The lever is a simple machine for amplifying force and it works very well. In ancient Greece, Archimedes said, “Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand, and I will move the world.” The concept of leverage, as amplified force is called, applies very well to business, and the richest people in the world use leverage lot. The best thing about leverage is that you get other people to help you make money. In some companies, that can be as simple as working with your clients to get referrals, offering special compensation or gifts for each referral they bring.
My mentor worked with the best real estate salesperson in El Cajon, California for years. This man had a whole army of people telling his friends and relatives how good his service was. Once he sold someone a house, he turned that person into a salesperson for him, and of course, rewarded him in some way. This is something that all businesses can do and you should consider it.
Some entrepreneurs tell me, “I’m working hard, but I’m not making a lot of money.” What happens is that you must realize that hard work do not equal wealth. If it were, the people who dig ditches, work in foodservice, and pick up trash would be rich, and they are not. So working smart, rather than just hard, is the best way to go. You want to create multiple streams of income that run through your business. Positive cash flow gives you tremendous leverage, and there’s nothing like getting a large number of people to help you make money.
That’s one of the benefits of multi-level marketing, love it or hate it. Successful companies, some of which have grown into multi-billion dollar companies, have hordes of salespeople drumming and selling their wares. There can be thousands of them in a downline, which means you don’t need to work hard if you have all of those people working for you. Their share of what they earn can go through the roof if those people are serious marketers.
Whatever your business, get people to work on your behalf. This could mean hiring sales people who work on commission only, so you don’t have to pay them unless they produce. On a very simple but important level, it’s also about turning your customers into testimonial builders, people who encourage their family and friends to buy, which means an additional profit for you. Once it’s in your hands, you can sit back and enjoy a great boost in your business. Leverage is crucial if you want to make real money.
Let me re-emphasize: it is not necessarily working harder that matters, but working smarter. We have all heard that, but few of us really believe it; We think, “If I work harder, I will surely be rewarded for it. If I break my tail every day, that will translate into success.” And of course, there is a lot to be said about working hard and dedicating yourself to your craft. But the truth is that when it comes to making money, it is not the amount Of the work you do, what matters is quality. Productivity in the right things is what ultimately determines the level of success you achieve.
When we talk about the benefits of direct mail at our live events, we often talk about the difference between sending a salesperson to make that sale or sending a sales letter. A salesperson can only knock on a certain number of doors in a day and can make a few sales. We can be much more productive if we write a letter that says the same thing the seller would say and we mail it to those same houses. In reality, instead of being able to visit just a few dozen or hundreds of homes in a day, we can mail to tens of thousands if we want, all over the United States or the world.
Our sales message will reach all those doors within a few days of each other, depending on where they go and where the company is located. Due to the large number of people involved, direct mail gives us massive influence over the alternative. We get more productivity with less work.
Leverage is something you must acquire and use to your advantage, no matter what your business is. If you can’t find ways to use your time, energy, and resources, you’re limiting your ability to earn money. If your time is billed based on the number of hours you work, then you have to work longer hours if you want more money. Well, there are few hours in a day, and you have to sleep, eat, and do other things during part of that time. Leverage allows you to go beyond getting paid directly for your own efforts and start getting paid for other things in ways that aren’t related to having to work hard.
The idea is to find something that works and then roll it out as big as possible. The richest people in the world have the same number of hours a week as you: 168. In many cases, they are not smarter or more talented than you; they simply have many other things besides their time to earn money. You can do that too.