If you want to build or start a successful business, you should not ignore the power of leverage.
First of all, you might be asking… “What is leverage?”
In a simple explanation, leverage is about utilizing something to move a heavy object with lesser effort.
When it comes to building or starting a business, there are always “heavy objects” that you will need to move.
Therefore, using the right leverage can help you move your business in a positive direction with less struggle and less pain.
Even one of the world’s most famous ancient scientists, Archimedes said this, ‘Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.’
The powerful leverage you can use to build or start a successful business is through other people’s resources, ideas, contacts and expertise. You can better remember it as the R.I.C.E leverage formula.
In this report, I am going to break down each of the R.I.C.E components and show you how you can leverage them.
Are you ready for some nuggets of wisdom?
Without adieu, let us begin…
Resources
Most of the time, when the word “resource” pops up, people would associate it with money.
Money is definitely a type of resource but today, let’s talk about a different kind of resource, which is business infrastructure.
You can actually leverage on the business infrastructure built by other people for your own business.
In this example as a graphic designer, you could utilise the services of many different print suppliers to acquire the products to sell to your clients. (eg. Business Cards, Flyers, etc.).
Many print suppliers offer complete white-label print solutions, with delivery direct to your client’s address, custom packaging only incorporating the details of your business and never sharing their details with YOUR client.
This leverage would save you from needing to purchase and maintain expensive printing machines and the different consumables such as inks, card and paper stocks.
Therefore, you can kick start your business at a much faster speed and have more success, with substantially lower risks and start-up costs.
IDEAS
It is always better to leverage on someone else’s idea that is proven to work compared to re-inventing the wheel yourself.
When you try to re-invent the wheel yourself, you may either succeed or fail on your new idea.
However, the chances of failure are much higher because you are the first one to test it.
Not only that it will likely consume a lot of your money, time and effort just to test things out. Yet, whether you will succeed or not is still a big question.
So, instead of setting yourself into a dangerous and bumpy road, why not take a safer and more comfortable road?
Leveraging on someone else’s idea that is proven to work can give you a much higher chance of success.
This is because if something is proven to work, it has the high possibility of repeating the success again and again.
All you need is to take an existing business idea that is proven work and make it even better so you can taste a greater success.
Some of the good examples of successful business ideas are businesses such as E-Commerce Drop-shipping, Print On Demand, Amazon KDP and Affiliate Marketing.
CONTACTS
A businesses success is very closely related to the number of contacts it has.
The more contacts a business can reach, the more visibility it can have and therefore more sales.
But the problem is most people would have a limited number of personal contacts they can reach out to for their business.
Moreover, not everyone is comfortable reaching out to their personal contacts for selling their products.
However, the good news is you can leverage on somebody else’s contacts to gain visibility for your business.
Today, you no longer need to suffer the problem of having limited reach for your business.
A good source of “somebody else’s” contacts you can leverage on are social media channels, e-commerce marketplaces and search engines.
All these giant platforms have huge databases of users that are waiting to see your products, even if they don’t know they want them yet!
You can reach these users either through organic reach (free) or paid advertisements.
EXPERTISE
If you want to build a successful business, you must be able to do the right things more often than the wrong things.
However, there are tons of mistakes you may need to be make before you gain the wisdom to achieve that.
The good news is you can learn from other people’s mistakes rather than making the rookie mistakes yourself.
By leveraging on other people’s expertise, you can avoid most of the dangerous pitfalls and accelerate your success.
You can leverage on other people’s expertise through continuous learning from people who are more experienced than you. The internet these days is a wealth of knowledge through social media platforms and sites such as YouTube, Udemy, etc. Finding a personal mentor who specialises in the business space your targeting can also be invaluable and help guarantee success.
This would help you to steer your business down the path of success.
CONCLUSION
Building on an existing business or starting a new business from the ground up can be an overwhelming and difficult task.
By utilising your existing experience and knowledge of the business space you intend to service, seek out opportunities to leverage the existing resources available from industry suppliers or even your competitors. By doing this, you can minimise your start-up costs and to a large degree the risks associated with purchasing expensive tools and equipment when your new or existing venture is still in its infancy.
Working with a business coach or mentor can also help in drawing on the knowledge and experience of someone who has been in your position and understands the challenges. Business coaches and mentors are also valuable for being able to provide fresh and alternative perspectives for any challenges you may encounter along the journey.
Contact me today using the “Schedule an Appointment” button at the top of the page if you could use some extra help with your business.