Have you ever wondered what it takes to build a multi-million dollar business? There are tons of people out there with great ideas, but sadly very few people will be able to take these great ideas and turn them into viable businesses. Whilst I’m known to most people as a sales expert, another passion of mine happens to be building businesses.
I’ve built six companies that I currently own and run, but I’ve built many more companies around the world during my career. In order to make a success of these companies, I learnt that it’s essential that you have the following key ingredients:
Patience:
It’s important that you realise that “get-rich-quick” schemes don’t work. Every single successful company would have spent years building themselves, learning from their mistakes, and persevering before they become a successful business.
All of us make mistakes, but if you want to build a business that can stand the test of time, then you’ll need to learn from these mistakes, try new things and realise that great businesses aren’t built overnight.
Market:
The next thing that you’ll have to understand when building a business is the market. Whether you’re based in Dubai, the UK, Germany or South Africa- do you fully understand your market? When you fully understand your market you will know the need that your market has. Is there a real need for your product or service? A lot of people make the mistake of developing products or services because they think that there’s a need when there actually isn’t. Market research is essential!
Understand who your competitors are, understand what difference you’re going to make to your potential clients, and understand if your product or service fits into your market.
How big is your client base going to be? How big is your audience? Don’t start any business before you are clear on all of these things and you’ve done the research.
Self-Awareness:
Another thing that is a key ingredient when building a multi-million dollar business is self-awareness. In terms of being self-aware, do you know what your strengths are? What about your weaknesses?
For example- If you’re not good at accounting, then you should find someone to run this part of your business for you so that you can focus your energy on what you are good at. If you focus on the things that you’re good at, you’ll be able to bring revenue through the door, and with that revenue, you’ll be able to pay some of that money to an outsourced company or a freelancer to do some small-scale bookkeeping for you. This would be a good option if you can’t yet afford to pay a full-time worker.
Ask yourself these questions:
What can you do?
What can’t you do?
What are you going to be the most productive at doing for your business?
Raising Capital & Cash Burn Rate:
If you have to raise money for your business, it’s important that you understand how much money you’ll need to raise, but more importantly- how much money your business is worth.
When your business is making no money, it’s not worth anything. Essentially your idea is just an idea. Until it’s proven that your idea can generate revenue, your “business” is just a hobby. Don’t have an over-inflated value of what your business should be worth.
If you want to raise money at this point, the best place to look is friends and family. These are the people who know and trust you. After you’ve worked out how much money you need to raise, you need to work out how much money you’re going to spend. As a business, typically over the first three years, you won’t make a profit. It’s therefore essential to know how much you’re going to spend. What is your cash burn rate going to be? Build some projections into your business to understand how much cash you’re going to be burning and at what rate? For example: If you’ve raised $1.2 million, and you’re going to be burning $100K a month, this means that your cash burn rate will take you down to 12 months.
If the money that you’ve managed to raise has to last you three years, then you need to divide this number by 36 months to know how much money you can burn on a monthly basis. I know so many people who have gotten loans only to run out of cash soon after starting their venture. When the business runs out of cash it’s gone, so don’t let that happen!
Make Sure You Have The Right Culture Within Your Organisation:
A lot of people hire people based on their skills, but they tend to forget about the culture within their organisation. It’s important to know whether or not your employees are the right fit. What kind of people do you want in your business? Will they buy into your philosophy? One of the great things that you can do in business is give your employees a part of the business or something to work towards. If they feel that your business is theirs too, then they’re going to work twice as hard. Many years ago, the company that I was working for gave me a 1% share in the business. It was a very small company and so that 1% was worth nothing essentially, but on the day that I was given those shares in the company, I had a complete mental switch. I saw that company as my own and I invested so much more energy and drive and time into it. My first dividend cheque was only 120 pounds, but I was so proud of it!
By giving a small share of your company to your employees, you can turn a group of people into a force. You’ll be able to work together for the greater good of the company, and that is priceless!
Be Fully Committed:
If you want to build a multi-million dollar business then you’ll need to be fully committed. This means that work-life balance and rest days will be a thing of the past. You can’t expect to log off at 5 pm and go down to the pub if you want to be taken seriously. Building a business requires blood, sweat and tears. If you don’t have the time to invest, then that’s okay, but then you can’t expect maximum results for minimal effort. You’ll have to make sacrifices if you want to build something incredible.
There isn’t a single person out there who wouldn’t get phenomenal results if they applied themselves in the right way and gave 150% of themselves.
Don’t make excuses and stop thinking about your problems. Think about the things that you can do, and believe in yourself and your abilities. Failure is inevitable, but so is success if you just keep on going!
If you want to watch the Facebook live that I did on this topic, then click here:
