Run Your Business Into The Ground

Good Morning Rogues!

I know you’ve been taking the steps you need to take to keep everything on track for your dreams.

Or maybe you’re reading this newsletter in hopes that you’ll get some juice to pick those things back up…

Either way, I’m glad you’re here!

The thing I want to highlight this week is that if we want to get to where we know our future leads, we have to improve ourselves.

A easy way to do that is just to upgrade your network!

Are their high quality people in your every day life that rub off on you in a positive way?

If not, it’s time to make some cuts or find a new crowd!

Aside from upgrading your network, we have to upgrade our skills and capability.

If we want to be different in the future, we need to be doing an activity that makes us different in the future.

If you’re the same person in the future, do you expect your life to look any different?

A few years ago I was reading one of Robert Kiyosaki’s books, and he mentioned that you are going to have to understand accounting and finance to be able to build big things.

I am not formally trained in accounting, and my university coursework didn’t require any accounting courses for me to complete a degree in Communications (shout out to all the readers with degrees they don’t use!).

I took that to heart and immediately realized that was a shortcoming in my skillset.

Nothing about my job role at the time required me to have any accounting skills or experience, but I took on the challenge and enrolled in an online Accounting 101 course.

The whole time I was asking myself “Why am I doing this?”

I completed the course, and while it was pretty painful to get through, I learned a lot.

I am by no means capable enough to start a new career in accounting, but I know just enough to be able to meaningfully ask questions of accountants who know what they’re doing.

And then the skillset sat dormant for a few years.

Fast forward to today…

As most of you know, I am building a remote business from scratch (Pure Private Label) that helps people start and grow dietary supplement brands.

We hired an accountant last year to reconcile the books on a monthly basis so we could continue our focus on operations, sales, and growth.

Well, as it turns out, the person we hired had no real understating of what they were doing (even though they’re “certified”) and made a huge mess.

(Side note: be careful hiring family friends of friends 🙂 )

The mess that they created in our books would have been catastrophic and business ending if I didn’t have the tiny bit of accounting education that I have.

Without taking that course years ago, I would be writing this newsletter to you right now while being absolutely clueless that accounting errors are running my business into the ground.

However, the tiny bit of understanding that I have about how Profit and Loss, Balance Sheets, and Cashflow statements are related from my late night studies years ago allowed me to start asking some important questions when I saw things that don’t look right.

Keep in mind, that I don’t know how to fix them, but I do know enough to know that there were major errors.

The good news is, that we caught the error in time, removed the problem, and created a solution with speed.

I am now paying $90/hour to have a competent accountant clean up the first one’s mistakes - I would gladly pay triple that to have it right.

When you think about starting a business and building your remote empire, it’s easy to get focused on the skillsets that will require you to grow, but do not forget about the skillsets that allow you to be a good operator of your business.

I have no interest in learning any more about accounting than that which allows me to communicate effectively with accountants, but if I hadn’t taken that course on a whim (thanks to Robert Kiyosaki’s challenge), my life would look pretty different.

The challenge to you is this…

Identify the areas that you know you lack to be able to build your dream.

That doesn’t mean you have to become a pro at everything. In fact, that’s a waste of time.

But you do need to know enough to hire and manage.

For example, if you are going to have to talk to web developers, you need to know how to communicate with them. If you don’t, you and your business will be a prisoner to them.

What do you need to learn more of to accomplish your goals?

• Web development

• Accounting

• Real estate underwriting

• Insurance products

• Negotiation

• Human Resources

• Industry Regulations

Get a cheap course or dive down a youtube rabbit hole. I like to find cheap courses on udemy.com to get started, and have learned some incredible skills there.

I’m going to say it again because it’s so important…

If we want to be different in the future, we need to be doing an activity that makes us different in the future.

Otherwise, we’ll be the same person with the same type of results and relationships…my literal nightmare.

Let’s grow and be better starting today!

What course are you going to take?

Let me know if you can’t find the resources you need - I’m happy to help!

Thanks for being on this journey with me.

Let’s keep winning together!

Forever Forward,

Rush

P.S. There are 2 ways I can help you if you’re ready for more:

#1. For more methods, insights, inspiration and practical advice, Follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn

#2. If you’re ready to get serious about your personal or professional growth, reply to this email to see if coaching is the right fit for you. We’ll set up a 15 minute audit to see if there is a right fit for you!