Trading Up and My ’10 Rules’ Cheat Sheet on How to do it Right
June 13th, 2019 // 2:03 pm @ Scott Manning
Last week, we talked about bettering your best and competing against yourself. I want to take that a step further and say you know winning doesn’t come without sacrifice.
And that’s an understatement. Most business owners don’t really acknowledge what they have to realistically DO (and even give up), in order to achieve their goals. That’s why you want to make sure your goals are YOUR GOALS and worth what it takes to make them your reality.
I like to think of winning and achieving as trading up in your life and business. And that is what today’s message is all about.
I know you’ve heard the saying,
“If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting what you’ve always got.”
Yet so many people do exactly this in their business and expect to succeed.
Well, picking up from where we left off last week, I want to talk with you about one of the secrets to my success.
I call it – TRADING UP.
Now, before you read into it, as the name attempts to give away the concept, let me give you a couple other explanations.
The biggest problem and challenge I see with other business people and entrepreneurs on why they do not find ‘bigger’ success and really gain ground financially is because of this reason:
They think they can find an opportunity and figure out what works, then continue doing that over and over again until they finally add up enough money, customers, success to achieve their goals.
It doesn’t happen that way.
Now, you may have a really good business, but, if you want to achieve any type of growth, then you have to be CHANGING along the way, maybe a better word is improving.
Also, people lock themselves into opportunities that cannot, ever, possibly, not a chance, provide them with the success and income they are hoping for.
That’s why you must always be looking for a ‘trading up opportunity’.
Understand, I did not say a Bright Shiny Object opportunity. Sometimes those are needed to facilitate growth, but I’m talking about something bigger than a “thing.”
It could be trading up the quality of your customers or team.
It could be trading up your price points.
It could be trading up your services and expanded the things you offer.
It could be trading up your business model and moving into a higher potential opportunity.
Here’s the deal, you only have so much time in a day. It’s the one thing that makes us all equal…24 hours.
The single greatest difference between the haves and have-nots is the opportunities they invest their time in on a daily basis.
Working hard will make you more money, not working will make you no money.
BUT –
If two people both work hard, both work smart, both do everything the same… What determines their level of success?
THE SIZE OF THE OPPORTUNITY!
I call the act, behavior, discipline, and approach to choosing opportunities, growing your business, and increasing the potential in your life – TRADING UP.
If you take all of your non-buyers and you follow-up on them and continue the relationship and conversation instead of doing nothing or sending emails only, you traded up your opportunity.
If you look for bigger, better, higher quality customers, patients and clients, you traded up your opportunity.
This is what we do for our Doctors. We help them trade up in their approach to get more out of what they have already got and to create something dramatically better by transforming what is to what can be.
It is all about looking for ways to trade up value of time, value of team, value of work, value of patients, value of money.
This, my friends, is how you grow a business instead of just have a job that you happen to own. Because once you have a foundation in place it’s now about trading up the opportunities.
That’s what being an entrepreneur is all about.
Are you trading up?
I don’t have the time to make a complete list or go into more detail, but here’s a fast 10 step checklist to open your mind to more opportunity and to condition yourself to always be expanding the potential.
My Rule’s for Trading Up:
1.Evaluate your life and business (at least) every 6 months
2.Saying “yes” to something means saying “no” to something else
3.Always be aware of your opportunity cost
4.You must have guidelines for what you accept, not based on emotion
5.Invest time and have strategies in place to facilitate new opportunities
6.At the end of the day, you can’t buy your way to bigger opportunities (many times investment is required, but not by itself); you will find “trading up” opportunities through relationships
7.Attitude, Reputation, Performance, Work Ethic attracts opportunity
8.Commit to a “trading up” opportunity and set yourself up to make it happen
9.Eyes on the lookout for what’s next and antennas up for opportunity
10.Once you take an opportunity, make the most of it, expand on it, leverage it for “what’s next”, and always bring people along with you for the ride
Hope you make some use out of that list and get focused on what being an entrepreneur is really all about.
Category : Blog
