If you’re an entrepreneur at the early stages of success, most likely you’ve pondered how best to get your business to the next level of growth. To create high value opportunities to pursue what matters to you, and be massively compensated for doing so, you must increase your value to others first.
To begin, let’s define an “early-stage entrepreneur” as a person whose business currently sustains them at a “self-employed” job level, but not at the level where their financial flow allows them to be free to do whatever they please in a day. If this describes where you’re at right now in your business, allow me to add value to you!
Without exception, every entrepreneur I’ve worked with has a burning desire to attain a level of financial success that would enable them to spend all their “work time” being creative and innovative, constantly in a “state to play” with ideas that matter to them and bring more value to the marketplace.
Even when your vision about your greater future is clear, you still need an answer you feel confident is the right one to the question of “how do I get there? Here are three ideas that may help you gain more clarity about how you will go about creating more opportunity by expanding your value to others.
Supply is infinite, time is finite. There are two variables in life common to all of us– potential and time. We all have the same amount of both in a day.
There is no more time available than what is provided in a day. You choose how you occupy your time across the 24 hours in a single earth rotation. Take 8 hours off for sleep, and the most you have available for creating and experiencing what you want is 16 hours.
On the other hand, within a single earth rotation, there is infinite supply of “potential opportunity” as yet unrealized. To attract this potential opportunity to you, start by shifting your thinking from the world of the finite or competitive plane (current perception of lack and limitation) to the realm of the infinite or creative plane. (creativity and innovation to create more value). It is from the latter that all “value” is created. The source of infinite supply is found within you–always available for your use. The formula is simple: perceived value x leverage = wealth!
Make a big space in your life for big changes. Most early-stage entrepreneurs get stuck in the repetitive cycle of creating “survival-based” results. At the early stage of the journey, it can sometimes feel overwhelming just to keep the boat floating! Many believe outer forces–the state of the economy, not enough capital, influential contacts, or cheaper competitors–determine their results. Over time, many unconsciously set their efforts at the threshold of survival, and believe greater achievements are simply not in the cards.
Start by making a big space in your life for it to happen. Stop what you are doing step back and make an assessment of your scene. Get rid of anything in your business and your life that does not support you. And I mean everything! Making a big space requires making big changes– in your thinking, limiting beliefs, your habits, your relationships, your support and organizational structure. Change whatever it takes to fill the space with higher-value relationships that represent greater financial appreciation for the value you provide.
Then each year, set the bar ever higher. Instead of each client transaction representing $10,000, over time it becomes $100,000. You don’t increase your workload; you increase your perceived value to your clients and customers. Embrace change and experience constant growth. Growth leads to a constant increase in your confidence that ever-greater opportunity will always seek you out.
Be really good and really different. This idea might seem like an over simplification on the surface, but the effects of this principle will have a profound impact on your ability to create bigger opportunity to experience financial freedom through your business.
In every product or service category there is commodization. We live in a time and society where there is an abundance of everything in the marketplace. Anytime there is an abundant supply, customers have abundant choice. When customers have abundant choice among products or services, they perceive little difference in the value they provide. Consequently, they set the price.
This is what keeps many early-stage entrepreneurs on the short end of the stick when it comes to their power in the buying cycle. Whatever you provide must be perceived as highly valued by your customers (because your value is unique and in short supply) and highly differentiated (from the slush pile of your competitors in the marketplace).
Never think for a moment that what has made another successful will make you likewise. You have to follow your own unique path and expression in creating value for others. Creating value begins by engaging in what really matters to you! The world is already full of me-too stuff! Always remember this–value is in the eye of the beholder! You job is to grow the “quality of your presence” through your unique gifts and strengths.
To experience higher levels of business and life success, you must first understand the difference between meeting demand and creating it. To get there, you must become a value creator as opposed to an order taker!
Thomson Dawson helps creative entrepreneurs and solo professionals gain more clarity and confidence to pursue their best opportunities for a bigger, better future. Get your FREE Guide to Building a Competition Proof Business: www.whitehotcenter.com
To read more from Thomas Dawson, view: Money, money, money!
