Better Business Better Life: 5 Key Skills to Have a Thriving Business, Break Through Plateaus and Create the Lifestyle You Want

By Nick Barnsdall

The world is changing

It’s no secret we’re in a world of constant disruption. The ability to attract and retain customers, the onset of digital and social platforms along with attracting talent and the impact of globalisation means the old days of opening your doors and putting the shingle out front has long go

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nick Barnsdall
• Release date: Jun 14, 2019
• ISBN: 9780648569015

Nick Barnsdall

Nick Barnsdall is a highly successful entrepreneur who has built over 43 businesses over his lifetime and owns over 14 today. From humble beginnings and starting his first business at 19 in New Zealand as the son of parents owning a struggling fish and chip shop, to today running companies with over 150 million in turnover. Nick's perspective on entrepreneurship comes from the grass roots and doing it tough, showing that commitment, hard work and authentic leadership create success for die hard business owners.

Book preview

introduction

PEOPLE START BUSINESSES for all sorts of reasons and the one thing they all have in common is that they want their business to be successful and profitable. No one wakes up one day and says, Let’s open a business, sink my life savings into it, watch it fail and then go back to a 9-5 job and start from scratch again. The one thing all business owners have in common is they want their business to be successful and make a profit, otherwise what would be the point of starting it in the first place?

Some people dream for years about running their own business whilst others make a quick decision and bang, they go for it. Many have a significant change in circumstances e.g. they are retrenched, or fed up with their current employer, or cannot find a job that they feel is suited to their capability or experience and start or buy a business due to their financial needs. More rarely, some will start a business stemming from a passion and desire they have to fulfil themselves or others.

I have read, listened to and attended literally hundreds, quite possibly thousands of personal development, management and business books, audio books, seminars over the course of my lifetime.

This started with my father giving me financial education and wealth creation books as a young kid probably from the age of 10-12 years old. I enjoy reading biographies and autobiographies of successful people, regardless of the business they are in. The truly honest accounts are the ones that I enjoy the most, not because I want to read about how close they came to failing. I enjoy reading about how people overcome hardships, disappointments and adversities and most of all what resiliency techniques they used to recover from hitting rock bottom to eventually succeed.

This theoretical knowledge coupled with growing up in an environment where my parents owned businesses for much of my early life until I was 10 years old, when I got my first job outside of the family business, then being exposed to multiple small/medium sized business owners between the ages of 10-20, almost always having two jobs, one during the day one at night, and on occasions three different jobs at the same time – provided me with a huge amount of hands on business knowledge, background, exposure to different ownership and management strategies and responsibilities before I had reached my twentieth birthday.

As a 16-year-old, barely a year out of school, I had saved enough cash deposit to purchase my first investment property jointly with my mother, who after a failed business and a marriage with my father was rebuilding. Coming from a lower socio-economic background, certainly no gifts or financial head starts, this was and continues to be an achievement I am very proud of. By 19, in a partnership, I had started a property investment company, renovating and flipping properties. During my early twenties I completed what I call my real sales training, which was 4 years of commission only selling of photocopiers for the large Japanese manufacturer Mita Copiers (now Kyocera) a career that so early on taught me the value of letting go of safety nets to get to the next level, which would provide the most amazing rewards.

Having spent 20 years as an entrepreneur, budgeting, forecasting, prospecting and generating sales income had become bread and butter for me. As a young man it was something that I had already lived and refined for most of my life and while I had certainly made mistakes along the way my financial learning trajectory was steep and wide. This early and constant learning set me up for an opportunity that would come along in the second half of my twenties when I was asked to join a large third generation family business and in partnership with the giant South Korean company Hyundai, set up from zero the Hyundai Construction Equipment distribution network, firstly in New Zealand then eventually in Australia. As Chief Executive Officer of Hyundai and director of multiple companies I was leading a network of hundreds of people and sales turnover of hundreds of millions of dollars – in my thirties. From 2002 – 2015 this big company experience was all encompassing, I was interacting and negotiating with multi-billion dollar a year companies and their leaders both on the supply side and downstream on sell side.

By the time I had hit 40, I had been fortunate enough that my learning had been so immense and at such early stages in my life that my urge to give back was unstoppable. I had lived through my parents failed business in my childhood years and knew that the same type of events where happening to other business owners and their families across the globe, I knew I could help.

Throughout this book, I will be sharing the straight forward systems, strategies and tactics that I have used to grow my career, many businesses, quality of life and happiness. Knowing and understanding these strategies will hopefully help you avoid some of the mistakes I have made but it will not lessen the requirement for hard work. Full commitment, unwavering determination, and constant effort is a prerequisite of building a successful profitable business. Because of this, you must be highly motivated and passionate about your business. It’s that passion that will serve you well through the tougher moments and provide you with the energy necessary to keep you going. Without having the fundamentals of why you are in business and the ability to do whatever it takes to keep the business going, all the systems and strategies in the world won’t protect your business, it takes PASSION + WORK.

If you are purely looking for an easy option, less hours, more money, and not being accountable to anyone, the odds are stacked against you succeeding over the medium and long term.

My intention throughout this book is to share the knowledge and ideas that I have learnt through experience that not only helped me to create many profitable businesses but also helped me through the tough days, the days of doubt when you are questioning yourself, your methods and your capability. You cannot avoid highs and lows when owning a business, but by being aware of what you are likely to face and having some level of preparation and planning for those events I hope will provide you with increased confidence so that you can overcome these obstacles.

I wish you every success in starting and growing the business of your dreams and would love to hear your experiences!

Nick

Great companies start

because the founders

wanted to change the world,

not make a fast buck.

GUY KAWASAKI

CHAPTER ONE

Why start your

own business?

WHAT IS IT THAT TRIGGERED a desire to own your own business? For many, the move from employee to business ownership is unknowingly a massive shift in mindset, responsibility and commitment.

Much like sitting in a rollercoaster at a theme park, once you strap in, you are 100% committed. It is difficult to remove yourself from the ride if you don’t like the feel of it after the first turn.

Often, the continuing journey of having your own business will be just like the rest of that rollercoaster ride. There are highs and lows, it goes all over the place and it’s hard to control. Being in the front seat of the ride means you are the first person to feel the brunt of the surges. You feel alone as you can’t see anyone else around you and you just want it to be over!

The issue when you have a business is that it’s a ride you decide to go on and commit to for a long time. It’s not a Ferris wheel or a merry-go-round. You’re in for a hell of a ride and you need to buckle up. The key is to be aware of the ride and anticipate the highs and lows, so you know how to handle them. They will scare you less and you gain more control over the ride.

The four biggest challenges holding business owners back

I usually categorise business into one of three stages:

1. Start-up/early stage

2. Growth phase

3. Static, distressed or failing

My belief is that a business should always be in stage two—the growth phase.

Some of the most common challenges business owners say they have are:

1. I don’t know where to start.

When starting a business, there are plenty of books out there and courses you can do, but the challenge is sorting through all the information and noise to know what is most relevant to you. Perhaps you’ve followed all the social media influencers and have become inspired, but you now need some practical advice. What should your first steps be and where should you focus your time, energy and effort to get the best return?

2. I don’t have an endless budget and I’m trying to start at minimal cost.

It can be a daunting task to build a business without a large amount of resources behind you. Perhaps you already have other financial commitments, such as a mortgage and school fees, not to mention the usual household expenses.

3. I’m not a good marketer or salesperson.

Perhaps you have a good idea and you’re not afraid of hard work, but you have no idea about marketing and sales. In fact, you possibly feel a bit icky about the whole selling thing. If this is the case, you probably don’t have any experience with social media, database management or building sales funnels.

4. I don’t have any clients.

A business only exists if it can solve problems its customers have. Without customers, a business cannot exist. If you don’t have any customers, this is a legitimate issue, but not insurmountable. Customers are the lifeblood of your business—the key is knowing where they are and how to get them to buy.

The two most common fears business owners have:

1. What if I’m not good or smart enough?

Most people who start a business have a fear of not being enough. This is often called the imposter syndrome. It shows up when we sense a massive gap in our capability versus what is