Can Money Buy Happiness

It’s one of the biggest mystery-of-life questions: Can money buy happiness? A significant margin of anyone surveyed will emphatically say no. Maybe even a hell no. I’m going to say yes. If I said no, there wouldn’t be much of a post now would there? It depends on the criteria used that determines the answer. Usually that question is framed based on materialism, you know things and stuff. As you may have guessed, that is not the criteria that I will use.

First, we must answer the following question: What is your most valuable asset? Many of you reading will give this some thought and come up with a variety of answers, mostly with a monetary value. However, I think I can convince you to come to my side and agree there is only one universal answer to that question. That answer is your TIME.

Time is a finite commodity. Once it is gone, you can never get it back. This bring us to a key question: What is work? We all “work” don’t we? I surmise that work is simply trading our time for money, by providing some skill or talent that someone is willing to pay us for. Most of us would much rather use our time doing something else. I can see you nodding your head up and down. You are also thinking to yourself “but Dave, I need money to live.” Yes, you do. So how do we get the money we need to live, but also gain control of our time? The answer is by starting our own business, which most of you reading this either already have or are strongly considering. Fortunately, we can start off as a side hustle and not risk everything we have like our forefathers had to. You’ve all heard the main reason for starting our own business is “to be our own boss.” What does that mean? Calling the shots? Sure. It’s simply just another way of saying controlling our time. We are in control, not someone else.

However, as business owners, we know this isn’t always the case. How can we, as business owners, gain control of our time? Here are a few tips.

1)      Focus on what you do best and outsource the rest. As a business owner, you likely focus on one of two things: Getting clients or providing services and selling products. This also means you’re part of all aspects of marketing. Anything that does not directly contribute to these two things should be outsourced. Are they important? Yes. However, someone other than you should be doing them.  

2)      One thing many business owners do, that they should not be doing, is their own bookkeeping. It’s one of those tasks that must be done for two reasons. The first is business are legally required to keep accounting records and pay taxes. The other is how would a business owner know how his business is doing if they don’t keep records? Bookkeeping isn’t the cheapest expense, so many business owners attempt to do on their own. The problem is they don’t have the skills or knowledge required to take on such an important task. See my BLOG post on why you should outsource your bookkeeping.

3)      A third time waster is the ever-growing presence of technology, not just in business but in our personal lives as well. E-mail alone can be a killer, not to mention walking around with your face buried in your machine, totally oblivious to your surroundings looking at stuff that has no bearing on your business. Turn the machines off and answer emails a few times a day. See my BLOG post on how to increase productivity.

4)      Finally, one that is not as obvious because it seems counterproductive on the surface. You are in business to get clients. If you are in the service business, which is likely 88% of you, a bad client can take up a significant portion of your time, usually with nonsense and petty items. To avoid this, set barriers in the beginning. Use Pareto’s law, or the 80/20 rule. It states 20% of your clients make up 80% of your revenue. Conversely, 20% of your clients (bad) cause 80% of your headaches. Dump them all. Fire that fussy client. Drop that money pit of a product. You’ll be better off because now you have the extra time to go out and find those good clients or produce that special product your customers want. What makes up a good client? That is a post for another day, but you’ll know them when you see them.

Always remember your time is your most valuable asset. It’s not going to show up on your balance

sheet with a monetary number next to it. Its value is derived by its scarcity. Use it wisely!

As always you can contact me for a free consultation.

Dream Big. Think Big. Go Big.