I’ve been speaking and writing on the topic of “leverage” a lot lately. As we launched our new venture The Simple Company® in the past weeks, we’re on a mission to help business owners “make your business work, even when you don’t”.

What does it mean?

First, you make your business function as it should. If you’re constantly compensating for an underperforming business by paying yourself less than you are worth, or working way too much, you’re operating a broken business. Sure, you might do it to be able to afford a new hire, etc., but let’s be honest, most of the time this is not true.

And second, it means that the business works for you, instead of just you working for the business. When your business works, it is run on systems, and people run the systems (not you).

To make your business work, even when you don’t, you need two really important pieces in place;

1. Systems

2. Leverage

These two words might not inspire you, but believe me, they are two sexy words indeed, if you are a business owner.

If you don’t run your business on systems, the business runs on you. The business is not working, only you are. Or maybe you and a few other poor souls trying to hack it keep it together.

If you don’t have leverage, all you will do is work and keep busy, while achieving only a small percentage of your true potential.

In the illustration above (I know what you are thinking….that dude can draw! Contact me if you want me to draw something for your home… preferably big, visible living room surfaces) there are two axes;

Income vs. Work

Leverage is essentially the multiplier between the two.

If you have to put in a ton of work for a small income, you‘re obviously not leveraged. For example, working 10-12 hours in a restaurant for minimum wage would be such an example. Or any other low-paid job for that matter…like running a fancy agency or consultancy that actually earns $30 dollars per hour, while they charge $150 per hour (yes you know what I am talking about…)

Most entrepreneurs in the professional services space do lots of work for average or low income. Now please don’t get me wrong. I don’t mean that a consultant that charges $300k per year is doing bad by any means. But relatively speaking, that income is generated through a lot of work, perhaps 300 days working 10 hours per day, totaling 3000 hours (which means $100 per hour). Not bad, but also not great.

Compare the consultant with someone who applies a business model with more leverage.

Let’s assume the business and industry are the same, but this consultant (Let’s call her The Leveraged Consultant) has figured out how to simplify, standardize, and systematize the business.

The Leveraged Consultant has productized her offerings, and she has built client acquisition funnels that provide lots of leverage (paid advertising, lots of recorded videos, VSL’s, podcasts, etc.). She has automated some parts of her delivery system too, so she spends only half as much as the other consultant on delivery.

Because she has leverage, she is able to make $60k per month (on average) by herself, for a total of $720.000 per year. Oh, and she works 8 hours per day for 11 months (not including weekends), for a total of 1848 hours.

The Leveraged Consultant makes $720k working 1848 hours = $390 per hour.

In other words, her business has 3,9x the leverage of the other consultant.
She works significantly less and earns significantly more.

If you’re not paying attention….let me say it…this is HUGE.

In today’s world, given all the technology and media you can leverage, you can be The Leveraged Consultant.

I know this to be true because I have done more than twice the amount myself, compared to this example. I’ve had more than 8x the leverage compared to the 300k consultant. Not saying it to brag, but rather, to prove that if I can do it, you can too.

I hope you see how amazing the opportunity is.

I also hope you see how you might be working hard applying the wrong model.

You are probably smart and hard-working.

Ask yourself whether you would be a lot better off if you had better systems and more leverage.

If the answer is yes, don’t hesitate to contact us.
Set up a meeting, and we’ll do an assessment for you.
Not a sales call a real assessment.

We will ask for some numbers and some info, then we’ll show you how to make your business work, with high leverage.

This is what we do at The Simple Company®

Not only for consultants and agencies, by the way.

For any entrepreneurially-led business.

We’ve got everything you need, from the models, strategies, and tools to the training, coaching, and accountability all lined up.

We can only take on a limited number of clients simultaneously, so if you’re interested, reach out.

Book your assessment call here.

Hope this gave you something to think about.

Thanks for being a reader of my blog.
My aim is to serve you, and I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

Tobias