Sunday, March 11, 2007

Modeling Your Business After Millionaires

One of the best pieces of advice you can take is to look at successful people and model their behavior.

And, for whatever reason, we in the United States look to people who have achieved a net worth of a million dollars and say that they are "successful."

I take issue with that definition of success. Money is a result of success. Money is not success.
Success means reaching your goals. And that involves happiness and friendship and many other things besides money.

Having said that . . .

In the world of business and finance, the mark of a net worth of a million dollars is still worth paying attention to.

And here's something to think about: You get to work with millionaires all the time. Tune in and learn. Who are these millionaires? Your clients, of course!

I don't know why most people haven't realized this. Most of your established clients have that "magical" net worth of a million dollars. Think about it. Lawyers and doctors; real estate agents and insurance brokers; professional consultants and construction contractors.

You never know who's over-leveraged on their finances. But as a rule, when you've got a client with 20-30 desktops, and they've been in business for ten or more years, it's a sure bet that they're worth at least a million.

And whether or not you're already in that situation yourself, you have a lot to learn from these millionaires.

How do they act? Are they nice people? How do they organize their day, their life, and their desk? What are their spending habits?

While every person is different, and people of different temperments can become wealthy, you will find many similarities between them. Tune in and learn.

Many people who work for large corporations look down their noses at small businesses and SMB consultants. But most of those people are middle management and never interact with millionaires, except perhaps their boss or her boss. They haven't considered that many of the people they look down on are also wealthy: small business owners.

You really do have a great opportunity here. If you want to find wealthy people, so you can model their behavior, then you need look no further than your own clients. And chances are, if you're a small consultant, that you are actually on very friendly terms with these people. Take them to lunch and take an interest in what they do and how they do it.

Tune in and learn.

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