Five Keys To Success You Cannot Ignore

Everyone wants to know the handful of things they need to do in order to be financially free. We all want the keys to success.

Unfortunately, there are not just a few keys to success. There are dozens.

But in the interest of keeping my readers happy, I have distilled success down to five things (if for no other reason than to have a good title to an article).

So here they are. The five keys to business success:

Focus on Growth

It’s convenient for college educated folks (particularly millennials) to believe that simply hanging your shingle will result in people flocking to you in droves.

It’s easy to rationalize that all those years spent in school entitle you to the lifestyle you feel you have “earned” by studying and practicing in the comfort of an academic environment.

You trick yourself into believing that being a great practitioner will be enough to establish a reputation that will attract people to you.

Stop fooling yourself.

If you don’t spend AT LEAST as much time promoting your business as you do practicing your craft you will never be financially independent.

Hear me lawyers, CPAs, financial advisors and other professionals?

Many of you rely on reputation and referrals and they believe selling is somehow wrong or unethical.

Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Those who earn an income in the top 10% of the population spend, on average, about half of their working time developing relationships.

If you want to make a great living and live a great life® you must spend at least as much time on business development as you do practicing your craft.

Possess a Dedication to Continuous Improvement

Humans either continue to grow or we die.

You’ve got opposable thumbs. Congratulations.

Now get off your iPhone and figure out what you can do to help your client improve the quality of his life.

You must understand how your client’s world is changing. You must understand how your client thinks. You must understand what he believes and how he makes decisions.

These are moving targets. If you want to hit them you need to grow and evolve faster than the people with whom you work. 
Keep your education up to date — but not just in your vocational field — also as it relates to business development.

Adopt a Bias for Action

Once you know what to do, you must do it.

This is where many professionals fail.

Want a solution?

Each day make a list of three things you want to accomplish, and then start working on them.

If three is too many, make a list with just one thing on it.

No fancy app necessary. Just get started.

Deliver High Value with Low Labor Intensity

Avoid commodity billing.

You deliver value to people. Start demonstrating that value to your constituents.

The next step in the equation is to deliver the value with low labor intensity.

Example:

A lawyer helps clients adopt children.

To the client, the process is time consuming, paperwork intensive, and confusing. Since the lawyer has done this hundreds of times, he knows the pitfalls and how to avoid them. That’s valuable to the client. What’s also valuable is that the lawyer is available, during business hours, to answer any questions the client may have. If he’s busy, he guarantees a return call by the end of the business day. And those calls are included in his fee.

Now this specific solution may not appeal to you but I guarantee that there is a way for you to create a high value, low labor intensity solution in your business. You need to find it.

Be Persistent

The final success factor is as simple as they come.

Don’t quit until you get what you want.

Most people give up after the first attempt at something. 
The person who tries until he dies (or succeeds) is not only likely to be more fulfilled; he is more likely to be successful.

The good news about this is you don’t have to be smart to be a financially independent professional. You just need to be persistent.

I know, I know. This list is not sexy. This list is not fun. This list does not include some kind of short-cut.

But that doesn’t make it wrong.

The earlier you accept these keys to success, (and the dozens of others that exist in plain sight) the quicker you take action, the faster you will enjoy financial freedom.

David V. Lorenzo helps companies develop deep relationships with affluent clients. He can be reached at 786.436.1986