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Entrepreneur

Invest Time to Empower The Team

This is the most difficult and most involved, but has the greatest long-term results. In reality all preliminary steps just prepare you for this ultimate vision: becoming redundant. There is an emotional component to it. To a large extend we are defined by the things we do, especially at work. Becoming redundant is challenging that. And this is where the mastery of the first step (spending time) becomes essential; life needs to be filled with meaningful and joyous activities. Otherwise there is no point in working towards redundancy. Millions of people wait their whole life for retirement, only to find…

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Entrepreneur

Free Time By Focusing on the Most Valuable Activities

We can spend time or invest time. The difference is in the timing of the outcomes. Spending time has two immediate outcomes: we receive money or we experience joy. Investing time has three possible outcomes: we receive money, we gain energy or we free time in the future. So the most valuable activities are the ones that bring the biggest return in a balanced fashion. Here are some examples: Spending time to receive money: a physiotherapist who treats a patient Spending time to experience joy: the activity you selected in step one Investing time to receive money: building a…

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Entrepreneur

Stop Wasting Time

Here is a list of my time wasting activities. Thanks to Raymond Aaron, Tim Ferris and Mark Joyner for teaching about them. Look for things that are easy to implement and have the greatest impact on your life. Do not think you need to do everything at once. That probably leads to overwhelm and you will not achieve anything. Pick one from this list of possibilities and implement it. Most of these suggestions take less than 5 minutes to implement and do not cost a thing. But they will result in huge time increases, far more than the time…

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Entrepreneur

Spend Time On Things I Enjoy

I want to spend time on something I really enjoy. Something that I have not done for a long time. Maybe never done. Get a massage. Go for an extended walk. Take my daughter to the zoo. Go to lunch with my wife or even better – make love in the middle of the day. I’d love to it during a time that I would normally spend at work. But then I think, I work 10-12 hours a day and I am still busy. How can I ever deal with all the stuff on my desk. Leaving all that…

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Entrepreneur

Making the Most of My Time

Time is our most valuable resource. We all have a set quantity – nothing can change that. But we do have absolute control over the quality of each hour. In theory at least. My  practice needs to improve. How can I eliminate activities that waste time? How do I free time by selecting to do the right activities? How do I invest time in my team for the ultimate return: more time for myself? Time Management Time Management deals with the efficient use of time. It helps to get things done and to reduce stress. It is focused on…

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People

Great Salespeople

Investing was definitely the right way to go. After my first part time sales person came on, I was approached by someone else. He came through a referral from SCEC and really wanted to get into a sustainable business. I would have loved to employ straight away, but was conscious to keep minimising my risk and not overspending. So I offered him a commission-only role with the full commitment of making it work. He came at the end of November and I warned that the period before Christmas might be slower. But he graciously accepted an put full focus…

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Entrepreneur

Invest or Consolidate?

I love working in teams. The excitement of sharing the wins, the challenge of finding ways that take everyone’s interest into account, the joy of interaction. That is why I have started a few businesses with employees, way before they (the businesses) or I were ready for it. Financially it was suicide. Learning from that, I decided to build a business with what I could handle. The plan was to grow it to such a state that I would be able to pay someone else from the cash-flow generated. I had heard this rule: If the business can afford…

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Sustainability

The only reason to be in business is to make money!

When I hear people say that, it reminds me of bees. Their only reason of existence is to collect honey (ok, pollen). Of course I can’t hold still and have to talk about my truth: that there is more to business than making money. That it is a vehicle to increase the wellbeing of everyone connected to the business (the employees, the clients, the suppliers, our planet). The argument comes back: “Maybe. But without money none of these other things can be done. So it all comes back to money. Therefore the only reason to be in business is…

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Finance

Urgent personal financial thoughts

Seth Godin wrote “Only borrow money to pay for things that increase in value. It’s a short list: your business, your house and your education, mostly. Stocks if you’re smarter than me. That’s pretty much it.” He goes on to say that the problem comes from credit card debt for consumer goods. And even if you then spend cash on more things, as long as you have a credit card debt, you are in fact buying things with money you have to pay large amounts of interest for. Have a look at his post for the strategies to overcome…

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Systems

Welcoming Problems

Or “Whatever can go wrong will go wrong”. Our first order for a solar hot water system came through today at SolarPay.com.au. Yipee. However, it fell within the 5% of cases that cannot be quoted through our website. Worse, we had not covered that instance. So our very first client got a quote that is not quite correct. So why am I welcoming that? Because it makes our application all the better. We can take it as feedback, learn from it and improve what we are delivering.

Passionate Management