can do both. You don't have to sacrifice making money.
And that's that is that is so important.
I was just watching this this reel on one of the social media sites and it was talking about tending to fill other people's cups.
Right. And then so they gave the analogy of having a dinner party and you're pouring everything for everyone else.
And next thing you know, when it's time to pour in your own glass, there's about this much remaining.
And so that brings back that that point of you saying to sacrifice being paid at all if you're giving, giving, giving, giving, giving.
And you're paying everyone else and you end up last. You end up either with nothing or a little bit of something.
So I think that that that those are two great points to make.
And I think a lot of people need to understand that those are the things that actually keep you going is family and money.
Thank you for being here today. I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move forward.
It's going to get more and more fun. We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show. And thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out your vision and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.