3 Pitfalls of building your business the wrong way | Build a Business, Not a Job Podcast

Want to build a business and not a job?

If you're a business owner, entrepreneur or professional, you'll have to grow your business very differently to most people.

The traditional way to build a business is to build a Level Two business.  

In a Level Two business, you as the business owner gather up the reins of power.  

If something should happen to you, your business would crumble.  

If you manage to somehow escape for a short vacation, you probably sneak your laptop or iPhone with you on the trip and check email when your spouse and kids aren’t looking. 

What’s wrong with building a level 2 business? 

Pitfall 1: It caps your income and your success.  

If your business revolves around you and your personal production, as you become more successful, you’ll smack up against the ceiling of how much you personally are able to produce for your business. 

Pitfall 2: It puts everyone at greater risk. 

If you stop working or get injured, your business dies—quickly. This is risky for you, your family, your employees, your customers, and your investors. 

Pitfall 3: It eventually corners you in the Self-Employment Trap™— the more success you have, the more trapped you become inside your business.  

You’re so busy doing the “job” of your business that you can’t step back and focus on growing your business.  

What’s the way out of the Self-Employment Trap?  

Simple: build a business, not a job. 

In the traditional Level Two approach, you try to escape by personally working harder.  

But that’s like stepping on a treadmill and saying that the way to get off is to simply run faster. Not so. The faster you run, the faster the speed of the treadmill.  

You take on more overhead and hire more employees, but you put them into a Level Two model that merely increases your personal pressure to produce.   

A job is something that you do yourself; a business you build does your job for you! Getting your business to do more means building the infrastructure that profitably produces value in the market in a scalable way. 

This means building your business with the end in mind, the end being the day when it no longer needs your time and attention on a daily basis. 

As you enter Level Two, you’ll face a crucial decision point at which you can settle for owning a Level Two job or instead choosing to raise your business to be a strong and independent entity that benefits from your involvement but is ultimately independent of it. 

The traditional Level Two approach is for you the owner to work harder, to do more—to work at the job of your business. 

The Level Three solution is for you to do less and get your business to do more.  

The 4 Building Blocks of All Level Three Businesses 

Every Level Three business is made up of these four key building blocks: 

1. Systems 

2. Team 

3. Controls 

4. Scalable solution 

Links and Resources: 

Metropole’s Business Accelerator Mastermind

Mark Creedon – Business Coach to some of Australia’s leading entrepreneurs 

Some of our favourite quotes from the show: 

“I’ve learned over the years that it really is important to let go of control” –Michael Yardney 

“If everything’s dependent upon you, what happens if something happens to you?” –Michael Yardney 

“Having a group of people around you who are already movers and shakers, who are already successful, that’s so, so different to reading something on the internet. It’s so different to reading a book or listening to a podcast.” –Michael Yardney 

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