Category Archives: Financial Freedom

Even if you’ve never seen the movie, you’ve heard the famous line from Jerry Maguire, when Tom Cruise screams, “Show me the money!”

That might as well be the mantra of every business person, yes? Remember from the last blog: that’s what we’re doing this for. Not to ‘get by,’ not for a hobby or a part-time side project, but because we’re going to go all out and get rich doing it.

So when we get our business off the ground and that money starts coming in, we feel good that we’re going somewhere, right?  Well, yes, but there’s more.

The problem is most business owners don’t know the difference between money that comes in and money that’s always available. It’s such a small distinction that makes a huge difference, yet so many business people don’t get it, and that’s why their business becomes their job—if they’re among those that make it past three to five years—instead of their money machine.

We have to make some clearer distinctions about that money that’s coming in. Most people put their attention only on revenue. Is that important? Absolutely! But rich business people put their attention on more than just the money that’s coming in. The other areas that must be addressed in order for a business to grow are expenses and cash flow, and then profit.

Revenue does not equal profit. The average person in business says, ‘Okay, how much money came in today?’ and that’s it. They don’t even know what their expenses are. If they did, they don’t track them. People have no idea as to how big a role expenses can play in your bottom line, your profitability.

If your business has a 20% net, what that means is that out of every dollar that comes in as revenue, 80 cents goes to expenses to run the business, and 20 cents is left. You have to multiple every dollar you spend by either five or ten to account for expenses.

The fastest way to blow up your business is with expenses. Every one of them costs you five to even ten times what you think it’s costing you.

Secondly, we have to consider timing. There is a big difference between money coming in and money that will be coming in that leads to cash flow! Most people run into trouble because they can’t pay their expenses, let alone generate cash flow for further investing back into the business to grow it.

And that’s not necessarily because they don’t have the sales or revenue. It’s because that revenue hasn’t come in yet but the bills sure have. By far more businesses go under because of poor timing more than poor sales.

If you get paid after you’ve delivered the goods—that might as well be like raking nails across a chalkboard to my ears! There are established companies that do that, but first bring in the cash flow that is more prevalent than the expenses, and then you can start to spend some money!

There’s revenue, cash, expenses, profit and timing. Get this right and you’ll get rich.

Now it’s your turn! Do you have stories about learning these lessons firsthand? Most business owners have experienced this in one way or another. We’d love to gain more knowledge and sharing within the community!

Whether you’re rich now, on your way to being rich, or just thinking about it, everyone has fantasized about what it would be like for money—or rather lack of it—not to be a problem.

Most people stay in the realm of fantasy, maybe dipping out occasionally to buy a lottery ticket. Another group, not satisfied with the 9 to 5 grind, takes a few more risks and pours their energy into business ideas, opportunities and companies. Most will fail within three to five years.

But there are those fewer people with the skill (which can be learned through modeling), willpower and creativity who are successful. There is another attribute, though, that separates them from the poor, and that is intention.

Most people say their financial goal is to make money. Yes or yes? That’s a good reason, but the issue is that’s not specific enough. If you have a wishy-washy intention, you’re going to get a wishy-washy result.

Rich Business People Have Three Financial Intentions:

1. To have a very high working income
2. To create passive income
3. Dramatically enhance the value of their company

What’s the intention that poor people have? To earn a living. To earn a decent living. That’s what they’re in business for. They don’t even consider they’re in a business as a way to create passive income and even more importantly to create wealth.

A business is not a job. A business is too much work with too many challenges to just go out there to earn a decent living.

The business is designed to be a vehicle to set you free and create nothing short of wealth! Rich people understand that business is simply two components: either buy or create something and sell it for more than it costs you. That’s it!

Most broke people have struggles, put most of their energy and attention not on the buying, creating, and selling but on the administrative and operations arena—the organizing of those two things—and that is a mistake.

Operations are very important, but it’s not the essence of the business. Go back to the cave people: ‘Here’s a piece of meat. I want your stick.’ That’s it! There’s no customer service. There’s no tech support. There’s no finance department. There’s no reporting. There’s no furniture and there’s no computers. ‘Your stick, my meat! Let’s go!’ That’s business!

Buying and creating and selling. Everything else is just icing on the cake.

This knowledge helps focus the intention of why we’re talking millionaire success strategies. The basics help, but the intention has to come from the simplest truth. When we’re going into business, we’re not going halfway. You could, but would that be much better than working a typical job?

When we’re talking about our money blueprints, these basics of why we go into business have to be drawn up into the foundation. It’s so simple and powerful yet not very well understood. Knowing this helps put you back into focus when the inevitable challenges arise, or when you face disappointments and setbacks.

You are doing this because you are going to be rich! Whatever other intentions are attached to that—for family, to buy nice things, to travel, to be an artist, whatever—don’t have to conflict with this truth.

You are doing this to be rich and to be free!

Now it’s your turn!  What are you financial intentions?  Are they wishy-washy and you need to change them now?  Are they solid and moving you forward?  Share below—I want to hear from you!

Last week we touched on a couple of basic rules to think about before looking for financing for your enterprise or project.

If you’re having trouble getting off the ground, is there another business you can start that doesn’t require as much money?  Can it wait until funding is easier to come by? Have you exhausted all available means? Guarantee you most people haven’t, and here’s why.

First, the more common sources of financing, like bank loans. You know … when you’re praying for them to say “Yes,” or on the flipside—when you don’t really need the money they give it to you anyway? However, credit is pretty hard to come by these days.

You can also find someone with collateral who would be willing to co-sign a loan; another standard method that tends to be forgotten. Lots of people started their finance history with a co-signed loan, didn’t they? Whether it’s school, your first car, or first credit card, yes? Another reminder to keep good relations with those closest to you.

Private lending parties are another option, or partnering with someone who has the collateral. The easiest way to get money is home equity. When you have some equity in your home or something else that they can take, getting money is usually not a big problem.

But now let’s go to something that can change the whole way you do business. This is going back to the basics of business, which is buying and selling. Only you reverse the order. Pre-sell your product or services before you have to buy or deliver it.

I have never had a problem with cash flow in my life because I insist on doing this before and during the enterprise. This isn’t just for initial financing but as an ongoing rule of business.

Think about it. Ask yourself, “Why should I pay for the product? If you want it, you pay for it.” The customer is just paying for it a little early.

The typical mentality of business is that people want to see the product before they buy it—even though they’re not really seeing anything except the product’s packaging most of the time, yes? Remember: the mind of a millionaire can’t think like everyone else.

Who says the money can’t come until the customer gets their product? People pre-order things all the time. The key is to create or take advantage of a demand, or even a perceived demand. That’s where marketing comes into play, which if done effectively can be much cheaper than actual production.

By reversing the buy/sell order, you also cut down on carrying costs. And let’s not forget the risks you cut down on by not over-producing and then not selling. Instead, sell to a high volume buyer from a sample or a prototype.

For goodness sakes: don’t produce 1,000 or 10,000 of something and then try to sell it! Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? But that’s exactly what a lot of people do, people who aren’t in business anymore.

Make that shift now! ‘People don’t have to see the finished product’. Some people will insist on it. Great! You insist, too.

See? You can jumpstart an enterprise with a little creative financing (and thinking!) that doesn’t have to cost you an arm, leg, or mortgage.

Best,

T. Harv Eker

What’s that old adage … it takes money to make money?

As lots of us in the Millionaire Mind community know, that’s just not true. Money helps, obviously. It lends toward confidence and a sense of “safety”. And it can make things more expedient. But is money absolutely necessary to, for example, start a business? No. Many a millionaire has lost it all, fell into extraordinary debt (You think yours is bad?!?—try owing millions like Trump did), yet bounced back.

“It takes money to make money” is something people without it say to make themselves feel safe and secure in their inaction. Then they don’t have to leave the comfort zone and really go out there and get it. Or maybe a lot of people just don’t know that there are other ways to finance your endeavors.

I wanted to touch upon a few fundamentals in this and my next blog post when it comes to looking for capital. The hardest part, believe it or not, is imagination, which is actually fairly easy once you really grasp it.

The wealthiest people in the world didn’t get to where they are by doing what everybody else does.

Rich people use creative financing. They get all the money they need while poor folks look for financing the way everybody else does—loans, etc.—and seldom get a penny, or only after exhaustive, frustrating searches.

While time can be a factor no matter what, there are some basic options to think about before you start running off like a mad-person:

#1: Don’t Start Yet

Wait. Do something else that doesn’t take that kind of money. Very obvious, yes, but needs to be said. You don’t have to hit a home run first diuretics time up at the plate. Get a couple of singles, maybe a double, and gain some confidence.

#2: If It’s Not Working, Do Something Different

We all have these plans, yes? Sometimes they work, sometimes not so much. What do you do when the Universe says, “Nope, this ain’t happening”? Get frustrated and start beating yourself up? No … just try it another way. Again, obvious, but sometimes things are so obvious they become invisible.

There are people who will wait until they think a plan is totally perfect and seemingly solid before they take any action. These are the types that get easily frazzled and distracted when that rock solid plan starts showing some cracks. You have to be flexible and ready to accept that maybe you need to try something else. Flexibility is the key word here.

There are always means toward starting something. You don’t have to have the ultimate way right now. Start where you can. Start where you are. Start with what you’ve got. And as counter-intuitive as it may seem, one of the first rules of financing: You don’t need the financing! Change the way you’re going about it.

Next week we’ll take a look at some more options when it comes to financing, from the usual methods to something most people in this world don’t do, won’t ever think to do, yet it can change the way you do business forever.

Now it’s your turn!  How about you … any tips you’ve discovered along the way for out-of-the-ordinary financing? The sky’s the limit, and there are just as many creative ways to go about attaining capital as there is imagination in the Universe!

Be grateful!

We hear it all the time, at least in a community of fellow seekers who want to grow their financial success building as much as their spiritual peace. Life has its highs and lows, but the one thing that’s the same no matter where we are on the wheel is that there are always many things to be grateful for.

It’s easy to be grateful when it doesn’t really require a ton of effort, like saying “please” or “thank you.” It’s easy to be grateful when things are going great. But what about when things aren’t going quite as planned?

Everyone’s been there. The mind starts going into “what’s wrong,” or what’s not enough, what’s too much to deal with, too much to do in order to overcome an obstacle and reach a goal. In some ways it’s natural, but when it becomes a habit then the pity party is simply a safer choice. 

The truth is it takes much more courage to appreciate what we’ve got—no matter how little it may seem—than it is to surrender to the scarcity model and let ourselves off the hook for taking action because something isn’t enough.

Our egos will tell us that if we spend too much time being grateful for what we have, we won’t try to get more, and we’ll become stuck with being “content” instead of happy.

Wanting what we currently have has nothing to do with somehow tricking ourselves into “settling.” Just because you’re buying an economy car now that’s practical but not so hot-looking doesn’t mean you won’t want a Ferrari three years from now when you’re rich. It’s not hard to be grateful for that fact that you have four wheels to drive and get to where you need to go. There are plenty of people in this world that don’t have that, with consequences we couldn’t imagine.

It’s the lack-based protective mind that continuously hungers for more, like a squirrel hording nuts for winter. The scarcity model, constantly looking around, overlooks and discounts what’s right in front of us. We have to consistently remind ourselves to look for “what’s right” in our lives instead of “what’s wrong.”

Then we’ll be less likely not to forget to show our appreciation to the people who are closest to us; our family, friends, loved-ones, co-workers, employees. Then there are teachers, postal workers—all the people that make our daily lives more convenient and enrich our larger communities. And let’s not forget to say “thank you” to the Universe for our many blessings.

Gratitude particularly holds true when it comes to finances. To have abundance, be grateful for and properly manage whatever wealth you have now, even if you don’t think it’s much. Why? If you’re not appreciating what you already have, that means you’re not maximizing what’s available right now. If you can’t do that, why should the Universe believe you can handle more?

Now it’s your turn!  Declare your gratitude to the millionaire mind community. Who and what have you not fully appreciated?  What are some of the things that you think we tend to take for granted? Below list the people and things in your life for which you are grateful. Show your appreciation to the people who mean the most to you for all that you have.