Make me rich!
Everyone wants to be rich (or at least have a good disposable income). It’s human nature. Often this desire comes out of the ‘frustration’ of the daily grind (the rat race). Getting rich quickly is even more desirable, hence the search for the ‘holy grail’ of being able to create wealth the easy way, but in reality it involves some exchange of ‘value’ for money. This got me thinking – so I grabbed a few books from my personal ‘success’ library.
Here is how wealth is able to be created (in broad terms) by an individual or by a company :
- Creating / Inventing something (e.g. Apple iPod)
- Producing / Manufacturing something (e.g. Apple iPod)
- Improving something (e.g. Newer models)
- Providing a service (e.g. Settlement agent, Financial Planner, etc)
- Repairing / servicing something (e.g. Auto vehicle servicing)
- Selling (e.g. selling own manufactured product)
- Trading (buying and selling)
- Holding something (it becomes more valuable the longer you hold on to it).
Even ‘holding’ onto real estate is adding something .. time (which equates to more demand as the human population increases).
When we provide our knowledge and skills to something we are paid. For example, accounting, bookkeeping, hairdressing, auto servicing to name a few. We are paid in direct relationship too how many people can provide the same thing, the skill and expense required to attain those skills (e.g. medical degrees, etc), and the demand for those skills. How can you do ‘something’ that few other people can do (which is in demand)?
For example, someone that can touch their nose with their tongue might be neat, but how is that going to make them money? (Apart from appearing on television as a novelty).
The big money question is ‘How can I add more value, quicker and easier, and to more people?’
This is one strategy…
Use leverage
The definition of business and financial leverage is using less of your resources (time and money) to create a bigger end result (Return on Investment). Here are some of the ways you can use leverage to obtain a bigger result.
- Your Skills
- Your Knowledge
- Your Money
- Your Time
Some examples may include :
Your Skills
- Employing staff, delegating or outsourcing.
- Applying your skills to bigger projects for a bigger reward
- Creating information products (books, audio and video recordings)
- Creating business systems
Your Knowledge
- Creating information products (books, audio and video recordings)
- Creating business systems
Your Money
- Purchasing income-producing assets
- Utilising media to communicate your marketing message (e.g. advertising, direct mail, email, etc).
- Re-investing in the business (e.g. marketing systems, technology)
Your Time
- LABOUR : Employing staff, delegating or outsourcing.
- TRAINING : Training staff so they can perform their functions well.
- SYSTEMS : Introducing systems to ensure the job is done right the first time and consistently.
- TECHNOLOGY : Using technology (e.g. using video conferencing instead of travelling to a meeting).
- MARKETING : Developing lead generation systems to reduce time spent acquiring leads one-by-one.
- GROUP SELLING :Speaking and selling at seminars rather than speaking to prospects one-on-one.
Hopefully the strategies mentioned above have given you some ideas. You can also have a close look at your chosen business niche or investment area (residential real-estate, commercial real-estate, stocks, etc) and see how other successful business owners or investors have added ‘value’ or used leverage to create wealth. It’s not worth re-inventing the wheel. Find a way to copy what works and improve on it!