WARNING: I am going to go a little “Jerry Macguire” in this article!
Why is it important for us to have a goal of business? To answer this question, let me quote William B. Irvine:
“Because without one, there is a danger that you will mislive – that despite all your activity, despite all the pleasant diversions you might have enjoyed while alive, you will end up living a bad life. There is, in other words, a danger that when you are on your deathbed, you will look back and realize that you wasted your one chance at living. Instead of pursing something valuable, you squandered it because you allowed yourself to be distracted by the various baubles life has to offer.”
For most people, they’re goal of business is wealth. They want to build a business to become wealth or increase their income so they can increase their standard of living.
I’m going to argue that this may not be the best goal of business and the reason why is because money does not buy lasting happiness. Sure, money does make life easier, but we quickly get accustomed to things money buys and soon after we go searching for more. It’s an endless cycle where we end up constantly chasing more money.
A better goal of business is: FREEDOM.
Chris Guilleabeau said it best in his book, “The $100 Startup“, when he wrote:
“The income from the business didn’t make me rich, but it paid the bills and brought me something much more valuable than money: freedom.”
The goal should be do design our our business, or businesses, to provide freedom. The way I see it, we’ve got one shot at life and it doesn’t make sense to spend the majority of our time chasing something that doesn’t provide lasting happiness. Chris Guilleabeau wrote that he had no schedule to abide by, no time sheets to fill out, no useless reports to hand in, no office politics, and not even any mandatory meetings to attend. Sounds nice, doesn’t it?
So if the goal of business is to provide time freedom, how do we do it? It’s a question I ponder a great deal and have wrote about many times in my Master Marketer reports.
To acquire time freedom in your business, you must turn your business into a money machine.
What comes to mind when you think of a money machine? Does a money machine look like something like this sketch? Or is the picture below a better representation of a money machine?
If you Google “definition of money machine”, you’ll find references to Automated Teller Machines. ATM’s aren’t really money machines. They simply give you access to money you’ve already collected.
A real money machine is something that provides positive cash flow or spendable income to you on a recurring basis.
A few examples of money machines might be…
1. Profitable business you own/control that doesn’t require your consistent physical labor.
2. A profitable website you own/control that provides cash flow. (An example would be a membership site where members pay monthly membership fees.)
3. An affiliate program you can consistently profit from.
4. Stocks you own that pay consistent dividends.
5. Bonds you own that pay consistent interest.
6. Real estate you own that pays consistent positive cash flow.
7. Notes receivable you own that provide consistent interest income.
8. Clients who buy multiple properties, generating consistent commission income.
9. Profitable advertisements you control that generate consistent revenue above costs for your business.
10. A database you own/control from which income can be extracted from consistently.
11. Homes in property management providing consistent monthly income.
12. An employee or agent who generates consistent income/cash flow for your business.
We could obviously continue listing various money machines. However, I think you can get an idea of what I mean by money machines. Many people talk about multiple streams of income. An income stream might come from a money machine, if it doesn’t require your physical labor. If someone works three jobs, they’ll have three income streams. These income streams are not from money machines. YOU cannot be one of your money machines. If you have to trade your time for the money, it’s NOT a money machine.
Make sense?
This means your business may or may not be a money machine. If your business requires your labor to generate 100% of its income, it’s not a money machine. It’s a job, and this is how most real estate agents operate. If you don’t have agents selling on your behalf, or recurring monthly income in your business, your business is NOT a money machine.
Take some time over the next few days to really think about your business and the goal of your business. You do not want to “waste” your life chasing something that doesn’t provide happiness. I will write more about turning your business into a money machine in the near future. In the meantime, consider these two very important questions:
1. What is the goal of your business?
2. Is your business a money machine? If not, what can you do to turn it into a a money machine?
1 Response to "The Goal of Business"
Please give me ideas to make my bussiness better and money making machine.
Thanks xx