How to become a lasting entrepreneur

RECENTLY I worked with a gentleman who is a great entrepreneur.

He was driven, but he’s been a little on the altruistic side, so he has not maximised his profits. He had come to realise that he was doing all this work and “sacrificing” himself for others.

Certainly, working diligently for the sake of fulfilling the needs of others is part of being a great entrepreneur, but that doesn’t make a lasting entrepreneur.

If a person’s own values aren’t fulfilled, then their business won’t be sustainable, because they will burn out doing it.

Systems to maximise profits

So it’s important to make sure that you structure the business systems to make sure that it is efficient for maximising profits. If you don’t have a value on making a profit, you probably won’t end up with a profit.

Perhaps you have noticed that if you don’t take a portion of your income off the top and put it in savings and then investments, unexpected bills will keep eroding all your potential to save. You have to pay yourself first, not last, or you’ll probably never have money left over to save.

Many altruistic people claim: “When I get a bit extra, then I’ll begin to save”. But this is not the wisest way to get ahead. You have to save and invest your money up front instead of waiting for it. You have to seed or initiate it and then you will receive more money to save and manage. When you manage money wisely, you receive more money to manage. So you have to have a value in maximising your ROI or profits.

When a new CEO takes over a company, their values will infiltrate that company. That company will then change its own profit margins based on where the drive for service and profits are in their own value system. There are many companies that have huge volume with little margins as well as others that have low volume and huge margins.

Raking in the dough

I know a guy who sat in his underwear at his computer each day making $2m a month. He was a master of the internet.

He was looking for everything that people were searching for, and everybody was providing services to fulfill those little niches and he was linking these together and getting a percentage of each one of those through an affiliate programme and he was just raking in the dough. And he had only his computer and the internet, that was all. High profit margin, low cost.

But I also know a manufacturing company that I worked with once that had about a 5% margin and was doing about $300m and every year was stressful. Any tiny little dip could kill it. And I can assure you, that had something to do with the CEO who was running the show, the leader of that organisation’s value system.

Always up your game

But if the CEOs are looking at how they can make the business more effective and efficient to maximise profits, they are constantly looking at how they can restructure. An entrepreneur has to constantly restructure to maximise their company profits, because otherwise, if the business doesn’t keep up with efficient innovative technologies, other companies will come in and grab those niches.

It’s a game of predator and prey. There are constant predators out there trying to get hold of your niche. You won’t be able to carry on doing what you were doing five years ago anymore. It is essential that you constantly up your game.

So if you don’t have a value of refinement, you’ll stagnate, and you probably won’t be able to compete in filling niches in the world. So, it is wise to first dedicate your life to serving, but you also have to dedicate yourself to refining and maximising profits.  It is wise to balance out your altruistic service with your narcissistic rewards.

* Dr John Demartini is a human behaviour specialist, educator, author and the founder of the Demartini Institute. See www.DrDemartini.com