How To Develop A Business Mindset

Today we are going to talk about how to develop a business mindset.

First I’m going to share with you why some people just aren’t cut out for business. Next I will get into the most important part of a business mindset. Lastly, I’m going to share with you how to grow a massive business. We have built an INC 5000 company from home and I’m going to show you what we did.

Why do I say that some people just aren’t cut out for business?

I would say there’s two main factors.

Number one, they don’t operate in the world of value and value exchange. So, they think that people should buy from them because they need money or they think people should buy from them because they did a favor for them in the past or that people are owed favors. They miss the idea of money is exchanged for value.

For example I have an ice barrel at my home. An ice barrel is as you can imagine, it’s a barrel and it’s good for ice baths. Every single morning I load it up with ice and I get into a 50 to 55 degree temperature water. I actually do an Instagram Q&A for 12 to 14 minutes in this water. Now one, why do I do that? Well there’s a lot of benefits to ice baths but that’s not the point of this video. You can google that if you want, but I paid a thousand bucks for this silly barrel. Did I buy it because I really felt bad for the owner? Did I buy it because that owner helped me move in college? No. I bought it because it represented a convenient way for me to do these ice baths which is what I actually wanted to do…I know may sound crazy. I use it every single day, was it worth it? Totally. Now some people may see that and think dude, you could get a bathtub out of a junkyard. Okay, but it wouldn’t be as convenient, it wouldn’t be as cool, wouldn’t be nicely located where I have it right by the side of my house.

People who don’t have that kind of mindset of, money is exchanged for value, not out of guilt, not out of shame, not of entitlement, not out of favor, not out of liking. It’s all about what will it do for them? Why should they want it? What’s the benefits of it? That would be the first thing.

Number two, what makes people not have a business mindset or maybe not ready for business and I believe this is a quote from Kevin Hart. He says, “if you’re ready to quit at the first sign of struggle, then you’re just not cut out to be an entrepreneur.”

If you think that you start a business and it’s just like easy breezy, sailing all the way to the top, no hiccups here then you are not prepared for business. You could learn to be prepared, but I look at my history. I left the corporate world 17 years ago (or so) and I went into real estate. I made it rain, I crushed it in real estate until the real estate market crashed and I lost it all. I was over a million dollars in debt. I could have very easily just scampered and tucked my tail between my legs and gone back to a job. Although no one was hiring back then because the real estate market crash. Instead I’m like, “okay, what’s next, what do I do now?”

I started our network marketing business. Then I started our training and coaching company and along the way, I’ve had all kinds of different obstacles. I once had one of our very trusted employees steal $60,000 from us. If you’re ready to quit or you get frustrated at the first sign of struggle or the first kind of obstacles then running a business is going to be very difficult for you.

What is the most important part of a business mindset?

There’s an author out there named Michael Gerber who wrote a book called, The E-myth. Number one, amazing book. If you’re wanting to start a business or you’re in business, I highly suggest that book. I had the absolute pleasure of spending about an hour with Mr. Gerber about a month ago. He’s 80, 85 years old, still sharp as a razor and just incredible.

In The E-Myth (it stands for the entrepreneur myth), he talks about how most businesses get started. Someone who’s technical or tactical is working for someone else and thinks I can do this better than that bozo. Why am I working for this guy? So they go off and they start their own business and because they’re an operator, because they know that technical, tactical, they start doing what? They start doing more of the technical tactical so they get some clients. They’re doing their thing and now they find themselves instead of working nine to five, they’re working nine to nine. All of a sudden someone has to do accounting, they don’t know how to do accounting, someone has to do marketing and advertising, they don’t know how to do marketing and advertising. Someone has to do human resources, they don’t know how to do that…

The most important part of a business mindset is understanding that when you run a business, there are multiple identities that either you have to have or that you have to employ. You have to have someone who’s a visionary. Where is the business going? You also have to have someone who’s more detail-oriented that’s going to clean up the mess’s of the visionary leader and track the metrics and analysis, the profit and loss, have the P&L statements. Someone who knows the details of the business that are needed because if those are ignored, then you will find yourself spending more money than you’re making…then it’s not a business.

Lastly, you have to look at your time. How are you spending your time and are you building a business in a manner where you’re freeing yourself or enslaving yourself? Most people if they’re being honest, they have built a business that actually enslaves them, it makes them have to work more and more until they just burn out. Then they say, “I don’t like businesses,” and they go back to work for somebody. Knowing these things are very powerful. The E-myth is a great resource if you have or are thinking of starting your own business. We have some great resources on our YouTube channel as well, Higdongroup.com/channel.

I would love to hear from you.

Drop me a comment and let me know (before we get to my last point) have you started a business? Are you still evaluating starting a business? Where are you in the business journey? Drop it in the comments. I would love to read about your story.

My last point is how to grow a massive business.

How did we grow an INC 5000 company from home? This is something that if I could encourage you one thing, it would be, always be growing. This last year for me has been the biggest year of personal growth that I have ever had. Between the dance lessons, my wife and I competing in ballroom dance, to starting meditation. I have now meditated every day for about the last year and that completely opened up different parts of me that I didn’t realize I even had. So always be growing, this is so so important for you. There’s a couple other things that you need to pay attention to as well.

Number one is look at who it is that you’re serving. Are you serving them in the very best manner and if not, how can you? What are things that your competition might not be willing to do? What are things that your competition does roughly the same thing that you do, what are they not willing to do, that you could do, that your customers would really love or future customers would really love?

Number two is are you tracking your business pipeline? Do you have a pipeline of your prospects, your current customers, your current clients? Are you keeping track of that? Are you watching the numbers, are you watching to see how many leads you are generating? how much your profits? where are the expenses? I found myself being a little hands off. I kind of woke up one day to really, really heavy expenses…that’s something you have to watch out for. Not everything you pay for is going to make you a profit and you have to be aware of it. You have to be willing to say okay, what expenses actually make sense and be willing to perhaps limit the number of new initiatives you take on at the same time.

Now I’ve historically had all kinds of times where I would do three new initiatives at a time and not the best way. It would have been much better to focus on one. What’s that one thing that will move the needle for you and your business that is going to help you with your time, that’s going to help you generate profits, that’s going to help you build a bigger business? That is just some of the tips that I’ve learned over the years, I hope that’s helpful.

Want additional help?

One thing that could help you is our latest book called Time, Money, Freedom. This was published by HayHouse and is The 10 simple rules to redefine what’s possible and radically reshape your life. In it we talk about creating a vision, we talk about business and how to grow business. We talk about a lot of the things that we discussed in this post, but we dive into deeper detail. If you would like to check it out, you certainly can. Here is the link HigdonGroup.com/time-money-freedom, we have it on audio, kindle, hardback and paperback. Time, Money, Freedom out by HayHouse, feel free to check it out.