This is an transcription excerpt from an interview with Brad Sugars, multi-millionaire businessman. I liked this portion of the interview, because it explains how to break out of the self-employed level of a business, especially the text highlighted in yellow below. – Mark Fregnan, Kinetic Media & Marketing. |
Peter Sinclair: Now Brad, in your brilliant book “Billionaire In Training” you take us through from Level 0 right up to Level 5 as you unveil the key characteristics of a true entrepreneur. Can you briefly outline those 6 categories?
Brad Sugars: OK. The “Billionaire in Training” Level 0 is the employee. It’s where you should start. This is where you should gain both capital and knowledge. Having many different jobs is a great start for an entrepreneur. Peter Sinclair: We all need to start somewhere. Brad Sugars: Yes. Level 1 is where you move up to becoming self-employed. This is the most important step. It is also the toughest. Here you have to learn so much. I hope people are prepared to take my advice and have a lot of jobs in a lot of fields when they first start. That way they will generally have less to learn. Peter Sinclair: What you are promoting at this level is a good general spread of knowledge and experience. Brad Sugars: Precisely. Level 2 is the “Manager Level.” This is where you start employing people. It is still tough because you need to learn about people and not just the basics of running a business. I think at this point, I should give my definition of a business. It’s a commercial, profitable enterprise that works without you being there. Peter Sinclair: That in itself is a very important characteristic. The most successful businesses should be able to operate without the owner having to be there one hundred percent of the time. Brad Sugars: Correct. Level 3 occurs when you reach the situation that you just mentioned Peter. You become a “Business Owner.” You have systems, a team and a General Manager to run it all for you. Essentially you have reached passive income by this stage. Peter Sinclair: I just want to take a quick look at self-employment. Can I just take you back to Level 1 for a moment? Brad Sugars: Go right ahead. Peter Sinclair: For someone to break out of the boundaries of self-employment into a higher level, in what you call “the entrepreneurial game,” what would be some keys that you could suggest that could help somebody to progress? Brad Sugars: Level 1 is like a see-saw. You have to chase the work in sales and then do the work, the operations. To progress to Level 2, first start with the fundamentals of growing a business. You need to create a vision, a mission statement, a company culture, goals and then an organization chart. Employ someone to take over the most basic functions first, but not before:
Peter Sinclair: Brad, if our readers wanted to fast track through those levels, from your experience, how would you suggest they could do so? Brad Sugars: Progressing through the levels quickly is all about gaining knowledge. Someone who doesn’t learn from their mistakes will either stay where they are or go backwards. Brad Sugars: I’ll put it simply. If you think knowledge is expensive, try ignorance. Peter Sinclair: Touché! You say that profit is KING. That’s pretty self explanatory, but can you add to that? Brad Sugars: Peter, it’s not your mistakes that cost you a fortune, it’s actually the unwillingness to make mistakes, then learn from them. Too many business-owners focus on their total revenue or how many employees they have or how many offices they have opened. Really there is only one thing that counts in business… Peter Sinclair: And that thing is… Brad Sugars: PROFIT! |