James Laughlin 00:00
Welcome to lead on purpose. I'm James Laughlin, a former seven-time world champion musician and now an executive coach to global leaders and high performers. Each week, I'll publish a Solocast, where I'll share my top high-performance habits and methodologies to supercharge your life and career. If you enjoy the show, please take a short moment to subscribe and leave a rating and review. I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks for taking the time to connect today and investing in yourself. Enjoy the show.
James Laughlin 00:48
A huge welcome back to lead on purpose. It's James Laughlin here, I'm so excited to connect with you. And often I get people writing in questions or sending me a lot of messages on Instagram and LinkedIn around things that they're trying to think about trying to strategize trying to help others with. And this is a question that comes in often and I wanted to address it today. And that is how do you succeed in business? Well, first things first, you have got to learn to fail. Nobody succeeded without failing, go back to when you walk, you know, go back to nine months old, there's no way you just popped up in a way you were perfectly. You had a few stumbles and trips and falls took you weeks, maybe months to start to get a bit of confidence, years to get really confident to run without scraping and falling. So, you've got to learn to embrace failure. However, when it comes to business, absolute failure means the end of the business. So, we want to avoid that. Micro failure and failing fast are really important. I want to give you some stats. One in five US businesses fail in their first year. You look across many other Western societies. That's no different. This is from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. By the way, by year 3, 38% of businesses fail, by year five 50% and 10 years in 65% of businesses fail. How crazy is that? 65%. So if there were 1000 businesses started today, in 10 years’ time 650 of them would no longer be here. How sad. How sad. And the question is why? Well, here's why. The number one reason that businesses fail, particularly in the first few years, is cashflow problems. What does that come down to managing money? Look, people who start businesses are often creative. They're often visionaries. You know, think of Richard Branson visionaries. Right? Not all visionaries have great mathematical accounting brains. I'm one for sure, right? I like to be creative and think and be entrepreneurial. But I have an accountant. I work with a lot of companies who have amazing CFOs there's no way the founder, president or CEO would take on the responsibility of all the financial side of things, they got a CFO to take care of that. So cashflow problems, managing money is a crucial, crucial aspect of making sure that you succeed in business. Secondly, you know, a lack of demand for the product or service. I totally understand people getting excited about a new product, new software, a new service. But unless you actually do proper research and ask the market, you know, do you want it? Do your product market fit? Is it essential? And whatever you're providing, it is going to provide a solution to a hair on fire problem. I have an amazing client I work with really enjoy conversations with him and he's in the SAS business and talks about setting up a SAS business that whenever you're doing your research, you need to talk to potential clients who you're creating this product for the software. And you want to ask them about these problems. And you say no, if I can get a solution for that problem, you know, is that a hair on fire problem? Like oh, my goodness, the world is falling apart. If it's a yes, well, you get enough of those yeses. All of a sudden, there, you know, there's a there's going to be a demand for your product. You know, a product like Xero and I don't get any royalties or endorsements from Xero for saying this, but it's an accounting software I've used for a long time. And if they were to shut it down tomorrow, my hair would be on fire. And if someone stepped in and said, Hey, here's an alternative. I jumped right on it. So, will your business and your new products new services? Well, they solve a hair on fire problem. Another reason why businesses fail is not researching the competition. So many businesses that fail, they're willfully blind. They know there's competition out there, but they don't spend time analyzing them. Look when I go back to my world champion drummer days when I was trying to be the world's best drummer, I was constantly analyzing critiquing my competition. How are they performing? What instruments do they use? How do they tune them? What's the structure of their music and the theory of what they're doing? What's the posture? You know, what's the tempo? What's the dynamic variations? No different in business. Who are your competitors? Where do they live? Who do they serve? What are they charged? What's better about their product than yours? What are they, you know, what are they doing to innovate? How do you keep on top of that? How do they market? What's their team structure like? What's their customer service like? So, when you don't research the competition, chances are it's going to compete you and beat you. Fourth, you know, having the wrong team members, selecting poor leaders, is a huge issue. And fifth, burnout, you know, people try to go too hard, too quick. And often, it's SOS shiny object syndrome, starting out in business, or developing a new product, you're kind of saying yes to everything. That in and of itself is such a challenge. And when I'm working with startups, my question is what your monomaniacal focus is. And that has to be centered around? What is the problem that you have the solution to? Everything else should be noisy, you double down on that one thing, get doubling down on the one thing, and as always, I like to recommend books, love to read. And a great friend of mine wrote a book and co-authored a book called The One Thing, his name is Jay Papasan. And it's all about getting clear on what's the most important thing that's going to turn the dial. So, you won't burn out if you're focused on the most important work. That way, you can strike some counterbalance. So that's why businesses fail. And the reason you're listening to this episode is because the title is How to Succeed in Business. So, I'm going to finish with how does one succeed in business, I can just tell you now, not every business that I have run has been successful. And in fact, the ones that I have found and established that weren't as successful, I learned more from that than I did from the ones that were successful. Because it's easy to be successful. It's easy when you're on top. But when you're losing or failing. That's difficult. But that's where the greatest lessons are. And so what I'm about to share with you in terms of how to succeed in business that comes from my own experience, but also with the great companies that I get to consult to with the great leaders that I work with one to one, and also the professional athletes and teams that I work with these themes that I'm going to share with you. They appear in all of the successful organizations and teams that I've ever dealt with. So please have pen and paper ready, please note these down and ask yourself, Am I clear on these? Okay, there's only a small handful of insights I'm going to give you right now. But I want you to actually ask yourself, Am I clear on each of these? Five in total. So, first ones, first, have a clear vision, have a clear vision be really, really clear about what your vision is. And it shouldn't be a vision for the week, you've got to have a vision that, that challenges you that stretches you that inspires you that borderline scares you, then you have a vision. So, have you got a clear vision? I want you to write that one down. Have I got a clear vision? If you do, write it down. In fact, I like to go to the next level, write it down, take a screenshot of it, share it with me on social media, put it up on your stories or send it to me or tag me in it would be great. What's your vision? I want to know what the world needs to know. Secondly, have a clear plan. It's interesting that most lenders banks want you to present a business plan, scrapped the business plan. Don't start that until you've got your vision. So, first was the vision. Now it’s, have a clear plan. Okay, how we're going to execute to achieve that vision. And again, that plan should be specific. It should be time specific. It should have a team wrapped around it with roles, responsibilities, strategies. Third, if you want to succeed in business, particularly in those early years, keep your expenses low. I mean, it sounds so simple. You might hear your grandfather say it, right? But keep your expenses low. Many people who see failing in business are those who get a little bit of traction going and all of a sudden they're buying private jets and Lamborghinis and yacht trips and splashing on champagne. You know what some of the most success Small business owners I've ever interviewed met or coached, they wear the same pair of jeans, with a very plain t shirt or a polo shirt. And pretty much the same pair of shoes,
James Laughlin 10:10
they drive a nice car, nothing crazy. They take nice holidays, nothing crazy. Keep your expenses low. And as you grow that business and grow that revenue, and that net profit, keep your lifestyle the same. Don't go crazy, you only add more stress to your plate, and you will increase the chances of failing in business. Number four, here's a really crucial one. This is what I'm very passionate about. Utilize and build your network. You must do that. If you want to succeed in business or in life, you've got to utilize and build your network. What do I mean by utilize? Well, you've got people you know, they've got people they know. And they've got people around them who need things solved. If you are the solver of a problem, make sure you're letting people know what problem you solve. Don't be shy, ask for help. Be proud of your achievements. Know who you serve, know who you don't serve, and go in there and let your network know what you do. And that works when you add value. So, ask yourself, How do I add more value to my network? And build that network. How do you do that? Get around new people, show up, be a part of a mastermind go to a networking event, go to a personal development or professional development event seminar. You know my high-performance leadership event I bring in there's usually between 80 to 100, leaders of all ages and stages from all over Australasia. And they get together and they have a lot of fun, they do a lot of learning, but they create friendships for life. And those friendships are professional as well. They're helping each other Yeah, can help you, I'll introduce you to this person. It's amazing to watch. Absolutely amazing. Last but not least, invest in training your team members. At the end of the day, if you're not developing your team members, they're going to get stale, they're going to get bored, and it's going to cost you in the end. Nobody wants to hang around a business that doesn't support their growth and wellbeing. So, invest in training, I'm always just so excited to see a company go, you know what we're going to develop and invest in our people. And it's going to help, it's going to help them, it's going to help their families and an end does end up helping the company too. So if you want to succeed in business over the long term, you've got to invest in your people, get them the coaching, you know, buy them the books, get keynote speakers to come in, I was recently asked to come and speak at a local government organization, and they have what they call Culture Club. And no, it's not. It's not a singing karaoke lunchtime gig, I wouldn't be much good at that. But Culture Club was a place where they bring in a speaker, a key guest every month. And it was really cool to see a handful of people from the organization come in and take notes and ask questions and want to grow their mindset skill set. I mean, it speaks volumes. So, if you're in a company, what does that company do to really invest in you? If you run that company or you're a senior leader, what do you do to invest in your people? What kind of mentorship coaching, training? What have you got there for them? What does the library look like when they walk into your office? Is it full of books that they can take at their leisure? I want to continually challenge you on that. So, look, thank you for connecting today and investing in your own growth in your leadership development. And to lead others we must learn to lead ourselves and that's never a destination, it's constant and never ending. So, until next time, please get out there and lead your life on purpose.
James Laughlin 14:17
Thanks for tuning in today and investing in your own personal leadership. Please hit that subscribe button. And I'd love if you leave me a rating and review. I've got some amazing guests lined up for you in the coming weeks. And leaders. It's not time to get out there. lead your life on purpose.