The brutal truth about trading time for money

The brutal truth about trading time for money

Are you stuck in the trading time for money trap?

Sadly – most people are.

Trading time for money was ingrained into most of us from an early age.
We were taught to choose a career when we were older such as being a doctor, lawyer, electrician, artist, farmer etc.

And our brains would visualise seeing ourselves working in exchange for money.

Tertiary education builds on this belief system, and this also occurs when you work for someone else (i.e. Work harder – get a promotion and I will pay you MORE money for your efforts).

This is all still trading time for money.

It’s  easy to get caught in this trap – and if you’re not careful, it will become your identity.

If you run a business – you may still be thinking this way and it’s difficult to experience freedom while thinking like this.

I was personally caught in this place for many years.  But equally – I’ve always been fascinated with figuring out how to break this.

Once you break this mindset – I believe EVERYTHING changes.

You start looking at what problems you can fix and you start realising that people are comfortable paying bigger dollars for you to remove their problems REGARDLESS of how long it takes you to do this.

With this new mindset – you also start looking at other ways you can generate money that doesn’t involve your time.

An example could be fixing multiple people’s problems at once instead of doing it one by one, or in farming, selling directly to the consumer.

Here is the brutal truth about what your hourly rate needs to be.

Let’s assume you have made or you have a goal to make $1 million per year.

If we take an average work week of 40 hours, and we allow 4-week holidays, then your hourly rate needs to be $520.

But the reality is, that not every hour will be productive, so we need to consider 50% efficiency, so in this case, your hourly rate needs to be $1040.  This means that doing work for less than this, could be inefficient and just not worth it.

You have to change your thinking before you will ever take action.
A great mentor of mine  – Marshal Thurber taught me ‘Andrew – you have to spend more time ‘un-learning’ than ‘learning’’.

This is so true.

My advice is to stop thinking about how much money you can make per hour – and start to think about what problems you can fix and what people would pay for this.  OR – what is your profit goal, and what does your hourly rate need to be to achieve this.

Robbo

The pros and cons of being a hard worker

The pros and cons of being a hard worker

Do you love to work hard?  
 
Do you see yourself as a doer?  
 
Do you have the attitude, ‘If there is a job to be done, then get out of my way and let me do it?’ 
  
This attitude has served you because things get done. 
  
A real theme in the Agriculture industry is to be a hard worker. This was most likely passed down from the generations before you. Farmers are incredibly proud people and will often find pride in being hard workers.  

Whilst this has served you, it’s also essential to look at some of the challenges if you have this attitude. For example:  

  • Do you feel guilty when you are not working?
  • Do you feel there is always more to do? 
  • Is it hard for you to stop and slow down, even on holidays? 
  • Do you work a little longer and, consequently, see a little less of your family? 
  • Do you occasionally have a conflict with your partner because they want you around more to help out around the house and the family? 
  • Do you find it hard to employ people because most can’t do the job as well as you?
  • Do you get frustrated with lazy people and think they are hopeless? 

To become a true business leader, you must challenge your identity and belief system. There is no other way around it.

Working hard is an ingrained belief system that took years to create, so it can take a little while to undo.   
  
We are not saying that working hard is wrong – but more an opportunity to challenge your beliefs and your identity and to realise that possibly there is a different way to go about things.     
  
Great business leaders lead from the back of the ship, not the front.  
 
In other words, they understand that it’s okay not to be that person that is first in to get things done.  
 
To run a great business, you need to start sacking yourself from most things that need doing.   
  
Hire great people, then get out of their way.  
  
It’s important to let others have a go, and it’s okay to be the lifted, not the lifter.   
  
Sometimes you need to stand back and let others do the work, so you can let go and free up some time. 

Your guilt is fear and is something that can be removed if you do a little bit of internal work.  
  
This is not always about you working less. We know many of you hate this idea.  However, learning these skills will allow you to work on higher priority things OR take a bit more time off and learn to relax and enjoy life more. 
  
Charlie Mort from Mort and Co has never worked a day in his life in a feedlot. Yet he is still a busy and productive entrepreneur. This has helped his business move to annual revenue of over $700 million.  If he was trapped in the feedlot as a worker, then it would be impossible to create something at this scale.   
  
More than 90% of your success is a mindset. This is what we mean by sometimes you are smarter to be educated to change direction rather than motivated to speed up. 
 
Robbo 

Most people were NOT taught the skills to run a successful business…

Most people were NOT taught the skills to run a successful business…

  • An accountant spends three years studying their craft 
  • A lawyer spends five years studying their craft 
  • A doctor spends seven years studying their craft
AND they are all required to complete further education each year to maintain their qualifications.

Having coached several accountants, lawyers and doctors, they all agree that they were not shown how to run a business, AND that running a business is more challenging than studying for their professions!
 
This is the problem… 

Most people were NOT taught the skills to run a successful business.

  • They haven’t been shown how to lead a business and make strategic decisions.
  • They don’t know how to think and plan strategically and work out the highest priorities (the 20% of tasks that bring them their biggest results).
  • They have no idea how to recruit staff, write job roles and then retain and lead their employees.
  • Marketing is foreign to them, and they neglect it.
  • They have no clue about creating systems to maximise efficiency and get team members to follow these systems.
  • They were not aware of the rigour you need in financial management and how to budget and make good decisions from interpreting the numbers
  • And they certainly weren’t prepared for all of the administration that comes with running a business!
Like farming, learning to run a business is just a skill.
 
Farm Owners Academy have a mission to help over 10,000 farm owners master business!

The more you succeed in your farming business:

  • The better this is for the agriculture industry;
  • The more the younger generation of farmers will want to get involved;
  • The better your community functions (more money always brings greater opportunities);
  • The more jobs are created and people are employed; and
  • The more you can have an incredible life making good money and enjoying some much-deserved time off doing what you love.
Farm Owners Academy are business experts.

Our Co-founder, Greg Johnsson, was born into entrepreneurship – his father started Greyhound Australia. I (the other Co-founder) have had more than 23 years of experience coaching businesses. Over this time, I have also built and sold three companies in different niche markets. Our Managing Director Jeremy Hutchings has coached businesses for over 15 years and runs a successful ‘freedom farm’ himself.
 
We know we can help you.
 
Let us show you how because we are running our last event for the year.
 
It’s on the 15th of September, and your investment is only $100 plus GST.
 
Register at https://site.farmownersacademy.com/business-summit/
 
Anyone can attend this Business Summit because it’s online.
 
And if you are nervous because you think having a day in front of your computer is not for you… then we challenge you to give it a go. This summit is not your regular webinar or Zoom meeting. It is a highly interactive, immersive and fun experience. The day will fly by! Check out the feedback we received from participants the last time we ran an online event (and that was a two-day event during lockdown).
 
This summit includes a workbook so you can implement as you go.
 
If you don’t get value by lunchtime, just quit, and we will refund you the cost of your ticket.
 
PLUS, the first 100 people who purchase will also get my live time management training for FREE (valued at $497) – we have already sold over 30 tickets. This alone will be 100% worth it, and I will deliver so much value on how to manage your time.
 
At the end of the summit, you will walk away with:

  • A proven system to help run your business;
  • More clarity and excitement about the future and lots of energy to implement what you have learned;
  • An annual audit of what you need to work on each year to keep your business running at maximum efficiency;
  • A solid understanding of business mastery. We call this TRANSFORM, and it’s all about getting the basics in place, which gets you out of ‘winging it’ and into you taking complete control and knowing what you are doing;
  • A great understanding of what makes money in farming and what you could look at delegating (and how to do this); and
  • How to enjoy more time off without it costing your bottom line!
Register today at https://site.farmownersacademy.com/business-summit/

I look forward to seeing you online soon!

Robbo & the FOA Team
 
P.S. here are just a few 5-star reviews we received after our last online event (which ran for two days).

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