THE
NEW RICH Your guide to escaping the job you hate by starting a business the world will love
David Moore Your free gift from David can be found by visiting: www.thenewrich.com/bookoffer
Copyright Š 2014 David Moore All rights reserved. ISBN-10: 1496074637 ISBN-13: 978-1496074638
“We have all had the feeling of wanting to go it alone. The New Rich is based on the author’s own experience in starting up alone, the fear, worry and ultimately job and life satisfaction that comes with it and gives you the advice and insight that just may help you make that decision.”
Edward Sherbourne, E-Business Director, BWI “If you’ve ever blankly looked at your office screen and thought ‘there has to be more to life’ or found yourself thinking ‘what have I actually achieved?’ this book is for you. It’s not another get rich in 5 minutes DIY book, it offers practical advice for not just getting financially rich, but leading a rewarding life too. So quit the rat race, it’s time to lead a happy and abundant life.”
Errol Jayawardene, Head of Technology & Digital, Red Lorry, Yellow Lorry “This book inspires you to build a profitable business doing work that you love and provides the reader with the systematic steps necessary to do so. Those featured in the book have built successful, profitable businesses around their passions that positively impact others. They are the New Rich and David expertly uses their stories and his own personal experience to provide the reader with an invaluable guide to do the same.”
Matt Kohn, Creator of A Different Hunger
“The New Rich is one of those rare breeds of books in that it's not only inspiring, motivating and full of real-world advice but it's also a bloody good read.” Chris Morledge, ICT Services Director, Ortemo Tech "As an author myself, I appreciate the challenges of bringing a subject to life and captivating the reader from page one. I found this book to be inspirational, captivating and a must-read for anyone looking to say goodbye to corporate life and hello to the brave new world of doing what you love.”
Paul Hookham, Managing Director, Exceedus Ltd “The New Rich book shows you how to leverage the power of the internet in order to make money doing what you love.”
Andrew Scanlon, Head of Sales & Marketing, MDA "This is a book about becoming rich. Not just financially rich, but rich in life. Some people have more money than is possible to spend in a lifetime and yet are still unhappy. This book delves into why The New Rich lead such happy and abundant lives and shows you through very practical proven steps, how you can join them." Michael Huxley, Innovation Coach, The Hive
DEDICATION
For Liz. Your love makes me the richest person in the world
CONTENTS Acknowledgments Introduction Part One - Life is a gift. Spend it wisely Do you love what you do? Vagabonding About The New Rich Start with WHY Part Two - Finding your passion What do you love? Playing to your strengths Is passion alone enough? Corbett Barr’s story Part Three - Your life’s purpose Finding your purpose Relentless action The truth about killer ideas Laying the foundation How Mike Michalowicz quit his job Part Four - Creating a mindset for success E+R=O Changing your limiting beliefs The power of goals Begin with the end in mind
1 3 9 9 12 15 18 23 23 27 29 31 37 37 39 43 47 50 53 55 56 59 62
Part Five - Building your platform Defining your audience Buying the right domain Building your website Getting traffic to your site Growing your tribe Part Six - Get paid doing what you love Give value then monetise Pat Flynn’s passive income model Affiliate marketing 101 Henri Junttilla: Wakeup Cloud Part Seven - The secret to success Never give up Can you sell? There’s no such thing as failure Leaving work behind Part Eight - Making it happen Are you ready to ignite? Go fire yourself The ultimate life hack Part Nine - The secret to happiness What do you value most? 1 in 12,000 The Exile Lifestyle You are already rich Part Ten – A gift from David About the author
65 65 67 71 74 77 87 87 91 95 99 101 101 103 104 110 113 113 117 119 123 125 127 128 129 133 137
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to give a special thanks to the contributors without whom this book would not have been possible... Corbett Barr, Fizzle Tom Ewer, Leaving Work Behind John Lee Dumas, Entrepreneur on Fire Peter Jones, How to Do Everything and Be Happy Henri Junttilla, Wakeup Cloud Mark Mason, Late Night Internet Marketing Dane Maxwell, The Foundation Mike Michalowicz, The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur David Perdew, NAMS Rolf Potts, author of Vagabonding Laurel Staples, Go Fire Yourself Colin Wright, Exile Lifestyle
1
2
INTRODUCTION My name is David Moore, and this is my story. I hope it inspires you to make the most of this life and achieve the enormous potential that lies within you. I believe that every person on this planet has his or her own inherent passions, strengths and talents that make them unique. You may not know precisely what yours are yet, but please rest assured that they are certainly there. Figuring out what you are naturally good at and enjoy doing is the first step towards living a life that provides happiness, meaning and fulfilment. The New Rich is a term that was coined by Tim Ferris in his book The 4-Hour Work Week. This book is dedicated to helping you to live life on your own terms by building a business around your unique passions and abilities. It’s time to escape the corporate job you hate so that you can spend the rest of your life doing what you love.
3
This book contains a series of expert interviews with people who have achieved remarkable results and aims to teach you the fundamental principles of how to build your own business empire. “If you want to be successful, find someone who has achieved the results you want and copy what they do and you’ll achieve the same results” – Tony Robbins
Happiness means different things to different people, but simply having the freedom to choose how you spend your time is often a big factor. I know from personal experience the feeling of being trapped in a job because you are dependent on the monthly salary. If you knew you had the ability to create your own income and could leave at any time, your job might not feel so bad. This book will guide you on your journey to achieving your own financial freedom and enable you to spend your time doing what you love. Who this book was written for I had a specific audience in mind when I wrote this book. If I understand you, the reader, as well as I hope, then you might recognise some of the following: You work long hours in a corporate job. The money’s OK, but there’s something missing. You have a gnawing feeling in your gut that’s telling you there’s more to life than this. You can’t wait for the weekend,
4
which always goes too quickly, and on Sunday evenings you feel disillusioned at the thought of yet another soul crushing week at your job. You’ve thought about changing companies, but deep down know that you would eventually feel the same as you do now. You know in detail what you don’t want; however it’s much more difficult to figure out what you do want. Becoming an entrepreneur and starting a business sounds exciting, but you’re not sure which idea to run with and what steps to take. The thought of failure scares you, but you also fear living with the regret of never trying and forever wondering what if? Your friends and family don’t understand why you would want to risk what you’ve already got by starting out on your own. Although well meaning, most have never built businesses themselves and are unable to offer you the practical guidance and advice you need. You realise that time is your most precious possession, and you’re no longer willing to exchange it for an hourly rate. You’re not greedy; you simply want enough money to be able to do what you want in life. You want to be financially secure. Maybe you want the freedom to be able to travel and see the world. Maybe you want to meet likeminded people and to get paid for the value you create and give to the world. You want to feel fulfilled and happy. You want to join The New Rich. The good news is that starting a business can give you the freedom you’re looking for. The bad news is it
5
requires hard work and persistence, and it won’t happen overnight. Who am I to be writing this book? I am someone that has spent too many years working in corporate jobs that didn’t make me happy. I know how easy it is to fall into a career that isn’t right and lose years of your life waiting for things to get better on their own. In my case, they didn’t. My job sucked, and spending money on things I didn’t need to distract myself from what was missing in my life became an expensive habit. I started The New Rich because I have first-hand experience of what it’s like to feel trapped in a corporate job. A job that doesn’t make use of your unique skills and abilities. A job that sucks the life and enthusiasm out of you day by day. I also know how difficult it is to make a change in your life, especially one that involves leaving the security of a monthly pay cheque and making the leap into self-employment. I had a powerful need to help and connect with likeminded people. People that felt trapped in jobs that didn’t fulfil them in a meaningful way. People who want to have an impact and leave their mark on the world we so briefly inhabit. This book is my way of inspiring and supporting people just like you to find happiness by doing what you love. This book contains extracts from interviews with people that have organised their lives around their life’s purpose. Their unique stories will give you the inspiration and advice you’ll need to do work that matters while living life on your own terms.
6
I only recommend products that I have personally used and have found to be both useful and effective. Should you choose to buy a service that I recommend in this book through a link on my website, please note that I may earn a small referral commission. There’s no extra cost to you whether you buy through one of these links or not, but I want you to know that your support is greatly appreciated and never taken for granted. The ability to take action is a key trait of The New Rich, so let’s get started‌
7
8
PART ONE LIFE IS A GIFT. SPEND IT WISELY. “Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.” - Carl Sandburg
Do you love what you do? Do you love it so much that you can’t imagine doing anything else? If you answered yes, then it’s likely that you have found your life’s purpose. If you answered no, what would you want to do instead? What would your ideal day look like?
9
One of the most common regrets people have when they get old is that they sacrificed following their own passions and did what was expected of them. You only get one shot at life, so don’t waste it in a misguided attempt to make other people happy. Trust me, it’s not going to be worth the sacrifice to your own happiness. If you spend forty hours each week in a job that you hate, over the course of a forty-year working lifetime you will have spent 76,800 hours being unhappy. A sobering thought. And that figure doesn’t include the time you will spend in the evenings, weekends and during your holidays thinking about your job. You will have been paid of course, but if you find something you are passionate about and work towards making that your legacy, you will be paid and be far happier. And because it taps into your passion, strengths and unique talents, over time you will become an expert. So chances are you will earn more in the long run, too. Talk about a win/win. “You’ve got to find what you love. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life. And the only way to be truly satisfied is to do great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. And don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.” - Steve Jobs during his 2005
commencement speech at Stanford University. Once you find your purpose, it’s likely that you will connect with other likeminded people. Your passion
10
and enthusiasm will draw them to you, and they’ll look to you for leadership. This is why you must do what you love. What would you want to spend your brief time on earth doing? What legacy do you want to leave? There’s no one else on this planet like you. You have a specific blend of skills, talents and experiences that make you unique. There are things that you are capable of achieving that no one else can. Your job is to find out what they are and make them happen. Keep searching and you’ll find it. My purpose is to help turn your passion into a thriving business. It’s to help you avoid making the same mistakes I did by giving you the practical advice, resources and tools you need to succeed. Helping people overcome the paralysing fear of failure and helping them with their entrepreneurial journey is my purpose in life. I don’t purport to know everything, which is why this book includes interviews with other successful entrepreneurs from around the world. Some of the contributors of this book have kindly shared their purpose. Mike Michalowicz’s purpose is to guide people to express themselves authentically, to be genuinely themselves, and express themselves through entrepreneurship. Mike will do anything he can to help an entrepreneur be even more authentically themselves, to be really connected with their soul, and then have their business be an expression of their genuine selves.
11
“If I can make your business your soul mate I’m winning and my purpose is being served.”
- Mike Michalowicz Today’s technology makes it easier than ever to start a new business. In many cases, all you need is a laptop and an internet connection. A professional looking website can be created in less than ten minutes using WordPress, and services, such as PayPal, enable you to accept payments from anywhere in the world. In terms of start-up costs, you can be trading online for less than £20. So if it’s so easy to do, why aren’t more people doing it? That’s a good question. Although it’s relatively simple for even non-techie people to start an online business, making enough money to sustain you and your family requires you to create something of value that people are willing to pay for. It requires you to understand your customer’s needs and offer solutions that meet them. Ultimately, it requires that your customers come to know, like and trust you enough to give you their hard-earned money. You can learn all this, but it takes both time and effort on your part. Anyone telling you otherwise is talking rubbish. “The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire; the size of your dream; and how you handle disappointment along the way.”
- Robert Kiyosaki
12
Vagabonding Rolf Potts is an American travel writer and author. Rolf has written two books, Vagabonding and Marco Polo Didn’t Go There. He has reported from more than sixty countries, and his travels have taken him across six continents, so you could call him a well-seasoned traveller. He grew up dreaming of world travel, but he was always afraid it wasn’t something he would be able to do. “I didn’t have enough money, it felt like, and it seemed like I was under pressure to start a career right away.”
After Rolf finished college he resolved to work for one year, at any job (it turned out to be landscaping), save up all his money, and travel for as long as possible to get travelling out of his system. “I ended up vagabonding around North America for eight months — and it was a lot cheaper, safer and more thrilling than I’d ever imagined.”
As it happened, Rolf didn’t get travel out of his system. Instead, travel became a way of life, and he taught English in Korea for a couple of years and saved his earnings to travel around Asia, Europe and the Middle East for a further two years. “I became a full-time travel writer along the way, and I’m still at it, in varying degrees, more than a decade
13
later. Long-term travel is more of a reality than most people realise, and my first book, Vagabonding, lays out the values and worldview I wished I’d been aware of when I was younger.”
Rolf first started making an income online through freelance writing and journalism. While he believes that there are easier ways to earn money for travelling, he loves what he does, which he considers old-school work in a new-media environment. He also insists that his way of life isn’t for everyone. “The secret is to live in such a way that you don’t outspend what you earn, and let this lifestyle pay off in rich life experiences around the world. At heart, it’s been about attitude — the willingness to see that time is the truest form of wealth you have in life, and that to actualise that wealth you just have to live in such a way that you free time up to do the things you love.”
The advice Rolf would give to others who want to follow his example is to keep wealth in perspective. “It’s great to make money, but all too often our desire to make more and more money outstrips our capacity to enjoy that wealth. Don’t sink your monetary wealth into more and more things or status symbols; earn enough money to invest in new and challenging life experiences, which are much more meaningful, in the long run, than an accumulation of possessions.”
14
Knowing what Rolf knows now, he wouldn’t have done anything different. He believes that his failures have been as useful as his mountaintop highs and the experience of failure has only added to the meaningfulness of those successes. About The New Rich “Time is the truest form of wealth you have in life” - Rolf Potts
In his book Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki’s number one rule is that you must know the difference between an asset and a liability, and buy assets. Simply put, an asset is something that puts money in your pocket, whilst a liability is something that takes money out. If you want to be rich in financial terms, simply spend your life buying assets. If you want to be poor, spend your life buying liabilities. The New Rich understand this important concept and are adept at making their assets work for them. Not only that, they create multiple streams of income, much of which is passive, which gets them out of the 9-to-5 rat race and gives them the freedom to choose how they spend their time. The New Rich leverage their assets, technology and outsourcing to create more time for themselves so they can live the lifestyles they choose. As the Chinese proverb goes, the best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now.
15
If you wait for the perfect time to get started, the likelihood is that you will never begin. “The way people earn a living is being reinvented because of the Internet and the incredible tools available to us that didn’t exist just a decade ago.”
- Corbett Barr
The New Rich have made the transition from corporate wage slaves to lifestyle entrepreneurs. They have learned to exist without trading their time for money and can live life on their own terms. To put it simply, they have found their purpose. There are ten fundamental traits which are inherent to The New Rich: 1. They build businesses around what they are passionate about. Because they love what they do, they have the energy and commitment to overcome significant challenges. 2. They understand their life’s purpose. They know why they do what they do, and work hard to ensure their actions are congruent with their values and beliefs. 3. They play to their strengths. They understand what their unique strengths are and build businesses around what they are naturally good at. 4. They are accountable to themselves. They are visionaries who set ambitious goals and relentlessly pursue their dreams. 16
5. They are excellent communicators. They connect with people and are able to build communities by bringing people together. They tend to make a difference in other people’s lives by inspiring them to achieve their full potential. 6. They know what is important to them and have both the time and resources to experience a balanced life. 7. They work on their business as opposed to purely working in their business. They prioritise tasks so that transformational growth occurs. 8. They have multiple streams of income. They believe that relying on one source of income can be dangerous and they create assets that generate passive income to mitigate this risk. 9. They invest in themselves. They are lifelong learners and do what is necessary to acquire the knowledge and skills they need to be successful. 10. They express gratitude for what they have, and helping other people is their way of giving back. Happiness is the ultimate trait and is one of the most difficult to achieve consistently. Life is too short to spend it doing work that doesn’t interest you, so don’t sacrifice the best years of your life in a job that you hate. While The New Rich lifestyle won’t suit everyone, if you are not happy with your current life, maybe it is time to make a change.
17
Start with WHY “Life where you’re always doing something you love is art” - Leo Babauta
Several years ago, Simon Sinek made a discovery that changed the way he thought the world worked. Simon couldn’t understand why certain companies such as Apple were more innovative year after year than their competitors when they both had access to the same core resources. The answer lay in, what Simon refers to as, The Golden Circle:
All companies know what they do. Some know how they do it. However, very few companies know why
18
they do what they do. Knowing the purpose of your work, why you do what you do, is the key to success. “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” - Simon Sinek
Why it’s important to know your WHY Let’s face facts. Starting a business and getting to the point where you start to see a reasonable return on the time and energy you have invested is going to require hard work. A time lag exists between the seeds of labour that you are sowing now and the rewards you can expect to reap in the future. First time entrepreneurs tend to underestimate how long it can take to start seeing positive results and often get disheartened. Knowing why you do what you do, and doing work that matters to you, will help overcome the highs and lows that are part and parcel of being an entrepreneur. Starting a business with the sole intention of making money is often a bad idea. If your only motivation is money, what happens when the results are less than you had hoped? Not only are you more likely to quit when the going gets tough, your audience will notice that your primary interest is self-serving. Therefore, they’ll be less inclined to buy your products or services because they will doubt that you genuinely have their best interests at heart. You need to discover what you are passionate about and build your business around solving problems 19
within your chosen area of expertise. Your passion will keep you motivated when life knocks you down. Feeling that you are making a difference to people’s lives will help give meaning and fulfilment to your work, and it will enable you to overcome problems that would otherwise push you off course. In the concept of Start with Why, why we do something speaks to our passion and what we do speaks to a source of income. According to Mike Michalowicz, most of us focus on the what. I make this, I sell that, I provide this. That generates income, but the driving force is passion. If you love what you do, you move through tasks with ease. Even though others may see it as very difficult to do, if you have passion for it, you cruise right through. That’s why you need to know your why. If you don’t know what you’re passionate about, if you don’t know what your purpose in life is, then your purpose should be to find out. Being passionate about what you do is a lesson I learned the hard way. My first business provided office massage treatments to companies throughout the UK. Although I became qualified in several massage therapy techniques, and learned about the anatomy and physiology of the human body, I was never truly passionate about massage per se. This lack of passion would have been apparent to prospective clients, and it meant that writing new content for the website was more of a chore than something I looked forward to.
20
The result? After five years, I was no longer enjoying running the company and made the decision to sell the business to one of our London-based therapists. Don’t waste five years of your life doing work that doesn’t matter to you. Make sure that you know your WHY.
21
22
PART TWO FINDING YOUR PASSION “Without passion you don’t have energy, without energy you have nothing” - Donald Trump
What do you love? If you build a business around what you love, it will be easier to remain motivated while getting your venture off the ground. It will also be easier to find and connect with people that also share your passion. According to John Lee Dumas, founder of Entrepreneur on Fire, the first steps to take are to find
23
a subject, topic, industry, or a niche that you’re passionate about and will remain passionate about for the foreseeable future, because this is a marathon, not a sprint. John sees podcasting as a highly effective way to build an audience. “So find that topic, find that niche, and then create that podcast, create that website and blog around that, create that platform. Start building an audience, grow that audience, and then listen to that audience when they’re telling you what they’re struggling with. And then you can start to create products and services to answer their problems in a major way.”
There are several ways to discover what you love doing. I recommend making a list of the topics that interest you. Remember to take into account how much you would enjoy spending time learning more about each topic. Use the space below to rank your list with one being the most enjoyable and ten the least: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
24
If you find identifying ten topics difficult, try thinking about what you could talk about for hours without ever getting bored. What are you doing when you are at your happiest? What do you enjoy spending your free time doing? What would you happily do for free? Let’s say your list looks something like this: 1. Photography 2. Restoring classic cars 3. Travelling Europe on a shoestring budget 4. Tough Mudder events 5. Cooking authentic Italian food 6. Free diving 7. Wine tasting 8. Breaking Bad 9. Skiing 10. Frisbee golf It may not be possible to build a sustainable business around every interest that you have. For example, a business based around your love of watching Breaking Bad is more likely to be a hobby than a sustainable business. This is due to the limited number of monetisation opportunities. Besides gaining an affiliate commission on a series box set (or setting up your own crystal meth lab), there’s not much scope for future growth. On the
25
other hand, your love for photography is something that could be turned into a viable business. Areas best avoided:
Topics you know little about, especially if it’s a technical subject. Topics that are purely academic as they are typically harder to monetise. Topics that are likely to be just a current fad.
If you intend to start an online business, consider doing a Google search on related keyword terms to get an idea of how profitable your chosen niche is likely to be. Keywords are the common phrases people enter into search engines such as Google when looking for a product or service. According to Mark Mason, founder of Late Night Internet Marketing, a good way to tell if you have selected a profitable niche is the number of ads that appear both at the top and on the right-hand side of the search results when you Google related keywords. If many companies are spending money on keywords in your niche, it’s likely that it’s profitable and might be a good one to consider. One of the most effective ways to tell if you have chosen a good topic is to try creating five blog articles for your three most promising ideas. If the content comes easily, and you enjoy writing the articles, then your idea may have legs. If it’s difficult to find the
26
motivation, or you struggle to think of enough interesting ideas, you may need to keep looking. Playing to your strengths There will be certain things that you are naturally good at, enjoy doing, and come easily to you. Likewise, there will be activities that you find excruciating and cause you to procrastinate. Therefore, it makes sense to start a business that will make full use of your natural abilities, and avoid tasks that you don’t enjoy. If you find it difficult to organise and keep on top of your own diary, don’t set up in business as a virtual PA. Now it’s your turn. Write down a list of your top ten strengths. This will help you to choose an appropriate business opportunity later on. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. You already possess a tremendous amount of expertise, much of which you probably take for
27
granted. It’s often difficult to recognise your own strengths, so consider asking your partner or a close friend what they think you are good at and add these to your list. OK, so now that you have a list of your strengths, it’s time to think about the experience you have. In which areas have you developed your knowledge to a greater extent than the average person? Which professional qualifications do you have that would take other people months or years to acquire? Which industries or topics do you have a grasp of that the layperson wouldn’t know?
If your purpose incorporates your passion, strengths and experience, you are likely to lead a fuller, happier life.
28
Is passion alone enough? Unfortunately, the sad truth is no. While being passionate about your field of interest will help, it won’t guarantee you success. That’s because no matter what business you start, you are going to need customers who are willing to pay for your products or service. Not all passions can be turned into viable businesses. If you’re passionate about playing video games, it’s unlikely anyone will be willing to pay to sit in your living room to watch you. And even if there were, you would struggle to scale your business because you would be limited by the size of your couch. If you were one of the top ten gamers in the world, you may be able to earn money competing in tournaments or by getting sponsorships, but the competition is so high that the chances of you being good enough to make the cut are slim to none. There are other options for building a business that are related to your love of playing video games which you could explore, such as starting a review site where you play new releases and show footage of the game play. It’s possible to monetise the traffic to any website by placing ads using the Google Adwords network; however you need a lot of traffic in order to make a living from this. Other monetisation options might include creating your own video game or iPhone app, becoming a
29
games tester, developing an online marketplace to buy or exchange games, or creating walkthrough guides for popular games that you sell as a digital product. Ideally, you need to find the sweet spot that takes into account the following four factors: 1. What you are passionate about 2. Your strengths / unique talents 3. Your existing experience 4. Products and services people want to buy
Choosing a topic that complements your existing skills, experience and interests will significantly increase 30
the chances of your business succeeding. If you have a natural flair for copywriting and find writing eyepopping content comes naturally, then try starting a business that will make the best use of this gift. Many things will come more easily to you than they do for other people, which you can use to your advantage over the competition. Corbett Barr’s story Corbett Barr gave up his high-paying career as a corporate consultant back in 2006. At the time, he was doing technology strategy work for Fortune 500 companies all around the US. His goal was to have a job that people respected, that paid a decent salary, and that would allow him to retire early. “I think like most people, I knew what I didn’t want. I didn’t exactly know what entrepreneurship meant, but I knew that I didn’t want to continue giving away the most important hours of my life to a cause and a company that I didn’t necessarily wholeheartedly believe in. So for me it just sort of grew out of this nagging feeling that I would never be truly happy in life unless I tried to become an entrepreneur to see if I had what it took to make it happen.”
Corbett was 28 when he first took the plunge and had about ten years of working history behind him. He had recently relocated to San Francisco and reconnected with an old friend who shared an email
31
prioritisation business idea with him. They joined forces and created a prototype that they pitched in Silicon Valley. The duo raised venture capital but found that they couldn’t keep the business viable during the 2008 financial collapse. “…when it became clear that we weren’t going to be able to keep the company together I decided to really reevaluate my life.”
During the three-year period that the company was viable, Corbett found himself accountable to a Board of Directors, advisors, venture capitalists and customers. He also had the responsibility of an office full of employees, and he soon found himself feeling more restricted as an entrepreneur than he had done as an employee. He was working longer hours, taking less time off, and felt he had little control over the course of his life. After the business ended in 2009 Corbett and his wife set off on a life changing, six-month-long sabbatical through Mexico. During this trip, Corbett started blogging. By writing about their travel he started to more fully understand what was important in his life. “I thought that I was going to come up with a new start-up idea similar to what I had done before and probably create something and go look for venture capital again. But this time try to just have more awareness around the impact it had to my lifestyle and
32
the way I was building the company and to try to build it leaner.”
During the trip, Corbett kept meeting people who had figured out how to make their career revolve around their lifestyle, rather than the other way around. Meeting these people changed Corbett’s views of how it was possible to live your life. To him, these people were The New Rich. “They had all the time in the world, all the freedom, all location independence, and because of that, money wasn’t such an issue. It didn’t really matter if they were wealthy because they could live their lives in ways that other people couldn’t, and, really, that’s the greatest freedom to me.”
After a couple of months in Mexico, Corbett began blogging about his travels and questioning the very nature of work/life balance. There was a huge amount of interest in the ideas of location independence and lifestyle design towards the end of 2009, and he soon connected with other bloggers who had similar interests. About six months later, the blog took off and, by the end of the year, over half a million people had visited it. “I had an audience but I didn’t exactly know how to turn that audience into an income for myself. And I was getting into the end of the first year of this new venture that I was in and realising that I didn’t have a whole lot
33
of income to speak of, and I started to think about how I could create that.”
Corbett soon realised that many entrepreneurs and bloggers started sites without any real idea of how to grow an audience and how to monetise it. Many of these sites were based on great ideas, but nobody was visiting them. Corbett’s idea was to share what he had learned about increasing website traffic and created a set of services and products from his expertise. Soon, the Think Traffic website was born. “A lot of people start blogging or they start podcasting and they expect that within a few months or at least they hope that they are going to have a big audience. What they don’t realise is that a lot of people who have big audiences have been working at it for many years. And what you are seeing now is you are seeing them at their A game.”
Corbett believes success as long as desires. And that passions, and how service.
everyone has an equal chance of you can fulfil people’s needs or is based on your abilities and well you deliver your product or
Fizzle is one of Corbett’s ventures and is a training library for online business builders. For a membership of $35 per month, users are able to access a complete range of training materials covering everything you need to know about launching a successful online
34
business. He found that some training programs cost between $2,000 to $3,000 and weren’t result-driven or focused. Featuring over eighty hours of tuition and weekly live hangouts, this model has proved massively successful with over 1,200 members after only a year. While Corbett and his two co-founders, Chase Reeves and Caleb Wojcik, provide the majority of the tuition, they also have some of the world’s greatest experts provide tuition, too. Many entrepreneurs struggle for answers, according to Corbett, and these answers can be found by talking to and engaging with your potential audience. He also realises that many products and services may not be scalable at launch and you may spend a lot of time finding solutions for customers. But this is part of the learning process, and the new skills you gain will help create a scalable product or service. A solution to one customer’s problem could be a solution for the masses, and technology helps get the word out. “Every day I get to do something incredible: I support myself entirely by helping awesome people through the content I publish. I’m independent, self-reliant and completely responsible for my own fate. All of this grew out of the first blog I started, back in 2009. My life has changed in incredible ways because I started blogging and because I challenged myself every day and stuck with it.”
35
Fizzle’s success, and the fact that Corbett now lives life on his own terms, means that he certainly meets the definition of The New Rich. “Today we spend six months in San Francisco each year, winters in Mexico and summers travelling to other places like Europe. I work wherever there is an Internet connection and inspiration.”
36
PART THREE YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE “The purpose of life is a life of purpose”
- Robert Byrne
Finding your purpose Starting a business takes both time and effort. If your sole reason for starting a venture is to make money, you are increasing the odds that it will ultimately fail. Understanding your purpose will help you overcome the challenges and setbacks you experience, especially in the early days when you’re trying to create that first momentum. Having a cause
37
that is greater than your own self-interests will resonate with your audience and make it more likely that they will trust you. Trust is a vital component of the sales process, and you need to prove that you are one of the good guys. Ask yourself how you can help people more. What values and beliefs are important to you? What issues do you care about? How could you make the world better in some way? Your answers will lead you towards your life’s purpose. Knowing your purpose, and what you want to achieve, will enable you to recognise and align future business opportunities with your long-term goals and aspirations. Let’s say that your purpose is to tackle the teenage obesity epidemic. It might be possible to make money by starting a fast-food outlet near a school; however, you are likely to experience unhappiness due to a conflict with your own core values. A service that provides nutritional advice to 13 – 16 year olds or an outdoor activity centre that helps teenagers become more physically active would be more in line with your purpose. If you already know your purpose, you are one of the lucky ones. Most people don’t. It took me a considerable amount of time to answer this seemingly simple question. Try asking yourself the following questions in order to help discover your purpose: 1. What do you want to change in the world? 2. What can you offer that people need and would be willing to pay for?
38
3. What skills do you have that would make a viable business? 4. Can you start it as a side project or will it require you to leave your job and commit full time? Is passion and purpose enough? Sadly, no. One other factor that is crucial in starting a successful business is pain. You need to find a problem that is painful enough that people are willing to pay to have resolved. Thankfully, pain is all around us. It just requires you to ask the right questions in order to find it. Relentless action Dane Maxwell helps entrepreneurs find painful problems. As the founder of The Foundation, he teaches his students to build technology products, often without any capital, programming skills or even an idea. He puts his success down to his willingness to keep taking action. “I just take action all the time when everyone else is sitting around and talking about it, asking questions. I started twenty-two businesses in the last eight years, so I just take action a lot. And I just think the greatest thing I ever learned for material success is that successful people aren’t any smarter, they aren’t any more advantaged, they aren’t any more resourced, they just do more stuff.”
39
Dane’s secret formula to success “Failure plus perseverance is what equals success if you want to make a formula out of it. And most people don’t have failure because they don’t take action, and you have to take action to get failure, and then you have to be able to persevere.” Several studies suggest that perseverance is the single most crucial factor in success, and Dane believes that it comes from having confidence in your own abilities. He also places great value on mentorship, and learned a great deal from books such as Rich Dad Poor Dad, Psycho Cybernetics and Think and Grow Rich.
100% commitment “I will go door to door and sell custom website design and sell these websites and outsource to India before I ever put my tail between my legs, get on all fours, and go to a company, and beg them for a pay check because I didn’t know how to add value in the world on my own.”
Commitment, even in the face of adversity, is an important factor in your idea’s success. Of the twentytwo businesses Dane launched, only five of them survived. During these early failures, family and friends doubted what he was doing. His father showed him the job sections of the newspapers, his girlfriend wanted him to don a suit and work in a downtown office, and his mother demanded to know his backup plans. Even 40
his friends doubted him because he wasn’t conforming to their ideas of success. But Dane was 100% committed to making his life the way he wanted it to be, and realised that his failures all had a common factor: he’d thought of them. Therefore, he stopped acting on his own ideas and The Foundation was born. Dane is proud of the phenomenal success rates in The Foundation, and cites their five-phase framework as a reason for that. It’s all in the mindset “The mindset is the first thing that we work on when people come in the foundation. My ideal scenario is taking someone’s mind, completely blowing it up, breaking it down, deconstructing it, and then rebuilding it so that they have a mindset that sees the world as a completely abundant, completely exciting place where there is more money, and more opportunity, and more freedom than can actually be consumed by you.”
One of Dane’s most successful students adopted the mindset he teaches. The student had a software idea and created some screenshots of how he wanted it to look. He had no capital to invest in the idea, but he sold the concept to several customers and approached some developers. Instead of paying for the development up front, he offered the developers a tenpercent revenue stream; an offer that was snatched up immediately. This resourceful approach turned the
41
student’s idea into a business reality which now generates a six-figure monthly revenue. As part of the mindset, Dane believes you should do all the tasks you enjoy doing, and outsource anything that leaves you drained and depleted. This is crucial in getting your life the way you want it to be. Living in the creative spark “What you think is that you want financial freedom, or what you think is you want just millions of dollars, or whatever it is that you think you want is usually not what you actually want. What you actually want is to live in the creative spark all day long, and that’s the most enjoyable place for the human brain to exist, in the creative spark.”
Dane cites Leonardo da Vinci and other Renaissance men’s successes as being because they had discovered the creative spark, the true joy of life. He speculates that it didn’t matter to them how much money they had; it mattered that they could live in the creative spark. He likens the creative spark to bliss, the same kind of bliss you may have experienced last time you created something, whether it was ultimately a success or not. For Dane, it’s a way of looking after yourself on an emotional level, which provides energetic focus towards the task at hand.
42
Focus on high value activities “The low value activities would not be checking your email, would not be getting on Facebook, it would not be doing admin work like handling customer sales, or customer support, or customer refunds. The high value activities for me are creating content or creating product. Creating content could be a user interface we create, it could be a blog post, it could be an eBook, it could be a video.”
At the end of the interview, I asked Dane if he had any advice for people that were thinking about leaving their job and starting up a business of their own. “Yeah I’ll give some kind of intuitive advice. Don’t leave your job, stay in it, don’t start a company, just think about it, and then be miserable at age fifty. That’s my advice.”
The truth about killer ideas Not having a killer idea is the reason many people never start their own business. This is a real shame as killer ideas are often overrated. Typically, how you implement your idea is what will determine your venture’s success. Your idea has to be commercially viable in the first place, but it doesn’t have to be something the world has never seen before. Choosing something that is completely ground-breaking can make it harder because you’ll have to generate new
43
demand instead of simply tapping into an existing market. What’s that? Your idea has no competitors, and it’s going to change the world? Well, that may be the case, but often there’s a reason why there are no competitors. And it’s usually because people have already tried, failed and given up. Existing competition indicates that there are people already paying for similar services, and you should be able to get a good idea of the potential size and profitability of the market. The truth is, you don’t need an original idea to start your own business. You just need a way to differentiate yourself from the competition. This comes down to how well you communicate what your company stands for through your marketing, branding and, ultimately, how you serve your customers. When you get started in business, you’ll use different tools to achieve your goals. Many will do exactly what you need them to, some will work OK and others will not yet exist. Once you have cut your teeth with your first business, it is likely that you’ll have new ideas that you will want to develop into new products or businesses in their own right. If you are having difficulty deciding which idea to run with, compare them against each other using the following criteria:
44
1. Start-up cost - How much will you need to invest up front before you can start your venture? For online businesses, this can be as little as £20 to buy a domain name and hosting for your site. 2. Overheads - How much will your business cost to run per month? This includes costs such as office space, utilities and professional fees such as accounting, insurance, etc. These costs remain the same regardless of how much you sell and are known as your fixed costs. 3. Cost of sale - How much does it cost you to make a sale? If you sell professional services such as consulting, the cost is likely to be your time. If you sell a physical product, the cost will be the raw materials, labour, packaging and distribution costs. Typically, the more you sell the higher this amount will be which is why these are known as your variable costs. 4. Profitability - What is the profit on what you sell? If you sell a pair of shoes for £100, which cost you £30 to make (the raw materials and labour), then your gross profit would be £70. If your profit margins are slim, then you will need to sell larger volumes, which will tie up your limited financial resources. It’s rarely a good idea to compete solely on price. Differentiating yourself from the competition will enable you to charge more and keep your profit margins healthy.
45
5. Time requirement - How many hours will you need to invest in your business per week? Can repetitive tasks be automated or outsourced? For example, if you sell digital products, ensure you have a way to send the product automatically once payment has been taken. I recommend using GumRoad due to its ease of use. 6. Earning potential - What is your likely income
from the business? Is the potential return worth the hard work and financial risk? 7. Will this business generate a recurring income?
Cash flow is the number one cause of business death. If you can’t pay your suppliers, it’s game over. Having customers that pay you a recurring fee, ideally monthly, will help you manage your cash flow and make it easier to grow your business. 8. Will you get bored? Will you still enjoy running
this business in six month’s time? How about in five years? 9. Will this business give you the lifestyle you ultimately want? Will your business give you the
freedom to do what you want during your lifetime, or will it become a millstone around your neck?
46
10. Will this business matter? Will it make people’s lives better? Will it enable you to live your life’s purpose?
Laying the foundation So, you want to be an entrepreneur, and you have a killer idea that’s going to change the world. Great! The next step is to set yourself some milestones to help get your new venture started. Some things you might want to consider setting a deadline for are: 1. Registering your domain name
Choosing a suitable name for your business is important. Ideally, it needs to communicate the benefit of what your business provides. Before you decide on a name and incorporate your business, you want to make sure that the domain name is available. I recommend registering the .com extension, as it’s the most recognised and tends to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). We will discuss how to choose the right name in Chapter 5, so don’t worry if you haven’t decided on yours yet.
47
2. Setting up a business bank account
Running your own business requires you to file a set of annual accounts. This will be far easier if you’ve kept your business income and expenditure separate from your personal finances. Setting up a business account before you launch will save you a world of pain down the line. If dealing with financials isn’t one of your strengths, getting yourself a good accountant who has a track record of helping new business owners is highly recommended. 3. Registering as self employed
In the UK, you are required to let HMRC know when you become self-employed. If you don’t tell them, you may have to pay a penalty. Registering is easy and can be done online or over the phone. Just Google ‘Register as self-employed’ to get started. 4. Creating your website
These days it’s possible to create a professional looking website in less than an hour. I recommend using WordPress as it’s free and easy to use. To watch a video I’ve created that walks you through how to set up a WordPress site using a GoDaddy promo code visit www.thenewrich.com/godaddy-promo 5. The problem your product or service will solve
For your business to work, people must be willing to pay you for your product or service. The more painful the problem you solve, the more you will be able to
48
charge. Make sure you solve painful problems that people are willing to pay to make go away. 6. Who your ideal customer will be
Everyone is not your customer. If you try to sell to everyone, chances are you’ll sell to no one. Understanding what your ideal customer wants and needs, along with what motivates them to buy, will help you tailor your offering so that it serves them better than your competitors. 7. Your core values and purpose
Why are you in business? What do you stand for as a company? Understanding your core values and what you want to achieve will help you attract customers who resonate with your calling and understand your purpose. 8. Your unique selling point (USP)
Why should your customers buy from you? What makes you different? More importantly, what makes you better? Being cheaper is a poor differentiator as there’s always someone foolish enough to compete solely on price. Focusing on delivering more value and exceptional service is a much better philosophy. 9. Your logo and company brand
There are certain things you can save money on. However, when it comes to your logo and branding, I would recommend getting professional help. I spent days trying to create a logo for one of my companies 49
which, in the end, looked amateurish. Unless you are an experienced graphic designer, pay a professional to take care of this for you. You only get to make one first impression, and a good designer will do a better job than you ever could, so don’t waste your time. You’ll reap the rewards whenever someone visits your website or reads your marketing literature. Don’t handicap yourself before you even get started. 10. How you will attract and retain customers
Without customers, you have no business. In order to be successful, you only need to get two things right – attracting and retaining customers. Word of mouth can be a continual source of new business, providing you look after your existing clients. As it’s much easier to retain an existing customer than it is to get a new one, you want to make sure your customer service is second to none. How Mike Michalowicz quit his job When Mike Michalowicz graduated from college, he thought that he would go on to be an employee for a large company. His father had worked his entire life for one corporation, and it was what he had expected to do himself. However, Mike’s path turned out to be different. When he first graduated, he couldn’t get a job. He came back home to live with his parents and eventually got a full-time job working as a sales rep at a computer shop, which was not what he anticipated his future 50
would be. After working there for a year or two, Mike went out one night for a couple of drinks with one of his friends. “…after about three or four beers I told my friend working at this store is horrible. I work so hard, I sell to people, I’m delivering the products they want, I’m setting them up for them at their homes or their offices. It was like I run this entire business and the owner sits in the back room making all the money. This is so unfair! I know all he knows, and I put a lot of sweat into it. I’m going to start my own business.”
Burning bridges “And that night with enough booze in me I called and left this message for my boss saying I quit. I’m starting my own company, and I’m going to beat you, I’m going to destroy your business.”
The next morning, Mike regretted his drunken message, and his boss told him that he was going to tell all the businesses in the area not to hire him. This turned out to be one of the best things that could have happened to him. No one would hire him, so he was forced to start his own business. At the time, Mike was twenty-three, just two years out of college, already married and had mouths to feed, having had their first son at a young age. The new business was initially hard to get going, but fear proved to be a great motivator. He wouldn’t recommend it as a
51
long-term motivator, but he believes that it was the fear of not being able to provide for his young family that drove him to work sixteen hour days at the business’ inception. The first year, Mike lived off the little savings that he had, which really meant living off credit cards, but he got one or two clients here and there. The second year, he got four or five significant clients; and by the third year, the business was generating enough income for Mike not to live off credit cards. He was still eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in a tiny apartment with his wife and son, so, in desperation, he welcomed any potential client, even if it was outside his area of expertise. It was extremely inefficient in the beginning, and he found himself working long hours to find solutions to his customer’s problems. “So, looking back, one thing that I would do very early on is figure out what am I really good at and customers are demanding, and then focus on that area. As opposed to what customers are demanding and not focusing on what I’m good at, and doing everything. I would have definitely been more focused, no question.”
Make sure that you take the time to discover what you are most passionate about, and focus your business around your life’s purpose.
52
A GIFT FROM DAVID Thank you for reading the first three chapters of my book. I hope it helps to inspire you to start your own entrepreneurial journey. The importance of investing in yourself was a common theme that emerged during the interviews conducted for this book. Over the last five years, I’ve had three mentors. Each mentor helped me to move forward with my business goals by providing clarity on what I needed to do next. Having a mentor hold me accountable helped me take more action, focus on the important tasks and gave me confidence that I was moving in the right direction. This helped improve the results I was getting, and, without that guidance, it is likely that my first business would have failed during that first difficult year.
53
If you want to escape the corporate job you hate and join The New Rich, then it’s time for you to take action. Live life on your own terms, do work that matters and make a dent in the universe. Good luck, and as promised, here’s a free gift to help you get started: www.thenewrich.com/bookoffer
54
About the author David is a lifestyle entrepreneur and online business coach who helps frustrated employees escape the jobs they hate by starting their own freedom business. His purpose is to help turn your passion into a thriving business whilst avoiding the same mistakes he made by giving you the expert advice, resources and tools you need to succeed. If you would like to contact David visit: www.thenewrich.com/contact
55