I was terrified to leave my office.
I had just completed the commissions report for all of my sales reps, and myself.
The process took about 20 minutes.
I am not sure why, but it used to take our bookkeeper all day to do this same job.
So after she quit… I took over the task – and created a new process.
And that’s when the trouble started…
My name is Stu Patterson, I am a seeker of efficiency in life and business. (OK, I’ll admit it. I am lazy. I don’t like long drawn out dramas. I like to get stuff done and just go have fun, or do other stuff, or maybe nothing at all…)
So I got this so called “huge job” done in like 20 minutes.
Here’s all I had to do…
I just printed the account reports: sales, revenue collected, and receivables, then handed them off to the individual reps.
They had about an hour to review it and bring the report back with any corrections.
Once they got the reports back to me it was as simple as plugging in a few numbers to my new excel spread sheet – that I created to do all the hard work – and pressing a button.
Now this was in the early 1990’s and the software, Microsoft Excel (created in 1987), was still pretty new. (old hat now)
And apparently nobody in my office ever bothered to take the time to figure it out, find ways to use it, except me.
I can spot things like this.
And once I figured it out, and set it up, I just had to plug in the basic numbers, the software took over.
It summed up all sales, moneys collected, by rep, calculated all commissions for each of them, and then my own sales, collections, commissions, and of course my overrides. (a nice benefit of being sales manager) and boom! It was done.
Now here’s where it gets messy.
We were a radio station (radio was killing it back then, major media mergers and acquisitions happening all over the place) and our work environment was propelled by people who prided themselves on working hard, working late, etc.
The mentality of who ever shows up first and leaves last is the King (or Queen) of the office. (Supposedly that’s how you got to advance in the little kingdom)
But my work was done. I did what used to take all day, and got it done in 20 minutes.
And as I sat there, happy with myself for this little bit of ingenuity, I began to panic.
If I got up and left my office right now, they might not think I was working hard enough. Not earning my big pay, my overrides….
Then it dawned on me. There actually are betters ways of doing stuff. And these people just don’t get it.
I was off to the races. I became obsessed with finding new ways to do stuff.
I studied the work of entrepreneurs.
I bought coaching and information products. I joined a marketing club and a mastermind.
I invested software and tested all kinds of time saving apps.
I began testing business models, software, strategies, tactics and systems to learn how to leverage a bigger return on my time and energy.
I read everything I could get my hands on.
I read about sales, and direct response marketing, internet marketing, copywriting, email marketing, paid advertising, marketing funnels, persuasion and influence, and on and on
I also learned alot about myself, how my brain works (or doesn’t work sometimes)
I turned over every rock I cold find.
But then I soon realized that turning rocks over wasn’t getting me anywhere.
Because there are new stones turning up every day.
Everyday some new wiz bang marketing or life hack thingy pops up and I’ll be dammed if I don’t lose a few more hours of my life just checking it out.
“Houston, We Got A New Problem”
My obsession had over taken the very idea that started it all.
The idea was how do I save time, and make more money, by doing less.
Fortunately I knew what the answer was.
It was time to come back to the basics.
There are only 3 ways to make more money.
1 Get a better paying job/get better at your job
2 Get Another Job, (worked two jobs, or more)
3 Or create your own, more efficient, income streams.
Guess what, I am not going to speak to the first two options above.
We’re going to be looking at business systems you can acquire, build, and use to achieve everything you want in your life, and do less.
All it takes is a little time, energy, and money, applied with the power of your heart and your mind working together.
And there’s nothing like a strong sense of purpose to help you do that.
So what you get here is the benefit of my knowledge of the landscape of moving past the employment world and into the entrepreneurial world.
Very few people make the transition with out some serious personal, even spiritual growth occurring.
You don’t really want to go it alone.
You’ll also need some new skills and tools to help you with the task of generating the kind of freedom that gets you out of the office early – without any guilt.
And without the fear of someone taking your job while your out living your life.
You’ll find the tools, the tactics, and the strategies that actually payoff. So you don’t waste your time, energy, and money chasing every shiny object that pops up during the day.
You will benefit from my two decades of searching, striving, failing, and succeeding in my own journey…
…so you can shorten the path to your own success.
If that sounds good to you, then make sure you are on my list, and you have whitelisted my email address – so the “sentinels” don’t intercept and destroy my message before it gets to you – and make sure to check your email for new information I send – and the opportunities it presents – everyday.
Sincerely,
Coach Stu
