Biggest lesson from 15 years in business

[Paul David]

Recently I made a list of all the mistakes (or lessons) I've had during my time as a business owner.

The one that stands out and in my opinion is the single most reason why I'm not at my "freedom" point is that in the last 15 years I've not spent at least 80% of my time taking action on tasks that create value/profit to the bottom line.

When I opened my computer shop in 2001 it was initially only to buy and sell refurbished models not undertake any repairs. However due to demand I taught myself to fix them and over the next 4/5 years day in and day out I would spend fixing computers and also buying and selling them. Every day was the same. I'd make more or less the same money each week. I was working 'in' my business rather than 'on' my business.

I took on a full time employee and eventually started up my online business selling charges for laptops. I was running two businesses side by side and again fell into the same trap of not looking at the bigger picture.

Fast forward 15 years and having closed the shop two years ago I continue to run my online business. At the start of the month i spent two days adding more listings to eBay and Amazon and have increased sales this month by 26%.

Due to Chinese New Year we've had to order twice as much stock as normal so the past 3 days I've been stocking shelves and helping in the warehouse. Sometimes it's work that has to be done but will those 3 days have created any more profit? NO. Absolutely not.

I've now got a dated spreadsheet which I complete at the end of each day and it has one column with each date and the other column heading is "have I spent at least 80% of my day on activities that will increase profit?". If the answer is no to many times then I know I'm slipping back into old habits.

Be ruthless. Spending days on new logo designs or researching competitors is all well good but if you really want to increase profits pick up the phone, sell, buy new products. Whatever step you need to take for your business that DIRECTLY generates a profit, do it. At least 80% of the time anyway.


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[Harti]

I'm not quite sure why you don't just spend a few hours or so creating a plan to transform your slowlane business into a fastlane one. Basically answering the question "what do I need to do to have all my current activities done by someone else?"

This way you can continue being the "detail guy" which you seem to enjoy, but at the same time making sure you're that you're going in the right direction.

 

[Sadik]

Recently I made a list of all the mistakes (or lessons) I've had during my time as a business owner.

The one that stands out and in my opinion is the single most reason why I'm not at my "freedom" point is that in the last 15 years I've not spent at least 80% of my time taking action on tasks that create value/profit to the bottom line.

When I opened my computer shop in 2001 it was initially only to buy and sell refurbished models not undertake any repairs. However due to demand I taught myself to fix them and over the next 4/5 years day in and day out I would spend fixing computers and also buying and selling them. Every day was the same. I'd make more or less the same money each week. I was working 'in' my business rather than 'on' my business.

I took on a full time employee and eventually started up my online business selling charges for laptops. I was running two businesses side by side and again fell into the same trap of not looking at the bigger picture.

Fast forward 15 years and having closed the shop two years ago I continue to run my online business. At the start of the month i spent two days adding more listings to eBay and Amazon and have increased sales this month by 26%.

Due to Chinese New Year we've had to order twice as much stock as normal so the past 3 days I've been stocking shelves and helping in the warehouse. Sometimes it's work that has to be done but will those 3 days have created any more profit? NO. Absolutely not.

I've now got a dated spreadsheet which I complete at the end of each day and it has one column with each date and the other column heading is "have I spent at least 80% of my day on activities that will increase profit?". If the answer is no to many times then I know I'm slipping back into old habits.

Be ruthless. Spending days on new logo designs or researching competitors is all well good but if you really want to increase profits pick up the phone, sell, buy new products. Whatever step you need to take for your business that DIRECTLY generates a profit, do it. At least 80% of the time anyway.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Why do you need to do all the listings yourselves? Here's an idea, How about creating a course on Udemy about how to sell electronics with e-commerce? (more specific, the better). And then use the community around that course to create a recurring e-commerce service?

 

[Niptuck MD]

thank you for this insight it is always good to learn from others especially those that have been in it for awhile. Your last paragraph resonates with me at this very moment and you are right must be ruthless and continue taking massive actoin

 

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[Paul David]

Why do you need to do all the listings yourselves? Here's an idea, How about creating a course on Udemy about how to sell electronics with e-commerce? (more specific, the better). And then use the community around that course to create a recurring e-commerce service?

The listings only take minutes to create as i have streamlined the process. The part that takes the time is knowing what charger is compatible with a particular laptop or device.

I am currently writing a training manual for this so it can be outsourced.


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[Andy Black]

Recently I made a list of all the mistakes (or lessons) I've had during my time as a business owner.

The one that stands out and in my opinion is the single most reason why I'm not at my "freedom" point is that in the last 15 years I've not spent at least 80% of my time taking action on tasks that create value/profit to the bottom line.

When I opened my computer shop in 2001 it was initially only to buy and sell refurbished models not undertake any repairs. However due to demand I taught myself to fix them and over the next 4/5 years day in and day out I would spend fixing computers and also buying and selling them. Every day was the same. I'd make more or less the same money each week. I was working 'in' my business rather than 'on' my business.

I took on a full time employee and eventually started up my online business selling charges for laptops. I was running two businesses side by side and again fell into the same trap of not looking at the bigger picture.

Fast forward 15 years and having closed the shop two years ago I continue to run my online business. At the start of the month i spent two days adding more listings to eBay and Amazon and have increased sales this month by 26%.

Due to Chinese New Year we've had to order twice as much stock as normal so the past 3 days I've been stocking shelves and helping in the warehouse. Sometimes it's work that has to be done but will those 3 days have created any more profit? NO. Absolutely not.

I've now got a dated spreadsheet which I complete at the end of each day and it has one column with each date and the other column heading is "have I spent at least 80% of my day on activities that will increase profit?". If the answer is no to many times then I know I'm slipping back into old habits.

Be ruthless. Spending days on new logo designs or researching competitors is all well good but if you really want to increase profits pick up the phone, sell, buy new products. Whatever step you need to take for your business that DIRECTLY generates a profit, do it. At least 80% of the time anyway.


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Yep. I know that trap very well. I'm still in the trenches a bit more than I should be, but the change doesn't happen overnight.

At the start of the week I always ask myself "how can I give myself a pay rise this week (by increasing MRR that doesn't involve exchanging my time for money)?"

 

[MakeMoreMoves]

Hmmm...I currently am working "In" my business as well. But I don't have a choice. It doesn't make enough to hire anyone.

 

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[fhs8]

Be ruthless. Spending days on new logo designs or researching competitors is all well good but if you really want to increase profits pick up the phone, sell, buy new products. Whatever step you need to take for your business that DIRECTLY generates a profit, do it. At least 80% of the time anyway.

No wonder why you're still struggling after 15 years. You should be sitting in your home while your managers are running your business. The WORST thing you can do is focus on things that DIRECTLY generates a profit. It's better to fix things like logos, websites, product listing, doing research, etc... which should increase margins/conversion rates. If your business requires you to work then you're really just an employee.

 

[Paul David]

No wonder why you're still struggling after 15 years. You should be sitting in your home while your managers are running your business. The WORST thing you can do is focus on things that DIRECTLY generates a profit. It's better to fix things like logos, websites, product listing, doing research, etc... which should increase margins/conversion rates. If your business requires you to work then you're really just an employee.

Thats all fine and dandy if you've established your business up to that point but if you're not then you MUST focus on the things that directly generate profit so that you can then at a later date afford to pass that onto your employees. However as Andy said above that doesn't happen overnight.

I wrote in another post how i'm now in the seriously considering utilising VA's for our internet based tasks which will again remove me further from the process. At the moment when 1 staff member is off work i'm covering for them. With a couple of VA's for the same price as an 'in house' employee i won't have that problem. The end goal is to have the business 'fully automated'.

 

[fhs8]

Thats all fine and dandy if you've established your business up to that point but if you're not then you MUST focus on the things that directly generate profit so that you can then at a later date afford to pass that onto your employees. However as Andy said above that doesn't happen overnight.

Totally incorrect. Many things don't DIRECTLY generate a profit but do increase profits. Such as an improved website, advertising, logo, and website content. Once you improve a website you no longer have to work on it yet it'll continue to give you profits for a long period of time. So 10 hours spent on a website can give you more profit in a year than if you were to work 500 hours cold calling people and doing other methods to directly increase sales. Work smarter not harder.

 

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[Paul David]

Totally incorrect. Many things don't DIRECTLY generate a profit but do increase profits. Such as an improved website, advertising, logo, and website content. Once you improve a website you no longer have to work on it yet it'll continue to give you profits for a long period of time. So 10 hours spent on a website can give you more profit in a year than if you were to work 500 hours cold calling people and doing other methods to directly increase sales. Work smarter not harder.

I'm not saying don't do those things i'm saying that across a period of time those sort of tasks should only take up 20% of your time, the other 80% should be spent doing higher value tasks. In an ideal business 100% of your time would be spent doing nothing in your business whilst it continues to grow and generate profits. That's always got to be the end goal.

 

[Paul David]

Hmmm...I currently am working "In" my business as well. But I don't have a choice. It doesn't make enough to hire anyone.

Neither did i at the start and that's the same for a lot of entrepreneurs.

Set a target, go out and do whatever it takes to bring in profit and when you've reached your target hire your first employee. Pass as much of the 'in' work on to them and then spend more time doing the 'on' work.


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