Escape the “Solo Business” Life Sentence
Streetsmart and Savvy
Business Ownership Practitioner Certification Course
61% of Australian businesses are sole traders *
45% is the survival rate of Sole Trader Businesses, the lowest of all *
58% of small business owners earn $50,000 or less per annum **
There are reasons why most never grow past that point
Does any of this sound familiar:
Instead of giving you satisfaction, freedom and lifestyle, is your business holding you prisoner?
Are you unable to take a break, fearing your business will collapse?
Are you not making enough money to pay for staff, yet there’s no possible way to get all the work done by yourself?
You’re not alone, but YOU don’t have to be a statistic. Not any more!
2.5 days exposed to THIS can change all that!
Escape the “Solo Business” Life Sentence
Streetsmart and Savvy
Business Ownership Practitioner Certification Course
61% of Australian businesses are sole traders *
45% is the survival rate of Sole Trader Businesses, the lowest of all *
58% of small business owners earn $50,000 or less per annum **
There are reasons why most never grow past that point
Does any of this sound familiar:
Instead of giving you satisfaction, freedom and lifestyle, is your business holding you prisoner?
Are you unable to take a break, fearing your business will collapse?
Are you not making enough money to pay for staff, yet there’s no possible way to get all the work done by yourself?
You’re not alone, but YOU don’t have to be a statistic. Not any more!
2.5 days exposed to THIS can change all that!
Escape the “Solo Business” Life Sentence
Streetsmart and Savvy
Business Ownership Practitioner Certification Course
61% of Australian businesses are sole traders *
45% is the survival rate of Sole Trader Businesses, the lowest of all *
58% of small business owners earn $50,000 or less per annum **
There are reasons why most never grow past that point
Does any of this sound familiar:
Instead of giving you satisfaction, freedom and lifestyle, is your business holding you prisoner?
Are you unable to take a break, fearing your business will collapse?
Are you not making enough money to pay for staff, yet there’s no possible way to get all the work done by yourself?
You’re not alone, but YOU don’t have to be a statistic. Not any more!
2.5 days exposed to THIS can change all that!
Do you feel a lump
in your throat thinking about that dreadful day …Even if I’ve got enough saved up, if I get really sick or have an accident everything will fall apart! My business is not worth anything because it’s all about me. And if I’m not working, it’s not making money.
“I will lose everything I’ve slaved away to build over the last 5 years! How will I face my wife when we lose the house – she was the one that wanted me to get a job in the first place…”
Wouldn’t it be nice
to be able to breathe easy?Knowing that there’s always enough money in the bank to pay all your bills BEFORE they’re due – even if you’re not there?
Knowing that you can go away on holidays when you feel like it and to places you’ve always dreamed you would visit one day?
Knowing that you have time to enjoy your family and children while they’re still young.. not when they’re all
grown up and have families of their own
Knowing that all your hard work has paid off when you go to sell your business and you’re able to charge 4, 5, 6 x its profit value because you’ve built an asset for your family’s future, not just a job.
You will have a team whom you can trust to serve your customers and who respect you as a leader.You will smile more, take deeper breaths and sleep more relaxed knowing that things are going to be all right.You will be able to afford that stunning white $4mil mansion with the view that you and your partner have been day-dreaming about for the last 5 years.And best of all, you’ll have the time and peace of mind to enjoy it with your family
A scalable business is one that is able to grow freely, without being dependent on you personally for day-to-day operations. And scaling YOUR business is very likely possible. It may need a few tweaks but hey, that’s what we have to do everyday in business, isn’t it!
So even if you’re thinking:
“I tried spending money on advertising it’s either wasted completely or I get extra work that I can’t handle. And when I’ve put someone else on, they cost so much I ended up worse off after all!”
“I tried employing staff but they just suck up my time, I spent months training them up only to give up at the end because they were hopeless or I trained them so well, they went out on their own and stole my customers!”
“I tried putting up my price, but I just can’t convince people to spend more on my services because it’s a cut-throat market out there. It’s only ever about price! And I can barely make enough to cover my costs, let alone a staff member to help!”
“I tried cutting down my hours to spend time with my family but I just wasn’t’ making enough to put food on the table! I HAVE to work and if I stop, everything stops!”
So what to do?
1. Internet Marketing & Branding
2. Sharpen Your Sales Skills
3. Off-Line Marketing
4. Communication, Negotiation, Personal Presence and Personal Branding
5. Strategic Partnerships and Increasing Referral Business
6. Time and Productivity: Unlocking hours of productivity from every week in your business
7. Team: Hiring and keeping your Dream Team
8. Management & Leadership
9. The Art of Bootstrapping: Running your business on a shoestring budget
10. The Ultimate Business Equation
11. Cashflow and Financial Intelligence
12. Legalities
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Good question!
If you’re ever going to get business advice from anyone, you’d want to make sure it’s from someone who has succeeded in business several times over, right?
Better still, you need to ask someone who as failed in business a few time too!
So, this is a little bit about me and what I’ve been up to over the last 35 years:
My name is Rick Chisholm.
When I started my first business as a DJ in Sydney I was full of energy and enthusiasm (like most of us in business!) and life looked good! I was making money, I was in demand and I was loving it!
What more could I ask for!
But soon enough, I came up against the 3 biggest obstacles that most sole operators and small business owners face:
Time Money People
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I was trapped by my own business, working 100-hour weeks, living on breadcrumbs and had zero social life. In so many ways I was worse off than having a job.
But that was 35 years ago. And since then I’ve learnt a trick or two.
I worked out how to bridge that gap from lifetime-jail-term-business to scalable- saleable-real-business in all my 30+ businesses in the following 35 years. The direct sales revenue of my businesses has well exceeded $300million
Here are some of the larger businesses that I founded over the span of that period, all of which I eventually made scalable and either sold or am still running under management:
My experience spans across many differ industries including Retail, Wholesale, Importing, Manufacturing, Installations, Hospitality, Franchising, Rental, e-commerce and Training. If there was anyone that has tried and tested small to medium business, it’s me!
I also have joint ventures in AI, an events company, an automation Tech company a legal firm and a Financial Advisor company.
A few years ago, my businesses were turning just under $20mil per year and were the market leaders in their niche. We had 67 staff at the time and things were progressing well.
And then, the GFC hit. Bricks and mortar retail was hit by online businesses and our importing was hit by eBay, Amazon, Alibaba and factories drop-shipping from China directly. Discretionary spending plummeted and the future of the businesses looked bleak. After a gruelling few years, we managed to pull our businesses back out of difficulty.
Not only did the businesses recover, we became significantly more profitable than we were before the GFC. Scoring a whopping $750k turnaround in profitability over a 4-year period, things finally looked up again. The dark circles under my eyes eventually weren’t as dark and my stress levels resembled normality (this stuff is not magic, I still am in business you know).
So there you have it. If there’s anyone out there who understands the struggles of business ups and downs, staff challenges, cashflow droughts and how to invent and re-invent your business, it would be me!
“Incredible wealth of knowledge and great directions to managing and growing a successful business. Rick is a seasoned entrepreneur!”“
“I have worked with Rick for some time and found that their no-fuss approach to business resonated with me. Right from the start, the Coaching Club helped me to clarify my thoughts and begin to structure some robust business processes, delivering immediate results.”
“If only I had known the stuff that Rick taught me BEFORE I started my Masters degree and wasted years of my life doing. Only to run my business and get hammered by customers that never paid up! I would have saved 5 years learning what I REALLY needed to know. No one I’ve ever met knows business like this bloke, he’s the real deal“
“For someone who’s not a lawyer, this guy knows more about law than anyone else I’ve ever seen!“
“When you first start working with Rick, you’ll immediately feel his contagious energy. His guidance has been critical to the growth of my firm.”
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Not All Business Advice
Was Created Equal
Be warned taking business training or advice from:
Academics
who haven’t spent a day in business themselves
Business coachess
whose only experience has been in sucking people in but only ever operated their own coaching business. Be especially careful of the whose only experience has been in sucking people in but only ever operated their own coaching business. Be especially careful of the LIFE COACHES.
Business trainers
whose businesses never exceeded a fraction of even your business!
Ex-Multinational advisors
or coaches, who have never run a small business before and don’t realise how it’s a different animal to corporate.
Motivational speakers
who are great at making you laugh, cry and discover your inner purpose (supposedly, even if for only a moment), but really can’t tell you what you can do with all that BS to make $ in the real world!
Lawyers
We all need them but their job is to protect you from every risk. And what is the first thing you need to get mastered to start your own business? Risk-taking! Not saying you need to discard their advice, but really, there’s a balance.
Accountants
Sure, they’re the closest to your business and know the ins and outs but they’re always looking at the past. Secondly, what has been their experience in growing businesses outside of their accounting firm?
Regardless, if you DO decide to listen to someone for advice, just make sure they have FAILED and came back from that, more than once, (so you don’t make the same blunders they did), AND, make sure they are at least 5 times more successful than you.
Who’s is This Ideal For?
Sole operators or business owners with 1-4 staff move to a more scalable business model that will upon implementation deliver more time and more money for a better quality of life. It is also invaluable for building your business to run without you so it becomes a valuable asset that can be acquired by a buyer when you are ready to move on to the next thing
Still Not Sure?
Not sure if I am what I describe?
Not sure if I can deliver value to you and your business?
Try me out. I’m making available 2 of the modules, which take half a day at a discounted price for those who are looking for some value before they commit.
Click here to find out more about the first half day training event.
The cost of these 2 sessions is already included in the pricing of this course.
So if you take the half day event and then decide to move forward with the course, you will be credited what you paid on the half day event.
9:00 AM – 6:00 PM 4 & 5 August (Sessions 3 – 12)
Venue: City of Sydney RSL | 565 George St, Sydney NSW 2000
Price: $1997
* Australian Bureau of Statistics: Counts of Australian Businesses, including Entries and Exits (cat. no. 8165.0)
** ATO ‘Total Business Owners By Taxable Income’ report 2014-2015
Are you going to try and sell me something during this course?
Well of course! We give the maximum amount of content and value possible within the time that is allocated for the session. We will also let you know about the (ridiculously affordable) business education and acceleration programs that Innovest has to offer but we don’t do the hard sell on people. That’s always our promise!
So how will you know the quality we can offer? Nothing like some (almost) give-away education to give you a taste!
At the end of the two and a half days, you will have two options:
Option 1. Walk away…
Get the confidence and skills to execute on all of the advice we have shared
Option 2. Stick around…
And move further with us for even more actionable learning
Well, if you hate academics so much, why are you calling this a certificate? And is it accredited?
#1 we don’t hate academics, we LOVE them. We just don’t like it when they try to teach people about business when they haven’t done it themselves.
#2 Yes we are calling it a certification because we are leading a revolution! A revolution for business to be taught by business people. Our certificate is worth more than spending years in university trying to get an MBA. If nothing else, it’ll look good on the CV and people will listen up when they see what you’ve learnt and who taught you.
I’ve been in business for years. Sure I have problems, but what can you possibly teach me that I don’t already know, especially in just 2.5 days?
We don’t know what you know. And you don’t know what you don’t know, right? But if you’re having challenges, and you are if you still reading this, odds are we’ve been through similar challenges too. You can pin us down and ask us anything you like during the 2.5 days. The cost of the 2.5 days of training is close to half of an hour with a typical business or management consultant, or even a lawyer who will do what they can to steal your dream. If all you did was come along just to ask whatever questions you wanted to ask well then that’ll do it.
I’m just starting out, will this course teach me everything I need to know to run a business?
We will cram as much knowledge, value and strategy as we can humanly cram into those two and a half days. We will save you at least a few years and a few hundred thousand dollars on wasted experiments your part. But to be fair, be realistic, it will take a bit more than 16 hours for you to nail it in business. It’s a mystery why people run off to uni to do a Bachelor of Business and come out the other end and not even know half the business basics needed not to go broke. And how many years do they stick into that uni degree? Answer: 3 or 4.
Its hideous frankly. And for specialists, they come out great technicians, but do they now how to run a business? That’s the question. No, it does NOT take years and years to learn how to run a business, that’s a load of crap. You’re going to have to be prepared to work hard for your success though. That’s one of those things that we don’t have a magic bullet for. And, umm, yeah, these two and a half days will be tough work.
I’m only a start-up and can’t really afford to pay the cost of this course right now. Do you have any payment plans?
Hmm.. If it was a couple of thousand dollars, we’d totally understand. But for the value you’ll be receiving a couple of hundred dollars is crazy cheap. It’s less than what you’d spend on 2 coffees a day for a month. Find the $200 bucks, ok!
How do I know this is applicable to my business? I’m not in any of those industries that you guys have been in.
It’s applicable, and if its not ask for a refund. Richard Branson once said ‘If you can run one business well, you can run any business well’. We also believe that between the two of us we’ve had years of exposure across so many goods and services industries that it’s very likely we know enough about business to apply our experience it to yours. Oh, the list above is the summary, we have run many, many businesses in so many industries you will be surprised.
I’m still not sure. Do you have some guarantees I’ll get good value out of this program?
Yes we do. We will refund your $197 if you think it really wasn’t worth it or you didn’t learn something profound that you can’t honestly say:
- Will likely save your business one day
- You can’t implement in your business straight away and save thousands
“Shortly after transitioning my part-time business to a full-time venture, I found myself needing to secure more regular, on-going business opportunities. I have worked with Rick and Tala for some time and found that their no-fuss approach to business resonated with me. They have helped me clarify my thoughts and begin to structure some robust business processes, delivering immediate results.“
“Rick’s guidance has been critical to the growth of my firm. I’ve had plenty of sports coaches, so working with a business coach made perfect sense to me“
“Rick has been my coach and mentor ever since I met him a few years ago. He has helped me with my business and personal development and I will owe him for a long time to come!”“
“When I think about the interactions I’ve had with Rick, whether that be more recently or from more than 25 years ago, I’d have to say that Rick is determined, enthusiastic, driven, polished, prepared, well-drilled, hard working and dogmatic.“
“I have known Rick Chisholm for well over 25 years and have had the privilege of being his Insurance Broker in all that time. I have witnessed Rick, from very humble beginnings, create Multi Million Dollar Enterprises over the years, in a diverse range of Industries and in very short periods of time, through sheer hard work and a business savvy that has been the envy of his peers and competitors alike.“
