How do I create leverage in my business?
What does it mean to create leverage in your business? To answer that question, I want to share something very personal to me.
A few years ago, my daughter became really sick.
It started with her waking up one day feeling extremely nauseous. We thought it was a virus or weird flu-like illness coming on. We went to her primary doctor and she told us to “wait it out”.
I had no idea I was about to be waiting this out for a long time.
Riley was nauseated 24/7. She couldn’t eat, get up, or walk around without feeling like she had to throw up. Days rolled into weeks, weeks rolled into months.
We went to specialist after specialist. Gastro, to Neuro, to you name it…
We had scans and exploratory this and that.
We went from local hospitals to traveling out of state to see specialists.
They told us there was nothing physically wrong and that I should consider that it may be psychological.
I knew that wasn’t the case. Moms have an intuitive superpower and mine was screaming that there was something physically wrong. I chose to listen to that knowing and double down on figuring it out.
It took 8 months and visits to 22 specialists to figure out what she had. The 22nd specialist was Dr Gianoli. He diagnosed a rare vestibular dysfunction syndrome which meant her equilibrium had been severely disturbed by a rupture in her inner ear.
Essentially, she felt like she was motion sick, rocking on a boat 24/7 for 8 full months. It felt like a miracle finding him. After a few weeks of treatment, the rocking stopped and my happy, always-laughing-at-something girl came back to me.
What does this have to do with leverage, you might be asking?
In those 8 months, I played the role of advocate, ally, and Mom. I was the one taking her to every appointment, researching late at night, and reading medical journals in between appointments.
I didn’t have to make a choice between being fully present for my daughter or having to go out and figure out how I’m going to generate revenue in my business to keep my family afloat. I had this luxury because I had done the work of creating leverage in my business through online courses, automated sales funnels, and systems within my team.
Leverage means your business can thrive with or without you in it every single day. Click To TweetJust a couple years before all of this happened, I had a traditional expert business model. I was selling my time and that was my only product.
If I hadn’t made the switch to having a leveraged business that had systematized ways of serving and taking care of our clients, including online courses, I would have been faced with a choice of either being present for my daughter or going out and generating revenue to support my family.
If this had all happened in my old business model, being present for my daughter would have meant risking the loss of my business. It would have been either-or.
A lot of gurus paint the idea of “leverage” as you swimming in some Olympic-sized pool of money with a cabana boy bringing you mojitos between laps.
Leverage isn’t just about making more money.
Leverage isn’t just about sipping mojitos by a pool.
Leverage in your business is about insulating what you care about.
Most of the entrepreneurs I talk to have enormous vulnerability in their business.
Do you have the kind of leverage in your business that insulates you and the people you care about? Insulates what you have built?
Look at what you are prioritizing in your business. Are you focused on creating leverage right now…before you need it?
If you can’t easily say “YES!”, then what are you going to do about it right now?
- I’m going to insulate my revenue by creating an automated online course that allows me to help people
- I’m going to insulate my business by creating an online funnel that automates the way I find clients
- I’m going to insulate my business by training my team to do these things I do right now, but don’t necessarily need to
I’m sharing this because I want you to make creating leverage in your business a priority. Right NOW.
Because the painful truth is that by the time you need that leverage, it’s too late.
If you need help figuring out how to do that, we are here to help you.
Thank you so much for the video of Nancy Hillis. I took her wonderful course and now I want to create an online art course too. I’m not quite ready yet to dive in, but it is coming. Can you tell me what the cost would be Janine? Every time I read an email from you I get closer to doing this. When I found out that you are the one that helped Nancy with her dream I knew I wanted to use you too. Thank you ahead of time for your response.
Hello Jeanette! Nancy is amazing. We have quite a few artists in our community who are creating online courses to reach more students. We would love to know more about what you want to create. This can help us figure out the right step together. Helen Sellers, our Program Manager, will email you at your gmail address. Cheers!