- Fast growth in business can be dangerous, most entrepreneurs get excited and try to scale up too quickly. You must pause and look back, we need solid foundations, systems in place and processes. You have to make sure your current business has enough support before putting more pressure on it by increasing sales or expanding. In some cases, this will mean more marketers, more photographers, in other cases you may need more loyal customers before you move forward.
It was easier with the bars because we could just keep repeating how we set up each bar and they are profitable instantly, but behind scenes our support team needed to constantly grow, training and recruitment takes time. We have had several months where we do not have any bar purchases, it gives us time to keep improving, we are always adapting and improving. You need strong foundation and systems in your business so you can flip it.
There will be many people around you that do not understand your business and will think you are taking huge risks and they will keep asking you to calm down or stop, you need to become a master in this area and push ahead, but you need to be correct. I went against a huge tide of people telling me not to buy more bars, but you are voting against common thoughts when you do business. If everyone thought it was a good idea, they would all be doing it. - Hire your opposites or people that compliment your bad points. I visit many business owners and if I don’t see top-level staff around them, I worry about their growth and their future. Some guys start thinking they are amazing when they first start making money and they don’t need anyone else. For me I find all the accounting and administration stuff extremely boring. I have always lead the company and enjoy the process of expanding it. Some guys are idea guys, (wreckless creators) I am good at managing, ideas and seeing a vision.
- Shake all the negative/bad people out that you started with it, its important to get them out or they poison other peoples minds. When you start a business the chances are you were inexperienced at hiring/choosing/training people, so it’s likely you have staff that are not up to the new standards your business require. We try to have the odd purge of negative people or people that don’t have the required work ethics. Its a team effort!
- Keep the businesses lean and mean, try to cut off the businesses that waste time and don’t make too much money. If it’s lean and mean you will survive quiet periods or problems from competitors. Keep your lifestyle cheap so you can keep reinvesting your money into the business. You shouldn’t compare yourself to people below you financially.
- Remind yourself that you haven’t won the game, it’s just the start, try and take advice from people 5-10 years ahead of you, you can watch guys on youtube, speak to other business owners at meetups. Winning the game is when you exit or you have made tons of money consistently for many years.
