The Money Advantage® Podcast | Infinite Banking Concept & Family Banking

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOqvqatky6Q

You can survive dying without needing a GoFundMe.  I’m living proof.  Three weeks ago, I almost died in an emergency operation after childbirth. Today, I’m looking down at the fluttering eyelashes of my snoring newborn, and my heart swells with enormous gratitude for the privilege of being alive to witness her life.

In today’s podcast, my husband Lucas and I tell you our very personal story of harrowing trauma and crisis, miraculous healing and recovery, redemption, and the eternal treasures we’ve gained.  And we share the four pillars of protection that carried us through the scariest and hardest week of our lives.

Through our story, I want to show you how you can build the financial bunker of protection to survive life’s worst moments.

Table of contentsWhere Protection Fits into the Cash Flow SystemHow I Almost Died After ChildbirthProblems in the Third Stage of LaborIn the ICUThe Gravity of My SituationThe Emotional Agony of Almost Losing A SpouseFinancial Peace During the TraumaPracticing What We PreachDon’t Have to Use to GoFundMeThe Scariest and Hardest Week of Our LivesCircumstances Got Even DarkerFailing the Discharge TestsMore Than I Could BearMy Breaking PointThe Light at the End of the TunnelDischarged, But Not Going HomeHome at LastThe Eternal Treasures We’ve GainedOverwhelmed With GratitudeFour Pillars of Peace of Mind1) Relationship with Jesus2) Abundance Mindset3) Relationships4) Financial ProtectionHow Financial Protections Eliminate the Need for a GoFundMeLife InsuranceDisability InsuranceHealth Insurance & Emergency FundEstate PlanSecure Protection When You Don’t Need It

Where Protection Fits into the Cash Flow System

Protecting your financial life is just one part of a bigger journey to building time and money freedom. 

That’s why we have created the 3-step Business Owner’s Cash Flow System, your roadmap to take you from just surviving, to a life of significance, purpose, and financial freedom.

The first step is keeping more of the money you make by fixing money leaks, becoming more efficient and profitable.  Then, you’ll protect your money with insurance, legal protection, and Privatized Banking.  Finally, you’ll put your money to work, increase your income with cash-flowing assets.

When you fully protect the wealth you’ve built, no event has the power to sweep away what you’ve created.  Then, you can experience peace of mind and relieve the anxiety, even during life’s worst moments.

How I Almost Died After Childbirth

At 38 weeks and 2 days into pregnancy, I had a visit Monday morning, May 20th, 2019, at 9:30 am. We were going in for a nonstress test, ultrasound, and an appointment with the midwife. 

The test showed baby’s heart rate too high.  She was in distress.  A rushed ultrasound showed that she was now in the 3rd percentile, diagnosing her as Intrauterine Growth Restricted (IUGR).  My blood pressure classified me as having Pregnancy Induced Hypertension.  Basically, my placenta was calcifying and not allowing baby to get enough blood flow and nourishment.  They said we needed to induce right away to allow baby to tolerate labor. 

I was wheeled to labor and delivery, admitted, and began induction at 1:30 pm. I still wanted to maintain an as low-intervention birth as possible. Even though I was on Pitocin to jumpstart labor, I had requested no pain medication. 

Active labor finally kicked in about 8:30 pm and my doula returned at 9 pm. In 43 minutes, I dilated from 4 to 10 cm. Baby was born after an intense, fast, and shocking labor at 9:43 pm. 

Problems in the Third Stage of Labor

Afterward, the midwife and OBGYN kept asking me to push out the placenta.  I pushed and pushed through a pounding headache. Only there was nothing to push. This was due to a “retained” or “sticky” placenta, which wouldn’t detach from my uterine wall.

Over the next hour, I pushed,

Scott Carson is the Founder and CEO of We Close Notes. He’s a distressed note buyer, real estate investor, entrepreneur, educator and podcast host.

If you’ve heard of investing in non-performing notes and would like to gain an insider’s perspective, this is your opportunity to learn. 

As you expand into any asset class, the first step is education.  Building the knowledge, so you gain control and can invest according to your unique ability is critical to minimizing risk and increasing your returns. 

Where Note Investing Fits into the Cash Flow System

As important as selecting the right investments are to building time and money freedom, investing is just one step in the bigger journey.

Our 3-step Business Owner's Cash Flow System first helps you keep more of the money you make.  We do this through tax planning, debt restructuring, cash flow awareness, and alternative savings strategies.  You’ll free up and increase your cash flow, so you have more to invest.

Then, we help you protect your money with insurance, legal protection, and privatized banking. 

Finally, you’ll put your money to work and get it to make more. You’ll invest in cash-flowing assets like your business and real estate to build financial freedom and leave a rich legacy.

Who Is Scott Carson?

Scott Carson is the owner and managing member of We Close Notes, an Austin-based, defaulted note buying company.  He specializes in finding non-performing notes on residential and commercial properties and purchasing these notes for his portfolio. 

He also teaches Note Buying for Dummies, a 3-day workshop for investors on buying defaulted notes and has been a featured speaker and educator at dozens of investment clubs and real estate workshops across the country.

Scott Carson has been in the mortgage, finance, and banking industry since 2001, and an active real estate investor since 2002.  He has been actively buying notes on residential and commercial properties since 2005. 

Scott was previously the Sr. Real Estate Coach for RealEstateProfitCoach.com and a Mortgage Banker and VP with JPMorgan Chase.

Scott Carson Conversation Highlights

* Why Scott Carson finds a way to make experiences and memories happen.* How Scott Carson's entrepreneurial journey started while working in his dad’s hardware store.* Scott’s start in real estate began with investing mistakes, mortgage, options, wholesaling, flipping, and then buying distressed debt.* The note investing value proposition for banks, the investor, and the homeowner to gain a win-win-win.* Investor returns example showing borrower negotiations, and how it can create a 14%+ yield during the hold period, and the appreciation when you sell the newly-performing mortgage to a fund or other investor.* Foreclosure options for homeowners that don’t pay to provide an exit strategy for the note investor, including cash for keys, short sale, or have someone else take over the mortgage.* The return on investment (ROI) and return on time (ROT) in note investing.* How We Close Notes locates hot markets for non-performing notes.

Rachel delivered Olivia Audrey Bernadette! Olivia was born Monday, May 20th, 9:43pm, a tiny bundle of love at 5 pounds 4.5 ounces, 18 inches.  Rachel experienced significant complications, but has recovered rapidly, and now baby and mommy are healthy and doing great!  It’s been a monumental week.  We’ll tell you the story soon! We will see you next week!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4j_gEU3Wto

The best profit maximization strategies are the ones nobody’s talking about.  Why?  Because everyone is looking for the hardest, most challenging, and over-complicated techniques.  Maybe it’s our human tendency to believe that everything worthwhile has to be difficult. Or perhaps, we like the bragging rights we get after surviving the most grueling, tortuous feats. Like cutting all carbs, sugar, and flavor for seven years with no cheat days. Or making getting fit as hard as running the Boston Marathon.

When it comes to your money, you’re working hard to make it in the first place.  You’re balancing enjoying life today with making sure tomorrow is secure, and taking care of your future needs, like cars, college, weddings, vacations, and personal income.  As most people do their best to cover all the bases, they usually fall into one of three self-defeating traps.

Table of contentsThe Three Profit Maximization TrapsProfit Maximization Is Easier Than You ThinkWhere Profit Maximization Fits into the Cash Flow SystemWhat Is A Money Leak?Money Leak SymptomsThe Eight Profit Maximization Keys to Find and Fix Money Leaks#1) Cash Flow Awareness#2) TaxesStrategies to Minimize Taxes#3) Debt#4) Savings and Investments#5) Protections#6) Efficiency#7) Abundance perspective#8) Prioritize ProfitProfit Maximization Isn't HardGet The Top 3 Money Finder StrategiesYour Next Step to Profit Maximization

The Three Profit Maximization Traps

The first trap is trying to work harder to make more money.  But this quickly turns into a rat race to stay ahead.  Often lifestyle expenses creep up along with income, and they wake up to realize they’re using up the same portion of a bigger pie. This frantic, unsustainable pace of outworking your spending can lead to burnout.

The second trap is feeling the need to take on more risk to grow money faster.  But high risk doesn’t equal high returns.  It really means a greater potential for loss. Following this path can wind up causing you to lose money and end up back at square one, empty-handed.

The third trap that lures and then confounds even the most financially disciplined is cutting back.  They try to live on less, but end up chasing pennies while stepping over dollars in the process.  The scarcity mindset has them hog-tied, limiting the good they can do. They end up feeling miserable and hating life.

Profit Maximization Is Easier Than You Think

Instead of falling into those traps, thankfully, the keys to profit maximization are more like finding out that to be the healthiest and most fit, you can eat, drink, sleep, and exercise however much or as little as you want.  Well, almost that easy.  (And, of course, health doesn’t work that way.)

The best-kept secret to profit maximization is that keeping more of your money can be effortless and painless.  You just have to know what most people don’t: how to find and fix your money leaks.

That’s why it’s our mission to help business owners increase profits by doing just that. 

We’ll help you avoid the self-defeating traps that will have you burned out, losing money, and hating life. 

Instead, we’ll show you the most common money leaks and how they siphon away your cash flow.  You’ll quickly see how to make strategic changes to maximize profit in your business. And you'll see how to apply these strategies to your personal finances as well.  Then, you’ll be able to maximize your profit and keep more of the money you make.

Where Profit Maximization Fits into the Cash Flow System

Maximizing your profit, so more of the money you make is yours to keep, is just one part of a bigger journey to building time and money freedom.  You could be making a great income, but still, be missing key components of creating a sustainable lifetime of wealth. 

No matter how big your business grows and how much money you make, if it’s all leaking out between your fingers,

Marco Santarelli is a real estate investor, author, and founder of Norada Real Estate Investments, a nationwide provider of turnkey cash-flow investment property.

Turnkey real estate may be an excellent opportunity for you to create cash flow from assets.  With turnkey, you purchase property that’s already cash-flowing, reducing your barrier to entry into real estate investing.

Where Real Estate Investing Fits into the Cash Flow System

But real estate investing is just one part of a bigger journey to financial freedom.

Our 3-step Business Owner's Cash Flow System first helps you keep more of the money you make.  We do this through tax planning, debt restructuring, and cash flow awareness.  This step frees up and increases your cash flow, so you have more to invest.

Then, we help you protect your money with insurance, legal protection, and privatized banking. 

Finally, you’ll put your money to work by investing in cash-flowing assets. This is how you'll build financial freedom and leave a rich legacy.

Who Is Marco Santarelli?

Marco Santarelli is the host of the Passive Real Estate Investing Podcast. He is also the founder of Norada Real Estate, a premier real estate investment firm.  Marco’s mission is to help people create financial freedom by taking the guesswork out of investing.  The Norada team is dedicated to researching top real estate growth markets. They structure complete turnkey real estate investments to minimize risk and maximize profitability.

Marco Santarelli began investing in real estate at the age of 18 with a single townhouse. He bought, renovated, leased and managed it himself.  He then continued building his portfolio over the years up to 84 units with additional single-family homes, duplexes, and apartments. Marco Santarelli is an expert in the ins and outs of real estate investing. He has been helping investors create wealth and passive income for the past 15 years through Norada Real Estate.  He is honored to have been named the 2017 Think Realty Master Investor of the Year.

Conversation Highlights

Marco Santarelli’s early start in real estate, entrepreneurship, and sales.

What it means to “never sell” your real estate and why you should leverage or exchange it instead to maximize tax benefits and build generational wealth.

How Marco Santarelli learned the value of revenue and cash flow through a $9.5 Million capital raise.

How Marco Santarelli provides education to help those interested in real estate investing be able to pull the trigger.

Neighborhood classifications, and why Norada focuses on B, B+, and A- neighborhoods.

How real estate investing starts with your goals before you decide which markets to invest in.

Cash flow analysis of individual properties, and why cash-on-cash returns provide a more valuable assessment than using only capitalization rates.

When considering the benefits of investing in real estate, including depreciation, amortization, appreciation, leverage, and cash flow, your total return on investment easily jumps into the 30 – 40% return range.

The DealGrader scoring system that Norada uses to measure the profitability and risk of a real estate investment.

An example of the properties needed to create an annual income stream.

With advanced strategies, you can move equity to other markets through tax-deferred exchange, leveraging the equity into a larger portfolio to accelerate passive income growth.

The value of educating yourself.

Connect with Marco Santarelli

Check out the Passive Real Estate Investing Podcast.  Find out more about Norada Real Estate. Check out the 10 Rules of Successful Real Estate Investing.

Create Your Time and Money Freedom

Do you want to begin building capital, putting it to work, and accelerating time and money freedom?  To find out the one thing you should be doing to increase your cash flow and keep more of the money you make,

Many people get stuck paying their kids’ bills long after the kids are grown and moved out of the house.  Often, it’s to the tune of hundreds, if not thousands of dollars each month.  Even commitments you initially made because you love your kids and want to help them can begin to feel like a burden with no end in sight.  It's time to get your grown kids off your payroll.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMiHxOpWG70

The unwanted obligation can cause financial tension, strained relationships with your children, and even marital strife.  It sucks up your cash flow, limiting your ability to create your financial freedom.  And, it handicaps your kids, preventing their financial savvy you may have been trying to develop in the first place.

According to USA Today article, How to Wean Grown Kids Off Your Payroll, Freeing Up More Retirement Cash, by Adam Shell, having adult kids on your payroll is way more common than you’d think.

In fact,

Just because your kids have moved out of the house doesn’t mean they’re out of your financial life. Six out of 10 (61 percent) parents with at least one adult child over 18 said they provided them financial help, according to a Pew Research Center survey.

-Adam Shell, How to Wean Grown Kids Off Your Payroll, Freeing Up More Retirement Cash

Table of contentsHow to Draw the Line in the Sand and Get Your Kids Off Your PayrollWhere Weaning Your Grown Kids Off Your Payroll Fits in the Cash Flow SystemWhy It Becomes Necessary to Wean Your Grown Kids Off Your Payroll in the First PlaceThe Complexity of Financial DecisionsReasons We Keep Paying Kid’s ExpensesThe Outcomes We WantBefore It’s a Problem: Setting Up Your Kids for Financial Independence Ahead of TimeFinancial EducationTeach Kids How to Make MoneyTeach Cash Flow ManagementCreate Shared Family Decisions and ValuesPre-Determine Your Transition Point and Communicate About it EarlyWhen Should You Transition Your Kids Off Your Payroll?Which Bills?After the Problem Already Exists: How to Correct Unhealthy PatternsThe Right Time to Kick Your Kids Off Your PayrollDon’t Put it OffHave Candid ConversationsYour NeedsThe FactsAction Plan to Get Your Kids Off Your PayrollA Few Points we DivergeThe End Goal: Retirement vs. Financial FreedomLife Insurance as a Legacy Transfer and Family BankPass on a Legacy of Wisdom, Not Just MoneyPlan Now to Wean Your Kids Off Your PayrollBook a Call to Find Out Your Next Step to Time and Money Freedom

How to Draw the Line in the Sand and Get Your Kids Off Your Payroll

So how do you draw a line in the sand? How do you break free and get your life back without damaging the relationship?  More importantly, how do you prevent the overextended welcome and accompanying resentment from becoming a problem in the first place?

If you’re a new or young parent, this conversation will help you think differently to create successful, self-sustaining kids. 

If you’re finding yourself in the position of still paying bills for your kids today, even though you’re an empty nester, you’ll get great tips to cut the cord and transition your kids off your payroll.

Our review of this article, along with our personal experience and client conversations will help you unravel this delicate challenge.  It will pave the way to healthier communication, stronger family relationships, and greater financial confidence.

Where Weaning Your Grown Kids Off Your Payroll Fits in the Cash Flow System

We’ve put together the Business Owner’s Cash Flow System to help you through all three steps of achieving a life of significance as you create financial freedom.  First, you build a foundation to help you keep more of the money you make. Then you protect your money. Finally, you get it working for you to increase your cash flow from assets.

So where do your financial decisions about your kids fit into the big picture?

Transitioning your kids off your payroll is a complex topic that connects to multiple parts ...

Nick Raithel, creator of The 7-Hour Book, is helping entrepreneurs and thought leaders get their message out in record time.  He’s reducing the barrier to becoming an author, establishing credibility that comes along with it, and increasing your business visibility.

We often talk about building a life and business you love.  Let’s focus in on the business part.

To invest well in your business and build it into a self-sustaining, cash-flow producing asset, you need people to serve. 

To do that, you want to stand out and attract the right clients who you can help. Then give them the steps to take action in working with you.  This is the sole purpose of your marketing strategy. 

One element or tactic is writing a book, earning you the acclaimed title of “author,” and ratcheting up your credibility factor.

Where Your Marketing Strategy Fits into the Cash Flow System

Writing a book as part of your business marketing strategy to build your business is just one part of a bigger journey to financial freedom.

Our 3-step Entrepreneur’s Cash Flow System first helps you keep more of the money you make.  We do this through tax planning, debt restructuring, cash flow awareness, and alternative savings strategies.  This step frees up and increases your cash flow, so you have more to invest.

Then, we help you protect your money with insurance, legal protection, and privatized banking. 

Finally, you’ll put your money to work and get it to make more.  You increase your cash flow by investing in cash-flowing assets like your business and real estate to build time and money freedom and leave a rich legacy.

Who Is Nick Raithel?

Nick Raithel is the creator of the 7-Hour Book. This proven system allows any entrepreneur to write their own professionally-published book while spending only 7 hours of their time on it.

With the 7-Hour Book, Nick Raithel is on a mission to help entrepreneurs and others in business finally get the recognition they deserve. Time and again, he’s seen those in nearly every community who have incredible stories and knowledge to share. A book may be the ultimate way for them to share their insights and, in doing so, increase their cash flow. Yet the issue always seems to be that no one has any time.     

Seeing this, Nick Raithel combined advanced time management strategies with his own experiences in publishing and marketing. The result was The 7-Hour Book, a service that’s been delighting clients ever since.

Conversation Highlights

* How authoring a book gives you a platform to stand head and shoulders above your competitors and gives you a business card that people won’t throw away.* How to decide if writing a book is the best tactic in your marketing strategy.* The two things you need to have in place before deciding to write a book.* How The 7-Hour Book helps you create a finished product from idea to published book.* The Nick Raithel process includes structuring, guided interviews, book creation, formatting, and design.* How numbers in your title tend to be easier to organize, stretch ideas across, and connect the dots between.* What best-seller ratings actually mean and why they aren’t as important as you think.* Why you need marketers, not copywriters, ghostwriters,

Economic Value Added (EVA) is a little-known, but impressively effective measure to boost your profitability.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b317Ifo_2kI

Coca-Cola, AT&T, Quaker Oats, CSX, and Briggs and Stratton helped the term rise to prominence when they adopted economic profit, or EVA, in the 80s and 90s.  Focus on this insightful accounting measure resulted in an overwhelming increase in business value, stock price, and profits.

Because of attention to increasing EVA, Quaker Oats shifted their production schedule. Rather than using big sales promotions to spike production at each quarter's end, they leveled out with more consistent production.  Then, instead of requiring large warehouse volume they more efficiently used their real estate, by stocking more consistently. With fewer warehouses and staff, they reduced costs. This put their company on the map as they launched into long-term sustainability.

CSX implemented Economic Value Added by shrinking labor and fuel costs, along with the number of containers, trailers and locomotive fleet. At the same time, they boosted freight volume, significantly enhancing profits. 

In each case, the shift to improving EVA had more invested capital working harder, more of the time. This increased the productivity of each dollar at work.

Over time, different consulting firms have called this profit measurement by different names. But Stern Stewart & Co. of New York City popularized the term Economic Value Added.

Table of contentsArticle OverviewWhere Economic Value Added Fits into the Cash Flow SystemWhat Is Economic Value Added?The Disparity in the Expectations of Debt Financing and Cash PurchasesView Cash as Investor CapitalThe Interest PrincipleWhy Is Economic Value Added Important to Me and My Business?How Do I Determine the Cost of Capital?Breaking Down the Economic Value Added (EVA) CalculationWhat Should I Do to Increase My Economic Value Added and Profitability?What Is the Connection Between the Infinite Banking Concept and Economic Value Added?How does Infinite Banking improve EVA?Loaning Personal Capital To Your BusinessYour Next Steps to Using Economic Value Added

Article Overview

What does it mean and why does this matter to you?  Well, if you want to put more dollars in your pocket, there’s a better way than spending a bunch of money and believing the expansion will create additional production that generates revenue and hopefully turns a profit.

In today’s article, we’ll answer:

What is Economic Value Added?

Why is it important to me and my business?

How do I determine the cost of capital?

What should I do to increase my EVA and profitability?

What is the connection between the Infinite Banking Concept and Economic Value Added?

How does Infinite Banking improve EVA?

Economic Value Added will help you accurately assess and increase your real profitability. It will also increase the value of your company and give you a competitive advantage in your market.  This conversation will show you how.

Where Economic Value Added Fits into the Cash Flow System

Profit maximization is just one part of the bigger picture of building time and money freedom.

That’s why we have created the 3-step Business Owner’s Cash Flow System.  It’s your roadmap to take you from just surviving, to a life of significance, purpose and financial freedom.

The first step is keeping more of the money you make by fixing money leaks, becoming more efficient and profitable. 

Then, you’ll protect your money with insurance, legal protection, and Privatized Banking. 

Finally, you’ll put your money to work, increasing your net income with cash-flowing assets.

When you increase your cash flow from current income, it’s like you have more gas feeding your financial freedom machine. And this accelerates your results.

So, let’s get more gas flowing into your Cash Flow System, shall we?

What Is Economic Value Added?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E54K2bTyR8

Mike Michalowicz is a champion of profitability, on a mission to eradicate entrepreneurial poverty.  Mike is the author of Profit First, Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine. He helps business owners realize their need for making a profit and design a practical, working accounting system that doesn’t take ironman willpower to accomplish.  His Profit First System has improved tens of thousands of businesses owners, saving them from the “doom spiral” to achieve instant profitability. 

The Profitability Crisis

Building a life and business you love means you have to be making money.  More specifically, you need to be making a profit, keeping more of the money you make in your business.  It doesn’t matter how much is coming in the front door if it’s all draining right out the back door.

Many small business owners wake up to find themselves as slaves to their business.  Rather than improving their lives and fulfilling their dreams, their business has grown into a beast with an insatiable appetite for cash.  The demand to spend more to keep things running requires the next sale, just to stay afloat.  Instead of working because they want to, they chase sales to pacify the business and its ride-along companion of anxiety. 

Welcome to a business out of control.

If this is you, you’re not alone. 

Eight out of ten businesses fail because they lack profitability.  All the income is gobbled up in expenses, and there’s no cold hard cash in the coffers at the end of the month.  Often the business owner isn’t paying themselves at all, there are no reserves, and hello reactive mode when it comes to tax season.  And this problem tends to worsen, not self-correct, the larger the business grows.

Tune in to Hear the Full Conversation About Profit First

In this episode of The Money Advantage podcast, we interview Mike Michalowicz.

While business panic and frustration might be your current chapter, it doesn’t have to be the end of the story.  You can improve the health and sustainability of your business overnight by focusing in on profitability.  And it isn’t as painful as you might think!

Listen to the conversation here:

Where Profitability Fits into the Cash Flow System

As crucial as keeping more of the money you make is, it’s just one step in a bigger journey.

That’s why we have created the 3-step Business Owner’s Cash Flow System, your roadmap to take you from just surviving, to a life of significance, and time and money freedom.

The first step is keeping more of the money you make by fixing money leaks, becoming more efficient and profitable.  Then, you’ll protect your money with insurance and legal protection, and Privatized Banking.  Finally, you’ll put your money to work, increasing your income with cash-flowing assets.

Business profitability intersects the roadmap in two places. 

First, it’s part of The Money Finder step in Stage 1, where you fix the money leaks that are siphoning off your cash flow.  Secondly, it’s part of Investing in Stage 3, the part of the process where you craft your business into a self-sustaining, cash-flow producing asset that’s one of your very best investments.

Who Is Mike Michalowicz?

Mike Michalowicz is the entrepreneur behind three multi-million-dollar companies and is the author of Profit First, The Pumpkin Plan, and what BusinessWeek deemed the entrepreneur’s cult classic, The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur.

Mike Michalowicz is a former small business columnist for The Wall Street Journal and the former business makeover specialist on MSNBC.  Today, Mike travels the world as an entrepreneurial advocate, speaking to groups just like The Money Advantage community.  He is globally recognized as the guys who “challenges outdated business beliefs” and teaches us what to do about it.

Mike Michalowicz Conversation Highlights

Business growth is often the commonly accepted end goal of all entrepreneurship.  And growth usually means higher earnings, sales, and revenue.  After all, you want to reap the rewards of more income and gain a better lifestyle. As a business owner, the path to get there seems to be generating more clients and more dollars.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1myH18J9_o4

But there’s a darker side to business growth.  As the business grows, so do the cost, complexity and time commitment.  You may have more employees to manage, a bigger org chart, more departments, more red tape, more training, more meetings…  And this all adds up to more time and headaches for you.  It can leave you as the business owner in a hurricane of endless activity and frustration, wondering who’s the boss of who.  Is the business running your life, or are you running your business?

What if the things you actually want – a life of more meaning, satisfaction, enjoyment, purpose, and fulfillment – could be achieved by doing just the opposite?

Margo Aaron writes about this idea in a thought-provoking Inc.com article titled Bigger Is Not Always Better: 5 Reasons Your Business Should Stay Small on Purpose.  She lays out the advantages you achieve by not hyper-focusing on business growth in the traditional sense, saying,

If you want to build a business around your life and happiness, growth might be the least viable option.Margo Aaron

Behind this article is a book, Company of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business, by Paul Jarvis.  He shares his life learning that keeping his business smaller made it more sustainable, creating more freedom and flexibility for him.  Scaling down, rather than up, is what created clarity, freedom from distractions, and a connection to why he was working in the first place.

What We Think

More important than whether you stay small or grow, is how streamlined, profitable, sustainable, and fulfilling your work is.

In this episode of The Money Advantage podcast, we discuss our take.

You’ll find out how to grow a life and business you LOVE, not just one that’s bigger.

Listen to the conversation here:

Table of contentsWhat We ThinkWhere Business Growth Fits into the Cash Flow SystemKey Takeaways#1) Growth Creates Unnecessary Complexity#2) Smaller Is More Agile and Sustainable#3) You Have More Liberty to Choose Your Work#4) More Control Over Your Time#5) Grow Profitability Without StressGet Business Growth That Feels GoodGet Business Growth Without More WorkGet Business Growth Without Trading Your Hours for Dollars

Where Business Growth Fits into the Cash Flow System

Business growth, however you define it, is just one part of a bigger journey to building time and money freedom.  You could have a high-revenue business, but still, be missing key components of creating a sustainable lifetime of wealth. 

No matter how big your business grows and how much money you make, if it’s all leaking out between your fingers, you’ll never be free of just working harder and harder to make more money.  You’ll never build the peace of mind that comes from having reserves, protection, and assets that work harder for you than you can work for yourself.  At some point, the job of earning money is a baton that you need to pass to cash-flowing assets that can keep chugging along, spitting out income the rest of your life so that you can enjoy time freedom.

That’s why we have created the 3-step Business Owner’s Cash Flow System, your roadmap to take you from just surviving, to a life of significance, purpose and financial freedom.

The first step is keeping more of the money you make by fixing money leaks, becoming more efficient and profitable.  Then, you’ll protect your money with insurance and legal protection, and Privatized Banking.  Finally, you’ll put your money to work, increase your income with cash-flowing assets.

Business growth connects to the roadmap in two places.