EP 096: Most Impactful Business Lessons From the Start of Our Journey

Don’t you love those…
“Throw the book at the wall, moments”

You know what I mean… 😜

Seriously though…

This happened to me while reading the book “Cash Flow Quadrant”.

This book helped me come to a realisation that changed my life.

Honestly, it hit me like a ton of bricks…

So… yes.

Like a rational person…
I threw the book against the wall.

At that moment, I realised…

I wasn’t a business owner.

And was actually just self-employed 🤮

I built myself into a business that couldn’t operate without me.

In essence…
If I stopped.

The money stopped.

And as the business grew…

My only response was to run faster to keep up.

I was constantly hitting my head on a glass ceiling and struggling to scale further.

Looking back, today…

I can see other business owners falling into that trap.

They become so busy running the business that their life is an everyday grind.

Now…
Keep in mind, when this happened to me, I had a team around me.

However…
Each component of the output would go through me.

I acted as the communication between team members and micromanaged the output.

This cycle prevented the business from being able to run without me.

So don’t be mistaken though…

You can be a “business owner”, with a team; BUT you are in fact self-employed.

Changing this, and systemising my business is the bedrock of the business owner I am today.

If I hadn’t recognised that the fundamentals of my business were set up wrong.
And then acted on solving that…

The Charley I am today, would not be in this position.

Now don’t get me wrong…
In a sense…
This podcast is reliant on me to function.

I can see the hypocrisy… 😝
But in my eyes…

It’s okay to do things in your business.
( especially if you love them )

In many cases, there’s no alternative.

I’m referring more to the delusional business owners who are really self-employed…

Having the awareness of the mistakes I was making while running my business is what is responsible for me taking the pivot that I did.

And that’s why I’m sharing this story…

I’m hoping it helps you if you are in this situation.
( it’s what I wish someone told me earlier )

In this week’s podcast episode, Grant and I discuss how we left being self-employed and started developing our business owners’ mindset.