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It is quite easy to look upon competition as something that is there to take away customers or revenue from you. But they are in fact your greatest asset.

1. Step Up Or Out Of The Way

If you are offering a great service or product but then someone comes along with a better product or service are you really giving your customers the best value for money out there? Wouldn’t it be better to just let the competitor do it? If you can’t continuously learn, expand and grow then you need to step out-of-the-way. Consumers demand more and more each day and you need to deliver and keep delivering or else you are a hinderance to society.

2. Focus

Competition can really make you look at where your focus should be in a business. If you try to cover everything or too much, yet a competitor comes in with a product or service nowhere near in scope as yours, yet takes a part of the market share, maybe you should be focusing on different parts of your business and you are offering things that people weren’t really after.

If you only have 1 focus of your business then you need to niche further. What are your customers really looking for? Consistency, certain types of results, reliability, customer service. What matters to them the most and focus upon that.

3. Inspiration

There is nothing like a competitor to show you how things can be done better. Of course I will still feel intimidated or worried if a competitor comes in and directly affects my business but once you get past the initial knee-jerk reaction take some time to see what they are doing better than you. Then think of something better and go for it. Be inspired to be greater than you already are.

4. True Passion

When a competitor brings a greater product or service to the market place, what happens? Do you go, damn it, now what can I do? Or do you go, that is a great idea how can I improve upon that? Only those truly passionate about what they do will continue on despite even devastating blows to their business, and passion is what you need to make your business great.

It’s not about the idea or execution of the idea, it is about the change you want to bring to the world and the many ways you can do it. Pivoting on your business is almost a guarantee these days.

5. Motivation

If you don’t keep up, you will be left behind and possibly out of business. There is nothing quite like a competitor to motivate you to do greater. It isn’t about who gets the most market share, or who gets the most revenue, it is about who gives the most value and creates the biggest change in the world (to your market or target group).

As you can see if both competitors have that mind-set, what is the down side? They are both bringing better and greater value into the world while expanding their businesses.

Competition isn’t win-lose, it’s win-win-win. (Business A, Business B and Consumer)

Without competition, where would be now?

Startups are an interesting concept and something completely different from a small business. When you think of a startup, you think of a bunch of tech people hunched together in a garage or a basement working on the next big thing. A small business you think of a business that started and is trying to make sales and grow.

Here is thing, both are exactly the same, except how the owner thinks about their business. A small business owner is focussed on doing it tough for a number of years and hoping they can make it as a business. However a startup thinks big, they dream of their application/product or service being used by millions around the world and funded by VC’s and that is how they direct their business. Small business owners think about doing things slowly and building their business over time.

So what happens? Startups can go bust quickly or go massive quickly. Either way they show results, good or bad rather quickly. A small business can go big or fail, it just does it slowly. So owners of startups just get through their failures quicker and on to successful businesses quicker, if they keep at it. Do you think the owners of Groupon and Twitter just came up with an idea and got lucky? They certainly didn’t, they had many failures or startups that never really made it big. They just got through them and kept going until they hit it big.

So how did I come across this discovery. It was simply by calling my latest venture a startup. Just by referring to it as a startup, I have heaps of passion for it, I think and aim very big and carry that across with to anything with the business. I have a very scalable business model and I have a plans for rapid growth.

Looking back over the many years of business I have actually had many startups, I just never referred to them as that and hence never gave them the energy needed to succeed quickly.

Startups are not just people getting lucky, they are experienced business people putting everything they have into their business and thinking as large as they can. Mindset creates your business, how do you refer to your business?

If you want to create energy in any part of your life, you need to focus your thoughts and efforts in that direction. “Energy flows where the focus goes”.

In business, if you focus on a certain area of marketing, you will generate results in that area. Setting goals, planning the steps and taking action will pay you dearly. You might concentrate on Facebook by following other successful FB users, learning from them and modelling them to achieve fruition. You might focus on getting exposure in the media or developing relationships to form joint venture partnerships. Wherever your focus lies will have a considerable impact on where the energy is flowing in your business and life.

Here are some important considerations to make when directing your focus.

1. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Exhausting all of your energies in one area is un-resourceful and risky. Focussing purely on search engine optimisation for example will leave other avenues for exposure untapped, plus relying on Google who can change the rules overnight….could leave you out in the rain. If you spent 12 months working out your abdominal muscles; you would have a great six-pack but what about your thighs and butt?

2. Give it a chance. Have you heard of the “J curve” or the “exponential growth curve”? It basically proves that you might need to work at something and achieve little results for sometime before you reach the upwards curve and it all happens from then on. Or in other words, don’t decide to focus on Twitter for example, devote energy and time to it over a two week period and then give up because you can’t see the money.

3. Focus does not mean time. Focus is your full attention. Avoiding distractions and giving your “all” for 1 hour will reap more than spending a day on the same thing without being tuned in. Totally engaging in conversation and showing interest with your spouse for half an hour is a lot more beneficial to a relationship than sitting next to each other on the sofa for 3 hours and not speaking a word (some may disagree).

4. It works in all areas of life. There are several areas in your life that you need to attend to; your relationships and family, business/career, health and fitness, personal development, spiritual. They all need your focus, neglecting one of them will impact on the rest. Sharing the same amount of time within each of these areas is not necessary but they all need your attention.

5. Achieving balance is a continuous challenge. Be aware of what’s going on in all areas of your life, where are you achieving the results, what needs more focus? It can be easy to let things slip so continue to be conscious and review your results weekly.

Image credit: Flickr : Nina Matthews Photography

Notice I said owners that fail. Businesses never fail, only their owners. By other accounts you could have said I have failed at business about 18 times until I was successful. All I did was find thousands of ways not to run a business. “Those who have cultivated the habit of persistence seem to enjoy insurance against failure” – Napoleon Hill

1. Money Makes Money, Time Makes Time

Imagine you are 5/6 and are about to enter school and instead you go screw that (as you would when you are 5), I’m going to be a CEO of a company. You job search, find a position then apply. When they ask and what skills do you possess, you would say none but I will learn on the job.

So you invest time and money (mainly your parents) into education all the way up to university level and then go and apply for a job at the bottom of the ranks and work your way up over decades. So that is how it works in the business world, obviously there are shortcuts but that is the gist of it.

Now when people enter into the world of business they go, I am going to create a multi-million dollar company. But what happened to all of the investment in education? Are you just going to learn on the job like the CEO position you wanted when you were 5? Well most people think they can.

How many times have you even said, I will invest in that program to make money when I have the money. Hmmmm. So when you make the money you will invest in the program to make you the money. That sounds backwards to me. The same goes for time. When I have time to invest in that program, I will be able to systemize and get my time back.

Money invested creates money. Time invested gives time back. You need to give before you receive.

We have invested over $150,000 into business learning over the last 5 years (yes it was a loan). If you count our potential income we lost of $300,000 you can see we invested years of time and $400,000 to succeed. What are you prepared to invest?

2. Taught By Employees

This really annoys me about the government and educational institutions. An employee will gather information that they think is relevant to starting a business and teach that to other new business owners.

Quite simply put, if that person knew how to run a successful business why would they be working on a $80k salary or less when they could be developing a multi-million dollar company. I know how to create a successful business and you wouldn’t catch me being employed teaching someone else on how they can succeed in business.

The best business education comes from experience and successful business mentors. (please note the word successful)

Formal education mainly teaches us how to be good employees. I finished high school and went to university and received a degree with a double major. Looking back it was the biggest hindrance to my success. 

3. Faith In Thyself To Take The Risks And The Big Why

For someone who 5 years ago would have called faith an illogical emotion that is pointless it is amazing to see how that has changed. Faith is such an important ingredient to success.

The first time we started a business I continued working while my wife worked. Then after investing in heaps of coaching, books, videos and audios we were going well. Then my wife fell pregnant and we closed down the business.

Over the next few years we had little ventures in that time but nothing substantial. I then quit my job and tried for business once again. Though I always had in the back of my mind I have 6 months until my savings run out and I need to go back to work. Well if that is what I was thinking it certainly came true, 6 months later I was back at work.

Soon after my wife fell pregnant with our 2nd child. At that point I was already so devastated that I would have to come home every day and ask my wife, what did I miss in my son’s life today? So when my 2nd was born I quit my job to start at business again.

Well the next year was difficult. At a great resistance we finally applied for government assistance. Something I never wanted to do but we were determined, my children were the biggest why in order to keep going.

Months later we were 6 months behind on our mortgage with the banks about to start debt collection, gas and electricity about to be cut off and barely enough money to buy food each week. Actually I did start going without on a few occasions. All that time I could have gone to get a job at $150k per year but I didn’t want a job.

At the absolute bottom we had a choice, go back to work or push ahead regardless that our business showed no promise of creating enough to sustain us and everything we had about to be repossessed. We would have had to move in with a family member with our heads in shame.

So what did we do? Well we decided to continue with business. Business was the only option forward in my mind and I was willing to bet everything I owned on it. And as soon as I hit that point, the point where most people would crumble and only few continue, and I decided to continue, pushing forward with no hope in sight only with the mindset that I have faith in myself and we WILL succeed at business, things started to change.

We started meeting the right people there to help us, ideas on how to make money that we always had but never actioned, we actioned and succeeded.

When your mind passes that point, the universe opens up, you have passed the test of persistence.

4. Know It All

You don’t know how to run a successful business until you have one. You may know how to do some parts really well but you obviously haven’t mastered all areas otherwise you would be successful.

Thinking you know it all or business really well isn’t as widespread as other things but it certainly prevents a few from succeeding. Those that think they don’t need a particular course or seminar or coach without really looking into it are generally the ones that are the worst at business.

5. Excuses

The amount of excuses I hear every day regarding why something isn’t going their way they hoped or why they aren’t more successful in life is astounding. Excuses don’t mean anything, the only person who dictates your success is you. I don’t care that you had a car accident, got divorced had a dysfunctional family. For every excuse you give me I could show you someone who has succeeded immensely. Just look at the stories regarding, Jack Canfield or Tony Robbins.

Just to illustrate my point here is true story of a young boy whose parents divorced when he was 6. His mum flew back to England and he and his sister stayed with their dad. A suicide of someone very close later his dad burst an artery in his brain and almost died. He had to learn to walk and talk all over again. So his mum came back took care of them. Then they moved from house to house with his mum having a few abusive boyfriends along the way. Then he moved back in with his dad years later until he finally left home at age 18.

Now most would call that a crappy childhood but it never slowed him down. Now a successful business owner this person never let the past be an excuse for his future (his dad taught him that).

The only reason I would ever accept as an excuse for not achieving is death.

“Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better” – Jim Rohn

6. Fail To Give

Giving is an essential part of life. However many people are taught that you need to save your money, you need security, you can give when you have lots of money. Business is all about giving. You must give value greater than the monetary value you receive in return. If you aren’t making someones life better by being in business then you won’t have a business for very long.

However this is a hard habit to break, trying to keep as much money as possible and not giving. But the secret is the more you give the more you receive. When I was working on my last business and earning well below the poverty line, I gave away 10% of what I earned to the Starlight Childrens Foundation.

And all I can say is that when you start giving you start receiving even in monetary terms from other sources. It’s all about changing your mindset into giving. And when you start giving in one area it is likely to spread into others and it always happens, you will receive back. You may or may not believe me on this one, but I am speaking purely from experience.

7. Listening To Close Friends And Familys

The deadliest poison for any business owner are close friends and family. Some people will support your success and be along for the ride. Others, sick of their own lives and how they can’t succeed will love nothing more than to bring you down.

As you grow as a person you will see who these people are. You will grow apart from them, either gradually or very rough. Family tends to be rough and friends can go either way. But you must realize that you are growing as a person and when that happens it is very hard to associate with people you once did. You no longer have the same commonalities you once did.

Instead of letting all of that negative energy get to you, be willing to cut ties with people if it is turning into a bad relationship, they will only hold you back. There are many people I no longer stay in contact with, some went on bad terms some we just let them drift away.

It is also possible to redefine your relationship with people to continue being friends and this has also occurred. Either way be sure to remove that negative energy, they are just trying to drag you down back to their level.

Next Level

I still have much to learn as do you but take responsibility for your life, only you can make it happen keep working at it. Are you ready to do what it takes to succeed in business? If you say yes, watch out, life will test you. You may find you don’t handle things they way you wanted to. Life is too short to live in mediocrity, go all out and reap the rewards.

In life and business, decisions need to be made everyday. Whether we like it or not, we make decisions by consciously deciding or consciously deciding not to commit to any, hence making a decision anyway.

Right now in your business is there something you are thinking of changing?

How long has it been sitting there in your mind? Do you know you have currently chosen to stick with your current actions, you are just not empowered and not moving as well as you could be with your business.

Decisions can be scary. You could mean stopping your current business and changing direction which many would incorrectly classify as a failure. It may mean you have to stop undervaluing yourself and either charging more or stop serving certain clients. It means you have to commit everything to 1 solution and the entire responsibility on the success of it is on you. But decisions need to be consciously made and committed to provide the best possible chance of a great outcome.

When you make a decision, every other action becomes easy as it must align with your decision. You no longer have to keep deciding which action to take at each step. No only do decisions make your life easier, they give greater results.

My Story

In my own business I was unsure of what to do. I was spending heaps of time for little return. One day I decided I just couldn’t keep doing it, there was no benefit to me. So I decided to do something I thought would originally lose me all of my clients. So I made a decision and I made a $1,000 in a week and more residual income each week after and cut my workload. The next time I made a decision I generated thousands per week and cut my workload drastically.

Napoleon Hill said that those that succeeded made decisions quickly and stuck with them. Those that did not succeed took a long time to make decisions and changed them frequently.

When Making A Decision

1. Make sure it is your own decision. Everyone has an opinion and they all want to share.
2. Own it. It’s your responsibility.
3. If you are scared that’s great. It means you are growing as a person, or about to do something really stupid.
4. Research it, take note of other’s opinions.
5. Take advice from people who have the result you want. A lot of people who don’t have the result you are after STILL have an opinion on how you should get it because they know everything apparently.

Commit To A Decision

When you commit to a decision amazing things happen

• You have purpose
• You focus all of your attention on your decision without hesitation
• You become more productive
• And with all of that focus and energy comes great results.