1422: Why You Should Ignore 99% of Worthless Advice about Starting A Business by Ramit Sethi

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_00]: This is Optimal Work Daily. Why You Should Ignore 99% of Worthless Advice about Starting A Business by Ramit Sethi with BudgetsRSEXY.com

[00:00:10] [SPEAKER_00]: And hi again, my name is Dan, I am your host and narrator here. For now, let's get right to the post as we start optimizing your life.

[00:00:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Why You Should Ignore 99% of Worthless Advice about Starting a Business by Ramit Sethi with BudgetsRSEXY.com

[00:00:30] [SPEAKER_00]: Ever since I started writing about how to earn more money, I've been getting questions like this over and over.

[00:00:36] [SPEAKER_00]: What service should I offer? How much should I charge? Where can I find my clients? But I'm already so busy, how can I manage my time?

[00:00:43] [SPEAKER_00]: It turns out that everyone who wants to earn more money has a very similar set of barriers holding them back.

[00:00:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Kind of like people who want to lose weight, it's usually the same set of 5-10 mental and physical barriers holding them back.

[00:00:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Interestingly, everyone thinks they're unique, but of course we almost all have similar questions and barriers.

[00:01:01] [SPEAKER_00]: But there's another important question that few people ever ask. What shouldn't I be spending my time on?

[00:01:07] [SPEAKER_00]: When I tell people they should spend money on lattes, they get confused.

[00:01:11] [SPEAKER_00]: When I talk about the basics of personal finance, people are shocked to hear that I advocate spending extravagantly on the things you love.

[00:01:18] [SPEAKER_00]: What? Spending? But I thought personal finance was all about making budgets, cutting back, locking up all your extra money for 40 years,

[00:01:25] [SPEAKER_00]: making your own detergent and checking your bank account 5 times a day.

[00:01:29] [SPEAKER_00]: Some people get so hung up on the idea of spending extravagantly that they never hear the second part of my philosophy,

[00:01:35] [SPEAKER_00]: cutting costs ruthlessly on the things you don't care about. You want to buy that $500 pair of boots?

[00:01:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, if you really want them, go ahead. But the flip side of extravagant spending is cutting back on the things you just don't care about and won't miss.

[00:01:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Take a closer look and you'll see there are actually a lot of things in your life that fit this.

[00:01:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Some people don't care about cable, but forget that they're spending on it every month.

[00:01:57] [SPEAKER_00]: Others could be saving $50 a month on their cell phone bill but never bother to check if they're on the right plan.

[00:02:03] [SPEAKER_00]: So now let's talk about how this relates to earning more money.

[00:02:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Just like personal finance, earning more is within everyone's reach, but there's a slight difference.

[00:02:12] [SPEAKER_00]: With earning more, time is your currency. Where will you spend it extravagantly and where will you cut costs ruthlessly?

[00:02:19] [SPEAKER_00]: Stop wasting time on worthless activities. Time is your most precious currency when it comes to earning more real money.

[00:02:26] [SPEAKER_00]: Spending it on the wrong thing will slow you to a standstill.

[00:02:29] [SPEAKER_00]: Why then do all the standard how-to-start-a-business tips tell us to do everything under the sun?

[00:02:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Just as big brands are out there trying to market their products, giving you more and more options of where to spend your money,

[00:02:40] [SPEAKER_00]: most of the standard how-to-start-a-business tips are simply marketing ideas so you'll keep reading and reading and reading.

[00:02:46] [SPEAKER_00]: Reading tips can be fun but earning more money is even better.

[00:02:50] [SPEAKER_00]: Check out this list of essential tasks that you must do before starting your business, taken from one popular book on freelancing.

[00:02:57] [SPEAKER_00]: Set up Twitter and Facebook page. Start a blog and website. Get business cards and logos designed.

[00:03:03] [SPEAKER_00]: Register your DBA, doing business as name. Prepare a press kit. Draft contracts and other legal forms for use with clients.

[00:03:11] [SPEAKER_00]: These are all worthless when you're first earning money. In fact, in my Earn 1 K course I only focus on helping my students get their first three paying clients.

[00:03:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Anything else is not important right now.

[00:03:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Once you have consistent cash flow of $500 a month extra, $1,000 a month or even $5,000 a month,

[00:03:29] [SPEAKER_00]: you can afford to focus on other aspects of your business.

[00:03:32] [SPEAKER_00]: Why you should ruthlessly ignore typical advice about starting a business?

[00:03:37] [SPEAKER_00]: You'll hear people recommending these same old tired, pointless tasks like setting up a Twitter page to earn money,

[00:03:43] [SPEAKER_00]: because one, that's what they know and two, it's easy to describe.

[00:03:47] [SPEAKER_00]: It's much more difficult to explain the importance of deep customer research or pricing.

[00:03:52] [SPEAKER_00]: But some novice weirdo can say, you really need to set up a Twitter account and wipe his hands because he thinks he's helped you.

[00:03:59] [SPEAKER_00]: I have over 13,000 plus followers on Twitter and carefully measure where I generate revenue from.

[00:04:05] [SPEAKER_00]: I can tell you from quantitative analysis that Twitter is one of the last things you should set up if your goal is to earn more money.

[00:04:11] [SPEAKER_00]: Here are some reasons why you should ignore this kind of advice.

[00:04:15] [SPEAKER_00]: 1. Their endless time sinks

[00:04:18] [SPEAKER_00]: None of the above to-dos are technically wrong and some of them might even seem like no-brainers,

[00:04:23] [SPEAKER_00]: but little things that can be constantly tweaked.

[00:04:25] [SPEAKER_00]: Ooh, maybe my logo should be a little more like this.

[00:04:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Add up rapidly until minutes become hours and hours become days.

[00:04:32] [SPEAKER_00]: Meanwhile, you're still at $0 profit.

[00:04:35] [SPEAKER_00]: But you perfected that logo.

[00:04:37] [SPEAKER_00]: Until you've started earning money consistently, you don't have a business.

[00:04:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Nobody cares about your logo, Twitter or Facebook page or anything else.

[00:04:44] [SPEAKER_00]: Those are simply goals to get you to earning money.

[00:04:47] [SPEAKER_00]: So why not skip over them and go directly to earning money?

[00:04:51] [SPEAKER_00]: 2. They drain your energy

[00:04:53] [SPEAKER_00]: In a perfect world, everybody would do all of the above and still have plenty of time and motivation left over for actual work.

[00:05:00] [SPEAKER_00]: In reality, we're cognitive misers and have limited willpower.

[00:05:03] [SPEAKER_00]: So people get lazy and feel like doing nothing a lot of the time.

[00:05:07] [SPEAKER_00]: You know what I'm talking about.

[00:05:08] [SPEAKER_00]: Your motivation is finite and that's normal.

[00:05:11] [SPEAKER_00]: But know that if you don't spend your limited motivation on the most important tasks,

[00:05:16] [SPEAKER_00]: the tasks that are directly connected to getting clients and getting paid,

[00:05:19] [SPEAKER_00]: then the real work will never get done.

[00:05:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Be ruthlessly protective of your time and energy.

[00:05:25] [SPEAKER_00]: Scrutinize every task and consider,

[00:05:27] [SPEAKER_00]: is this earning essential or am I just doing it to put off what's important?

[00:05:31] [SPEAKER_00]: 3. You might not even need them

[00:05:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Remember, you're earning money on the side, not starting the next Google.

[00:05:37] [SPEAKER_00]: Resist the urge to think you need certain things in order to look like a real business.

[00:05:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Real businesses make money.

[00:05:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Case in point, I paid one of my freelancers over $12,000 last month

[00:05:47] [SPEAKER_00]: and he has no business cards, no blog, and virtually no web presence whatsoever.

[00:05:52] [SPEAKER_00]: And he works exclusively with online businesses.

[00:05:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Barring a few truly important exceptions.

[00:05:57] [SPEAKER_00]: For instance, basic legal and tax issues which can easily be outsourced to experts

[00:06:01] [SPEAKER_00]: and should not take up most of your focus.

[00:06:03] [SPEAKER_00]: It's time to start ignoring what most people say you need to do to start a business.

[00:06:08] [SPEAKER_00]: No clients, no business.

[00:06:10] [SPEAKER_00]: How do you get those clients?

[00:06:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Focus on what's truly important.

[00:06:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Crafting an irresistible offer, figuring out who's willing to buy

[00:06:18] [SPEAKER_00]: and closing your first three clients.

[00:06:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Everything else is just details.

[00:06:26] [SPEAKER_00]: You just listened to the post titled

[00:06:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Why You Should Ignore 99% of Worthless Advice about Starting a Business

[00:06:32] [SPEAKER_00]: by Ramit Sadi with budgetsrsexy.com

[00:06:35] [SPEAKER_00]: This show is sponsored by BetterHelp.

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[00:07:39] [SPEAKER_00]: So today's article came from a contributor that you'll hear on the show pretty regularly.

[00:07:43] [SPEAKER_00]: It's Rameet Sethi, but actually this is a guest post that he did on another blog that we narrate.

[00:07:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Budgets are sexy, that's Jay Money's blog which we've narrated across most of our shows over the years.

[00:07:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Hopefully that wasn't too confusing for you, but a little bit about Rameet.

[00:07:58] [SPEAKER_00]: He's the creator of I Will Teach You To Be Rich.com

[00:08:00] [SPEAKER_00]: and that's a site that covers personal finance and entrepreneurship.

[00:08:04] [SPEAKER_00]: He's also a popular writer with a best-selling book.

[00:08:07] [SPEAKER_00]: It is a really great book, particularly on the personal finance side.

[00:08:10] [SPEAKER_00]: It's really good if you're just starting out maybe in your first job

[00:08:13] [SPEAKER_00]: and you don't know what to do with the money that you're making,

[00:08:16] [SPEAKER_00]: where to invest, how to budget, how to automate your payments.

[00:08:20] [SPEAKER_00]: And then on the entrepreneurship side, he's an expert in side hustles, finding your niche,

[00:08:24] [SPEAKER_00]: where you're likely to make the most money, that kind of thing.

[00:08:26] [SPEAKER_00]: And Budgets are sexy, Jay Money's site covers mostly personal finance,

[00:08:31] [SPEAKER_00]: but there's also some content about freelancing, side hustles and much more.

[00:08:35] [SPEAKER_00]: They're both really great writers and we always recommend checking out both of those sites.

[00:08:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Again, that's I Will Teach You To Be Rich.com

[00:08:41] [SPEAKER_00]: and BudgetsAreSexy.com

[00:08:43] [SPEAKER_00]: and you can always find more information about the authors

[00:08:45] [SPEAKER_00]: in our episodes description in your podcast app.

[00:08:49] [SPEAKER_00]: And that'll do it for today.

[00:08:50] [SPEAKER_00]: I thank you so much for listening and being a subscriber of the show.

[00:08:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Have a great rest of your day and I'll see you back here tomorrow

[00:08:56] [SPEAKER_00]: for The Friday Show, where your optimal life awaits.