5%… 15%… 80%

Assemble any population. Randomly poll 100 business owners in your area in the IT industry. Look at your client base. Your employees. Your entire circle of friends. 100 sales people. Athletes or artists. Any small town. Your town. All the clients you serve…

Here’s what you’ll find: it can be divided into three distinct groups of 5%, 15% and 80%. The 5% are absolute winners, growing, thriving, making obscene amounts of money, 15% are doing fairly well and 80% are clueless, broke, and struggling. That’s true right now, in this recession, in your town, in this industry.

No matter how you reshuffle the deck, change the circumstances or the situation – these percentages have forever stood the test of time as documented by Pareto. Take all the money and success away from the 5% and give it to the 80%, and in short order, they’ll have it all back. Why is this? What is it about the 5%ers that allows them to stand head and shoulders above their peers given the exact same set of circumstances, same problems, the same obstacles to overcome? There are many reasons, all of which have been openly revealed on numerous occasions in thousands of “how to” success books, thereby diminishing the need to (yet again) regurgitate it here.

But — the bigger and more relevant question you should be asking yourself is this:

Which Group Are YOU In Right Now?

Yes, there is a point to this post and yes, in case you haven’t figured it out by now, it IS an attempt to sell you on something – but not what you might expect. What I’m REALLY delivering here is a little “tough love” to sell you on YOURSELF.

Let me explain…

When times get really tough it’s sorely tempting to run away from it all to sell coconuts on a beach somewhere warm. But keep this in mind: you are NOT alone.  Every single business owner – particularly high-achieving entrepreneurs with big goals – have been in your shoes, often more than once.  The human response to failure is to hole up, disconnect, and recoil. Fear sets in and clouds judgment; it causes you to do irrational things such as slowing down marketing your business when any sensible person would realize that’s NOT the proper response.  Dig a hole, crawl in it, and hope for a better tomorrow. But the difference between the 5%ers who accomplish much more, have more control over their circumstances, more freedom financially, and more security in their business, and the 80% who chronically work themselves to death without much of any progress is this…

The 5%ers don’t give up. They’ve disciplined themselves to not give up, give in, or take the bad lying down. They are incredibly resilient, self-disciplined, and just plain old stubborn. I like to call it “iron will.” Of course, there are many 80%ers who would much rather believe that the 5%ers have some special talent or secret that enables their success, that they were simply born without.

To quote Keith Cameron Smith, author of The Top 10 Distinctions Between Millionaires And The Middle Class: “Winners find a way, whiners find an excuse.”
So now, to the point of this post and a “crass” commercial for the upcoming BootCamp in April.   Since I don’t know what group you are in, I’ve written a personal message for each of the three groups, with each message sure to be relevant to those who belong to that group. If you find the message not resonating with you, perhaps you need to choose a different group

To the 5%ers:

Congratulations on your decision to attend. I have no doubt you’ll be thrilled with what you observe, learn, and discover at this event. How can I be so confident that you have already registered? Because the one thing I know for certain about the 5%ers is this: you can count on them to invest in themselves and to constantly seek the slight edge. They don’t have to use tired old excuses like “I don’t have the time” or “I don’t have the money” because, quite frankly, they DO have the money. And the reason they have the money is because they constantly, doggedly pursue excellence.

On a selfish note, my delight in your attendance goes much, much further than the money earned from the tuition you’ve paid.  Nothing is more energizing to me than collaborating with truly smart, driven entrepreneurs like you. It is one of the great fringe benefits of what I do. Your attendance is important to me because many of the other members know you or know of you, look for you, and want to meet you. They are inspired by your example as a serious student of marketing and business success.

To the 15%ers:

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As many of you know, the earthquakes in Haiti devastated the lives of millions of people; over 200,000 people lost their lives and 1.5 million are now homeless. This hit home even more when I discovered that Harry Brelsford (one of our Boot Camp speakers) had a niece that was there volunteering with her brother on an adult literacy project…and lost her leg after the building she was in collapsed on top of her. All she received in medical treatment were a couple of cough drops until she was flown to Miami for proper medical treatment. I don’t know about you, but hearing about what happened to her and all those people made me want to do something to help.

So, here’s what I’ve decided to do…

To drive donations, I’m going to give anyone coming to the Boot Camp a free guest ticket PROVIDED they promise to make a donation to a Haitian charity.

This is completely on the honor system and I do NOT want you to send the donations to me; please send your donations directly to the charity of your choice so #1, YOU get to pick the charity, #2, there’s no question about the donation being made and #3, you reap the positive ‘karma’ of doing a good deed. If you don’t have a favorite charity, the American Red Cross is a great organization that you can trust.

To be clear, giving away these seats is not cheap for us. Not only does it take away the revenue opportunity on selling that seat, but it costs us a pretty penny in catering, printing, staff, and administrative fees to deliver this. To that end, please don’t be too cheap in your donations. Again, this is 100% on the honor system so I’m trusting that anyone who takes me up on this will do the right thing and donate (at the very least) $100 or more to pay for their seat.

Here’s how you can take advantage of this and help out a good cause:

#1. Go to the Boot Camp web site and register: http://www.robinsbigseminar.com/register-now

#2. When you check out, put the name of your guest in the comments box, or just e-mail their name to us within a week.

#3. Go online and make a donation to a Haitian charity to “pay” for your guest’s ticket.

If you have any questions, please feel free to call our office at 615-790-5011.

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I remember my first $20,000 month…

It was back in the fall of 2003 and for me, it was a HUGE milestone. I remember thinking if I could do THAT, imagine being able to close $30,000 a month…$40,000 a month…even $50,000 a month! I remember the excitement as I calculated the numbers.

Today, I’d be in BIG trouble if we only closed $50,000 a month. And last year, I actually had a $452,088 DAY. Now I don’t say that to brag…certainly there are a lot of businesses that are doing far better than we are and that doesn’t make me “better” than anyone. But what it does mean is that I have some insights on what it takes to grow a multi-million dollar consulting business from the ground up.

How did I do it? Well, there are many things that I needed to get “right” and far more than I can comment on in this post. However, there is ONE really big key I’ve learned and discovered…that is the concept of leverage.

Let me explain…

The biggest income-limiting mistake for the independent consultant – be it technology or otherwise — is trying to get rich trading hours for dollars. Even at a 100% utilization (which is impossible), you would need to bill out at the rate of $480.76 per HOUR to make a million dollars. And over-achievers working 60 hour weeks still need to charge $320.51 per hour to hit the million dollar mark – and that is not accounting for all the non-billable, non-earning hours you have to put in to manage, market and deliver those services. No matter how smart you are, how proficient you run your business, no matter how organized you are, the reality is you can’t get truly rich simply trading hours for dollars.

That’s why leverage is so important…and based on my dealings with thousands of small IT business owners, most do NOT understand this concept. If they did, they would stop thinking that “more time” is the solution to all their problems. They would stop chasing the shiny new penny and stop focusing all their efforts on more new customers to solve their revenue problems. Yes, getting new customers is important, but should NOT be your sole solution to your lack of revenue problem. Dramatic increases to income and profits are made NOT by working harder or putting in more hours, but by leveraging the assets  you already have…be it clients, opportunities, market trends, systems, employees and partnerships.

Other leverage points often overlooked are information and experience…and only a tiny percentage of people actually “get” this and turn it into revenue. Also systems and how to use them to maximize the productivity and profit out of EVERY customer touch point, sale, and opportunity. Also knowing how to synergistically plan projects, marketing campaigns and initiatives that enable you to take $1 and leverage it to serve multiple purposes, feed multiple goals and secure on-going profits rather than serve a one-shot opportunity.

Conversely, you also have to know when a project, action item or initiative is under producing or doesn’t have the opportunity to be leveraged properly…and then have the strength of character to put a bullet in it regardless of the short-term consequences.

Clearly, this is only one small, tiny (but significant) part of taking your business to the next level. But if you are already up against the wall without another minute available to do marketing, that’s all the MORE you need to understand and apply the concept of leverage…you can’t grow your business because there ARE no more hours in the day.

That’s also why it’s important for you to join me and your peers at the upcoming 3-day Boot Camp in Nashville, April 14 – 17th: www.robinsbigseminar.com  At the Boot Camp I’ll be delivering a powerful evening seminar on this very topic: “How To Get Clients To Line Up And Pay You Seemingly Enormous Fees For Consulting” and teaching you how to use leverage to get you to the next level in your business and in your life. While there you’ll most certainly learn many other high-leverage strategies to help you get to the 7-figure level and beyond.

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I’ve gotten this question from many of you to date… well here’s your answer!

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