This is a big one. 

The 3rd Commandment For Consultancy Business Owners. 

When you first start out - you’re taking work from anyone who will give it to you.  

You’re building a brand, a reputation and a business - and revenue is critically important. 

So you play the game, do the dance and try and work with anyone and everyone in order to build momentum. 

And you know what - I have no issue with this when you’re starting out.  

It works - until it doesn’t. 

But for some reason, as you grow, you continue to hold onto lower value clients who don’t serve or support your future or where you’re wanting to take the business. 

You worry what they will think or what will happen if you let go of a client who has been with you for many, many years - but no longer fits into your vision for your business. 

It’s important to realise that, for each phase of business, that some or potentially most of the clients who got you to where you are right now, won’t get you...

One of the most common frustrations amongst business owners is that they know they need to be focusing on strategy, vision and big picture - but can never seem to find the time to actually do it. 

There’s always more pressing things to action first. Calls to make, emails to respond to, a report to review, a client to keep happy, a staff request or issue etc. 

There’s quite literally 100’s of things vying for your attention at any given moment.  

And it’s not because you don’t know that you need to be making more time for strategy and big picture - you do. 

And that’s what makes this even harder - because you can feel the stress building up in you when you know you need to be getting to something but you aren’t. 

So it’s not a question of awareness - you have that. 

It’s an issue with priorities. 

“What you focus on - grows”. 

There will literally always be something you can focus your attention on - but is it a priority? Will it actually make a differenc...

We talked last week about the process for bringing on another Director into your business. 

This week we’re exploring the similarities and differences between directors and shareholders. 

Now at a high level: 

Directors: 

 - Are a formally registered director of your business. 

 - Every private company needs to have at least one Director. 

 - Takes on certain risks and liabilities associated with your business. 

 - Makes day to day decisions about where your business is going.  

 - Typically get paid a Directors fee on top of their salary.  

Shareholders: 

 - Are formally registered shareholders of your business. 

 - Are owners of your business. 

 - Don’t typically get involved in day to day decision making (unless they’re a Director as well). 

 - Only get involved in voting on bigger business decisions in accordance with the shareholders agreement or company constitution. 

 - Usually buy into your business to get a % of ownership. 

 - Get paid dividends out ...

Today we’re exploring Commandment #2 of The 10 Commandments For Consultancy Business Owners. 

I personally can’t stand the hustle and grind culture.  

It breaks my heart seeing so many business owners feeling like they need to sacrifice every other part of their life in order to focus on building their business. 

There’s a saying I saw recently “Sacrifice everything for a year, so that you never need to sacrifice anything ever again”. 

What an awful message.  

Because what if it takes longer than a year? (And it likely will). 

To build a successful business that runs without you and your constant input. 

That generates great revenue and profit. 

And sets you and your family up for financial freedom and financial success. 

It’s a marathon - not a sprint.  

I’d much rather you slow things down, focus on consistency and doing the daily things that matter towards growth. 

I’d much rather you actually have some fun and enjoy the journey! 

Now,...

This week we’re celebrating with an incredible Boardroom member, Jordan. 

Since the start of this year he’s 5X’d his monthly revenue.  

And doubled his team size.  

And he’s now on track to hit $2M easily in the next 12 months.  

When we first started working together he was doing between $15K - $25K months.  

He had a massive desire to learn, implement and grow.  

So we got stuck in.  

And focused on: 

→ Hiring strategically for where he wanted the business to go. 

→ Winning good quality work from high value clients.  

→ Upgrading his own identity as a business owner, so he didn’t keep getting pulled back into lower value tasks. 

And his monthly revenue quickly became $40K. 

Then $60K. 

Now he’s just had an $87K month. 

And October is shaping up to be $100K. 

And with the momentum he’s now built.  

And the pipeline growing. 

He’ll easily hit $2M in the next 12 months.  

We couldn’t be prouder of you mate.  

Yo...

Yesterday I was talking with an incredible Boardroom member, Raj. 

He’s had fantastic growth over the last 3 years. 

Between 30% and 50% growth each year.  

And we were talking about what’s next.  

He’s on track to hit $2M in revenue.  

And really wants to get to $5M and beyond.  

We were talking through different growth strategies.  

And the concept of bringing on another Director into the business came up. 

Now there’s plenty of pros and cons for bringing on another Director into your business.  

Whether you’re thinking of going from 1 to 2 Directors. 

2 to 3 Directors. Or 3 to 4 Directors. 

It always needs consideration.  

And evaluating whether it’s right for you.  

So first things first - you need to work out what you want. 

Do you want others sitting around the table with you?  

Helping make strategic business decisions. 

And sharing the load when it comes to where the business is going and how it’s going to get ther...

I’ve been working on something kinda fun.  

The 10 Commandments For Consultancy Business Owners. 

It’s what I believe to be true about how to run a successful consultancy. 

A business that’s fun to run, returns great profit and gives you the life and the lifestyle you truly want.  

And over the next 10 weeks I’ll be releasing a new commandment every week.  

Each one building on the last.  

I’ll also be recording a video on each of them as well.  

And putting them on our YouTube channel.  

Which you can check out here >> Click Here

So let’s dive in.  

Commandment #1 - Thou Shalt Keep It Simple 

Too many business owners over-complicate things. 

They make business way harder than it needs to be. 

Because they think that’s what’s required to grow a successful consultancy. 

When faced with business problems or even what to do next to grow. 

They make things really complex & confusing so that even the smartest person would have a ha...

This week we hosted a session for all of our Boardroom Mastermind members. 

These are members of our Boardroom program, who are doing over $2M in their businesses. 

To discuss the state of play for their market sectors. 

What’s been happening. 

The trends. 

And where each sector is going. 

Now, no one has a crystal ball (and this is certainly not financial advice…) 

But this was a room full of incredibly smart cats.  

Who run great businesses.  

And live and breathe their markets and their industries. 

So a valuable room to be in. 

We talked across multiple sectors and industries. 

Coal, mining, residential, commercial, industrial, engineering, surveying, town planning, architecture, environmental, heritage, construction etc.  

And the general consensus is that while it might feel like it’s a slower period across Aus and NZ. 

It’s actually building into another phase of growth. 

Land is being bought up. 

The rate of feasib...

Today I’m running a training for our Boardroom members. 

On how to run highly effective shareholders meetings with their internal shareholders. 

Plus, showing them how to prepare and issue proper shareholders reports. 

Now, as your business grows. 

And you turn your attention to succession planning. 

You’ll likely consider bringing on next generation shareholders into your business. 

So they can eventually take over the running of your business. 

And you can extract the true value of your hard earned work building your company. 

By selling down to your ownership to your next gen shareholders over time. 

Now the process of selecting your shareholders and preparing your shareholders deed, we’ve covered in past posts. 

Plus we cover this extensively in Boardroom. 

Today I want to walk you through the agenda for highly effective shareholders meetings.  

There’s a bunch of ways you could run your shareholders meetings. 

But the following i...

As a business owner, you’re always trying new things. 

Always looking to make the business better & more efficient. 

Trying new ways to grow, win new work and increase revenue. 

But how long is long enough to know if the strategy or new initiative you’ve implemented… 

Is actually going to work? 

Vs 

Not wasting your time on something that just isn’t going to return you a result? 

From our experience… 

2 months. 

2 months is long enough to test something and get enough feedback. 

To know whether it’s worth pursuing long term. 

Or cutting it and moving on. 

So that new BD strategy you’re trying out. 

Or the internal team initiative to improve culture. 

Or the client relationship plan to increase client satisfaction. 

Give it 2 months. 

Go all in on it for 2 months and do everything you need to give it a red hot crack. 

And at the end of 2 months. 

Sit down, review and assess. 

Is this working? 

Do you continu...