Money is a by-product of doing what you love – it is not the end goal.
They were the words told to me by Australian billionaire, Lindsay Fox. And his insight can be applied to your practice.
Lindsay believes that the only way to be spectacularly successful is to do something that you are truly passionate about. And then do it better than anyone else.
Lindsay has always been extremely goal focussed, and set himself achievable goals along the way. From the number of trucks in his fleet, the amount of earnings per day, and eventually other countries to expand his logistics and transport organisation to; Lindsay has worked hard and consistently to achieve these goals. There’s simply no way around it.
For those of us who own their business, it is often hard to keep focussed on doing what you love. With so many areas to focus on, the real thing you are passionate about often gets lost in all the other things you need to do to keep your business growing.
However, people like Lindsay Fox remind us that when you allow yourself to do what you are good at, and more importantly, what you love to do – then the financial rewards will come.
If you love talking to clients and working on their goals, then you really need to structure your practice so that the majority of your time is in front of clients – meaning the back end of your business needs to be humming. To achieve this, you need to take a good look at your business structure, efficiency, staffing and service levels.
If business development is your true passion, then you need to find great practitioners to work in your business – even if that means employee share schemes or profit share to keep the team motivated and focussed on outputs.
Examining your structures and putting clear roles in place for the team means you get more time to do the things you want to do. Be patient and the financial rewards are sure to come.
Sometimes getting a business coach or practice manager in to assess your business with fresh eyes will help this process – and allow you to change your thinking, so that you and your business can benefit. After all, if it worked for larger than life Lindsay, it will probably work for you too.
Lindsay Fox was a guest on The Bottom Line, a show produced by evolution media, the creators of No More Practice. It is a joint venture program with CPA Australia promoting leadership to the Australian community and screens on Channel 9 on Saturdays at midday.
You can view Lindsay talking to Vanessa on this week’s Reality check newsletter.
Vanessa Stoykov is a leading financial services strategist and recognised commentator on business and communications issues facing organisations in local and international markets.
She is CEO and Strategy Director of evolution media, (creators of No More Practice) a company she founded in 1999. evolution media, a former BRW Fast 100 company, is considered to be at the forefront of digital innovation in communication for the financial services industry.
Vanessa was also a finalist in the 2008 Telstra Young Business Woman of the Year awards.
