Business Millionaire

By Fiona Jones

Business Millionaire

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fiona Jones
• Release date: Jun 19, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301478392

Book preview

Chapter 1

Rob Thompson

Rob Thompson is one of the founders of In A Day, a company that provides hands-on training courses to business-owners and entrepreneurs in areas such as creating and managing websites, sales training, search engine optimisation and marketing.

Rob is a highly skilled coach and mentor as well as a sales, marketing and website trainer and keynote speaker who has dedicated his life to inspiring and empowering others through proven strategies and techniques. Rob devotes his time to studying, practising and teaching the formulas for success that are used by the world’s top achievers and believes that in this ever-changing world we should be constantly open to learning new skills and strategies.

In his late teens and early 20s Rob struggled for success as a songwriter and musician and fell into drug addiction. By the early 2000s he realised there must be a secret formula to success and happiness and set about searching to find out what the one per cent of truly successful people did; what he uncovered changed everything. He found that there were certain principles that if used correctly could ensure that you achieve success in whatever you set your mind to.

Rob believes that everyone has at least one million-dollar idea in them and shows how to follow through to make that idea a reality and create a successful business around their passion. Rob began to create a life of his own design and enjoys building successful businesses in the areas of educational training, seminars and events and online businesses that run 24/7 and can produce passive, residual incomes.

Rob also went on to build In A Day hands-on training, an educational company where you learn specific skills in one day by doing them rather than just listening to a teacher. He also hosts the Gold Coast business club and regularly runs business events. Rob lives on the sunny Gold Coast with his wife and three children.

What beliefs around money did you grow up with? How has that changed today?

My mother and father worked hard for what we had and my older brother, younger sister and I had a really great childhood. My parents always told us to follow our hearts and I now know how important it is for parents to encourage their children, especially in their younger years, no matter what the kid dreams of doing. Now that I have kids of my own I always try to encourage them and instil a sense of power in their minds over what the future will hold for them. Statements like, ‘I know that you will grow up to do great things’, can have a powerful impact on their self-esteem for the rest of their lives. Too many children grow up having inherited their parents limiting beliefs. I have also made a commitment to take the responsibility for everything that happens in my life; I have witnessed so many people around me become victims in life because they do not take responsibility for the things they do or say. I always try and enjoy life as much as I can as there is not much use in having lots of money if you do not feel wealthy.

Did you always want your own business?

At the age of 13 I took on a paper route and managed to save about $80 with which I bought my first guitar; from then on I wanted to be a rock star and practised day and night. I have always had a fairly addictive personality, which has been just as much a blessing as a curse in different ways.

In the early 90s I wrote songs and performed with my band, and fell into drug addiction and alcoholism. I spent most of my time either writing songs, practicing and performing with my bands and partying, but I didn’t really know how to promote myself back then. I was under the illusion that one day some record company would somehow find us and takes us on to stardom. However, we did not really do any self-promotion so I wasn’t really going anywhere.

In 1996 my girlfriend – who is now my wife – became pregnant with our first son, Jackson; with a first child coming into our life everything changed as any parent will identify with; I now had a purpose above my own to become better and achieve success. Well-meaning friends and family told me I had to get a real job so I got a job working as a wardsperson at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Brisbane for eight years.

I loved being around the kids and I found that some of the sickest kids were the most full of life; I learnt from them that you really need to follow your heart as you do not know how long you’ve got. I really began to feel that there was something more in life that I was meant to do.

I wanted to learn the skills of successful people and felt drawn towards renovation and property investment, but did not have the money to begin and wasn’t very good at saving. I had a low-paying public service job of just $28k per year before tax and I remember reading somewhere, ‘The library is full of books about anything you want to learn and they are all free’. So I got a library card and borrowed and read just about every book I could find on property investment and personal development.

I began buying and renovating ex-Housing Commission homes in the lower socio-economic areas of Logan, which is half way between Brisbane and the Gold Coast. I learnt many skills along the way that would later help me in business including the skill of negotiation; I bought properties for $100 down (which was borrowed off my credit card) and funded the purchase and the renovations with bank loans, doing most of the work myself with the assistance of my brotherin-law, Paul, and wife Kylie. If I could not do something like tiling or polishing hardwood floors I would ask an expert how and have a go myself.

Have any books been critical to your business success?

The three books that have had the biggest impact on my success in business are The Law of Success In Sixteen Lessons by Napoleon Hill, The E-Myth by Michael Gerber, and The Success Formula by Russ Michael. I love to find old books on business and success that have never been read. When I found an original unread copy of The Success Formula, which I believe is no longer in print, and started to read it I found myself thinking if only the person who bought or was given this book had taken the time to read it, it would have changed their life forever. Then again there are also many people who read and know a lot of stuff, but never take action.

I began to replace all my negative addictions with positive ones like reading and learning the success principles used by great leaders and captains of industry. When I announced to people who knew me that I was going to become successful I often found that they would try and pass their limiting beliefs on to me and tell me all the reasons why I would fail, but the books I was reading kept my mind and spirit strong. I loved reading the tales of how people who others would call failures never gave up and despite all odds became super successful and lived the lives of their dreams.

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‘Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.’

Jim Rohn

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Why did you become a business-owner?

I became a business-owner because I wanted to create assets outside of property and also felt that I could help more people by setting up a successful business model. I wanted to create something from scratch without the assistance of banks as I felt the world has become too reliant on credit.

I was asked to speak on property investing to a group of 44 business-owners in Brisbane and afterwards met up with Andy Henderson, a web and search engine optimisation (SEO) consultant who had attended the event. Andy had an extensive background in websites and SEO and we both built WordPress websites. We chatted over coffee about current problems we saw within the seminar/events industry in Australia and brainstormed ways of improvement.

We discussed how most people go along to the average event and leave with their heads full of stuff, but have not actually achieved anything during the day, and they often go away more confused than ever. Over that cup of coffee we decided to team up and create a hands-on training company called In A Day based around one-day training courses where you not only learn a new skill, but also walk away actually having created or achieved something of value.

What was your first In A Day course?

Andy and I both enjoyed building WordPress websites and discussed how beneficial it would be for business owners to learn how to create and maintain their own WordPress websites. Many business owners currently pay thousands of dollars to have a website built, often have high ongoing costs to update and maintain it, and sometimes feel that they are being held to ransom by their web-designer. Unfortunately many web-designers have little knowledge or practical experience in SEO so what the business-owner often ends up with is a pretty looking online catalogue that only their friends or customers who already have their web address can find.

There were already many online tutorials in WordPress and a few courses, but they only seemed to teach the basics and we wanted to produce a course where the graduate walks out with a professional looking business site similar to one produced by a web designer, but at a fraction of the average cost. We decided to build our flagship one-day, hands-on training course called Website In A Day. This workshop allows small groups of business-owners and entrepreneurs to learn the skills of building a search engine and mobile device-friendly website themselves, that will give them the best possible chance to rank for keyword phrases that their ideal customers would search in search engines like Google. Andy and I each invested just $1300 of our own money to form In A Day as we recognised that one of the biggest hurdles for a start-up business can be borrowing large sums of money and having debt before you actually make anything.

Once Andy had finished creating our first course we set out to do a trial run of Website In A Day for a class of eight students. The day went well and gave us the ability to then iron out a few minor hiccups so it was ready to promote for paid students. Website In A Day attendees would often walk in with little or no knowledge of websites and always walk out having created their very own live, fully functional, search engine-optimised website; they would leave with the lucrative skills to evolve their website and to build others.

We found the magic ingredient was having their fingers to the keys producing an undiluted vision of their own business on the web, and by teaching them how to optimise their sites from the outset; many of our graduates began to report back some amazing results in very short spaces of time after attending the course.

What systems did you put in place to make In A Day a success?

We set out to make In a Day a success by developing a vision bigger than ourselves and right from the start looked at In A Day as a large company. We began to plan new courses and find experts in their fields to develop other In A Day hands-on training workshops. We now offer multiple In a Day courses in areas such as marketing, search-engine optimisation, social media, Google analytics and sales training. We are also in the process of releasing an online portal filled with tutorial videos and ready to sell online products called TheMarketingMentor. net. Andy and I both run business networking groups on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane and have our sights now on releasing In A Day hands-on training courses throughout Australia.

Why has In A Day grown so quickly?

I believe that the secret to In A Day’s extraordinary growth in such a short time (just over a year) is that Andy and I are both very different people with different strengths. We have put many systems in place to manage problems that occur in business and as a result we are preventing many of them from happening. Networking has played a crucial part in getting the word out as well as having optimised websites to promote our courses. My advice to any business owner or entrepreneur who is just starting out is to make sure you have a good online presence. No longer do people walk in off the street to buy your products or services; right now more than 80 per cent of consumers first do their research online.

What limits people’s success in business?

I believe that everyone has at least one million-dollar idea in them; there are just two major obstacles standing in their way of achieving success and both are in you. There are absolutely no external forces that can stand in your way and what you want as long as you want it bad enough and are prepared to do what it takes to make it happen; the first major obstacle to you carrying an idea to success is your own self-doubt. Most of the limiting beliefs that people hold onto are false; many limiting beliefs that you and I hold on to are inherited from our parents who inherited from their parents. Become aware of your own power and encourage that power inside you to come out and nothing will stand in your way. Commit some time each day to read and listen to audios on sales, business, personal development and other subjects in your field of expertise. Whenever I feel overcome by a temporary setback I will read an inspiring story by someone who has triumphed in the face of defeat and I straight away feel ready to take on the world again.

The second major obstacle is procrastination, which is in everyone; I have just learnt to procrastinate with different things. Instead of putting off the most important things, I practice tackling them first, leaving all the minor tasks till last. By prioritising your days you can achieve so much more and, within one year, can achieve more than many people do in a lifetime.

I have found that true wealth is in your heart; when you are truly happy in the skin you’re in all the other riches follow. There are so many talented people I have met along the way who could easily become super successful at what they do, but have not done the personal-development work it takes to overcome their own personal demons and this is what holds them back. Find what you truly love to do and do that thing the best you can and true wealth will always follow.

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‘Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.’

Theodore D. Roosevelt.

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What are the most effective forms of marketing?

Andy and I practice what we teach; we believe there is currently no better or more cost effective way of marketing than developing your own keyword-optimised websites. By keyword-optimised I mean creating websites that are targeted at answering questions and delivering information people are searching for on the web. It is great to have clients call or email us when they find us through an internet search for a problem they have or a service they require.

Strong ranking websites for terms related to your industry can become very valuable assets. You may already have yourbusinessname.com, but imagine having multiple keyword-rich websites that rank on page one of Google for highly searched keyword phrases in your niche. Many businesses rely on paid advertising including print, radio, television and pay per click advertising online, but we prefer to do a little work at the beginning to get our websites ranking and then the enquiries begin coming in with very little ongoing costs. The content-management system that we use to build our websites is called WordPress.

What are the main advantages of WordPress websites for business?

WordPress is the most widely used content-management system in the world and it is estimated that more than 20 per cent of all sites on the web run on WordPress. There are many reasons why we, and many others believe WordPress is the best. Firstly, it is extremely search engine friendly; many website builders out there use Flash and the big problem with Flash websites is that they make it very hard (if not impossible) to achieve decent rankings in search engines. You will find many website builders that are low cost or even free to use, but what is the point wasting your time to build such sites if no one is able to find you except people who already know what your domain name is.

A major key to success in any business you start is to be found by people who do not already know that your website exists. A major problem with traditional HTML-based websites in general (and Flash websites in particular) is that search engines cannot always crawl and index them easily. WordPress is extremely search-engine friendly and is also very easy to learn to operate and create great looking business sites – we teach these skills in just one day. The other major reason I believe WordPress to be the best choice for building websites is because it is open-source. There are currently more than 100,000 developers working on WordPress functionality and there are more than 20,000 plug-ins available that add just about every kind of functionality you would ever need from your website – and most of them are free. No proprietary system out there can keep up with the rate and speed at which WordPress is evolving.

What are the best offline methods to boost your business?

Networking and speaking onstage can be two very powerful and cost-effective ways to boost your business. In the beginning I did a lot of cold calling by walking into businesses off the street and telling them about our hands-on training programs, but I soon found when selling business to business that attending networking events was much more effective. At business networking events everyone there is interested in meeting other business owners and everyone is encouraged to talk about what they do. Andy and I both run regular networking events including the Brisbane Business Club http:// brisbanebusinessclub.com.au/ and the Gold Coast Business Club http://goldcoastbusinessclub.com.au/ and we have found these events to be a vital part of our business model. Presenting from stage is another way to get your brand awareness out there and a really good way to become known as an expert and authority in your field.

What advice would you give business owners who would like to present from stage?

Go out and do it; presenting from stage or in front of groups is highly leveraged as you are no longer selling one-on-one, and the way to get good at it is by doing it often. When speaking from stage always tell them your story and speak from the heart. Record all your presentations as they can be posted on your websites and made available on streaming video sites such as YouTube or Vimeo, or as downloadable mp3s on your website. There is a good basic formula I learnt when speaking on stage or recording videos, and it is, first, to tell them what you are going to cover by summarising what they will learn from your presentation; then tell them about you, your story about how you got here; if you don’t tell them about who you are they will be wondering the whole time ‘who is this person’, or ‘what makes them an authority on this subject’; then you can begin your presentation finishing with a recap of what you told them with an irresistible offer.

There are many groups out there that are always looking for speakers at their events; contact them and make it known that you are available to present. When you speak collect testimonials from attendees who have positive things to say about how you inspired them; carry a recording device with you and ask them if it is ok to use the testimonial in your promotions. What other people have to say about you speaks way louder than what you can ever do or say.

What are some major mistakes people make when starting out in business?

Most people start a business because they are sick of working for someone else and think they can do a much better job themselves. The biggest problem is that they are often great at doing just a handful of things, but to run a successful business you must either have a diverse range of skills or you must attract people who have these skills. I see many people start businesses who are great technicians, but lack sales skills, and I enjoy teaching business-owners and their staff these skills.

Many business-owners make the mistake of spending many thousands of dollars on setting up a business and never really take the time to learn sales skills – without sales there is no revenue. If you are thinking of starting your own business from scratch, test your market before investing too much money in it. Once the business proves profitable then invest money back into growing the business.

How long does it take for a business to make money?

That is entirely up to you; I believe in only creating businesses that make money from the outset, and that is why I would not borrow or invest large sums of money before it becomes profitable. If you have a great product or service and develop good sales and marketing systems and techniques, your business can very quickly become profitable. As a business-owner you must always be looking at ways to move forward and grow your business. There is no staying still in business, or in life either; you are moving forward and growing or you are going backwards and imploding. Remember, it takes great ideas, products and or services to make money, not huge upfront capital.

Does visualisation help in business?

Yes, visualisation is vital to practice regularly if you want to grow your business; after all, how do you know if you have arrived if you do not know where you want to be?

Many business-owners get bogged down in the little details of their business because they do not keep sight of the big picture, which is where they want to be. Before starting out in business it pays to dream about, and fix in your mind exactly how that business will be in one year, two years and five years time. Most people only ever dream about average achievements and guess what they get, exactly what they expect and no more. Practice raising your expectations for the future, begin by writing down exactly how you would like your business to be in a specific time in the future to the most minute details. Include how much gross income and profit it will turn over and how many people and what types of people will be working for you. Who are your ideal customers and visualise your business fulfilling their needs? Picture these happy clients telling their friends and family to use your services. By writing your goals down and regularly reviewing and visualising them you will not lose sight of the big picture of where your business is headed and you will achieve so much more than someone who has no goals.

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‘The secret to productive goal setting is in establishing clearly defined goals, writing them down and then focusing on them several times a day with words, pictures and emotions as if we’ve already achieved them.’

Denis Waitley.

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What are your tips for getting through a difficult time in your life or in business?

Expect there to be bumps in the road, and the more you build your business the more resistance the world will put in your way. If you begin to expect these things that most people call failures along the way they are so much easier to deal with. Remember, a failure is only a failure if you give up, and most people fear failure so much that they never try; failure in life therefore becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy for them. Many millionaires have been bankrupt multiple times because they often take more risks and play a bigger game than the average person. There is no perfect time to do or try something except for ‘now’; most people are always waiting til they have the money or the resources, or the time to begin and they never begin. If you practice committing to making your business a success you will do what it takes to get through those difficult times when it seems the whole world is against you. Make a decision now to not be one of those people who end their lives saying ‘if only’.

What are some methods of growing a business?

Team up with people who are more intelligent than you; you can expect very slow growth if you surround yourself with people who are not as smart as you. You may ask, ‘How can I attract people who are smarter than me if I have limited resources or cannot yet pay them the high incomes their skills demand?’ The answer is very simple: show interest in them and become a good listener. If you would like to attract highly skilled people to your team show interest in them and learn to think and relate the things you would like them to do in the form of benefits for them; for example, if I wanted the expert on a particular subject to write and develop a course for my company I would talk to them about benefits such as the extra publicity they would get from writing such a course. People love to be praised so I would also let the person know that we had researched and found that they were by far the most qualified person to make the course.

If someone is highly skilled in an area that can potentially grow your business and you cannot afford to pay them, why not offer them a partnership of some kind. Many highly skilled people are still trading time for money and have no real assets, so you could convince them to forgo short-term gain by potentially having part-ownership in a valuable business. Another way to grow your business rapidly is to identify or develop and promote a point of difference that your business has over the competition. Our point of difference is the ‘hands on’ aspect of our training so, rather than being told how to do things, we teach our clients by having them actually doing it so that they walk out having achieved something rather than just learning how it is done. For example, they don’t just learn to build a website they physically build one of their own in the day or, instead of just learning sales techniques, they develop and practice their very own authentic sales process in a day.

Our other point of difference is each of our hands-on courses is completed in a day rather than over weeks or months. Find and develop your businesses point of difference; it only needs to be a slight improvement on what others in your industry are doing; you do not have to reinvent the wheel.

What do you believe holds most people back from the financial success they desire?

Commitment and persistence are the traits you can develop to have the biggest impact on your financial success. Most people try something and if it doesn’t work out the first time they move onto something else; they are forever trying and failing or instead they settle for a life of mediocrity in a job that they despise.

The biggest successes I have had in my life have always been on the other side of what most people call failure. Think about some big achievements you have had in the past; did they usually occur on the back of you being discouraged from the idea and you almost giving up? The problem is that when people actually make it everyone quickly forgets all the sacrifices the person made and all the temporary defeats along the way, and they get labelled as an overnight success. Of all the most successful people I have studied none were an overnight success.

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‘I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.’

John D. Rockefeller.

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How do you keep motivated and inspired on a daily basis in business?

Keep your eye on the vision rather than becoming overwhelmed by the little things. Many obstacles will spring up along the road to success in your business, but if you have a clearly defined vision of where you want to be that alone will keep you motivated enough to push on. Think often of successes and achievements that you have had in the past or times when you have had a win and you will relive that successful feeling once again. By doing this regularly you are programming your subconscious mind for success. This is why successful people believe themselves to be lucky, for if you go around telling others you have bad luck guess how each day will turn out for you. I also love to read inspiring stories about how great business leaders triumphed in the face of adversity and built amazing businesses in hard times like the great depression.

What can people do about negative comments when they start a business?

Recognise that people will often try and pass on their fears to you and only take on advice from someone who has done what you want to achieve. Often these comments are because they do not want you to succeed as it would shine the light on their own lack of courage to follow their dreams.

Don’t take financial advice from someone who is always broke and never take business advice from someone who is not successful in business. Reading books on sales, personal development and business can really help you to develop the mental toughness it requires to break out from the herd. By developing your mind through reading you will be able to make more educated decisions and not be as susceptible to negative comments by others. Commit to reading books on business and your area of expertise every day and it will have a profound impact on your mental fortitude. Start hanging around positive-action takers instead of worrying-procrastinators and your income and achievements will quickly align more closely with theirs.

What decisions have you made that made a difference in your business?