In The Valley of Despair?
What dreams did you have when you first started your business?
Have they changed since? How so?
A lot of new business owners start their businesses with dreams of becoming management-level. The problem is that a lot never get to the delegation part because they are too busy doing all the hard work and running the company. There’s literally no extra time to do anything else.
Sound familiar?
I’ve seen a lot of guys get into the groove of this for years and years. It’s like working two jobs and not doing either job that well.
This is often called the “Valley of Despair.”
The realization that in order for things to change, you have to change.
And it’s easy to get stuck in this rut. Progress slows… Negative vibes set in… The team is stressed all. the. time.
But at the same time, going through the Valley of Despair is part of the process.
It’s coming up the other side that’s the tough part.
I think I’ve talked about Business Quadrants before.
There are four of them:
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Employee → You trade time for money.
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Self-Employed → You’ve made yourself a job.
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Business Owner → You have a system and people work for you.
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Investor → Money works for you.
The goal is to move as fast as possible toward the investor quadrant. To do this, it’s all about making systems, which involves going through the Valley of Despair more than a few times…
And these quadrants aren’t necessarily separate from one another. If you’re in the self-employed quadrant, you simply want to start doing more of the business owner quadrant (making systems). If you’re in the business owner quadrant, you want to do more where money works for you.
Some books that have helped me move through these quadrants: Rich Dad Poor Dad Profit First The E Myth
I had to get interested in the finances of my business to get over a few humps. Some might need to hire bookkeepers in order to keep their books accurate and make sound investments. These are the things we need to think about to move from the Valley of Despair to where we want to be.