For as long as I can remember I have
been told that the secret to success is simply hard work. We still hear it
daily on TV, or see a quote on social media, it’s everywhere, and for most of
my life I subscribed to the same philosophy. In fact, much like many of my fellow entrepreneurs I took pride in my work ethic, my 12-14 hour days in the office
away from my family, sacrificing my health and precious time working on building
a successful company. However, when I started my own ISO several years ago, I
never thought that it would someday reshape that philosophy. This bold venture proved to be the best decision that I have made in my professional career, as I have
learned many invaluable lessons,and I would like to share one of them with you
today.
After some deep thinking, I came to
the realization that I had stretched myself too thin, and that if I am working
14 hours a day, then I’m not doing the most important job that an entrepreneur should be doing, and that is innovating, planning and executing new
strategies. The sad reality was that I was so caught up in the day to day
operations of the company that there was no time for me to do anything else.
I know some believe that this could
have been solved by hiring additional help, but we had no shortage of good help.
If headcount were the answer then we wouldn’t have companies in our industry
generating over $600 Million in annual revenue, yet reporting millions of dollars
in losses! The problem lied within me, and the reality was that I had lost touch
with what I called my Entrepreneur's mind. What is the Entrepreneur’s mind? Most
Entrepreneurs’ know exactly what I’m referring to, but essentially it’s the
ability to innovate, inspire, visualize, create, stay one step ahead of the
competition, execute new initiatives, and above all stay hungry. In short, it’s
the mentality everyone has the day before they start their business.
So I took a step back and started
working less hours, mainly because I was burnt out, but something magical
happened when I did this. My mind started operating like the ambitious
entrepreneur that I was prior to starting my ISO, and my energy was restored,
so instead of just operating more as an operations manager who is only
concerned with getting through all of the daily applications, calls, deployments,
emails and etc, I decided to go back to being not just the Chief Executive officer,
but also the Chief Visionary officer.
The first step I took was to conduct
an analysis of areas affected most by my lack of involvement. I recognized that
we could operate more efficiently by restructuring certain departments, and reducing
headcount. I also learned that I needed to be directly involved in business
development and marketing. Next, I drafted a new vision statement, and set new
goals for the company.
Once that task was completed, I
immediately began outsourcing many of the less than critical tasks that were
previously being done in-house. I know “outsourcing” may sound like a bad word
to many, but it’s a fact of business today, and if you are working with a good
team then it will drastically increase your productivity, not to mention saving
your company a ton of money on payroll. And with the margin compression that
our industry has been experiencing, a dollar saved is truly a dollar earned.
Next, I renegotiated our pricing with
our processing partners in order to improve our margins, which would enable us
to have a more attractive offering than our competitors. We also ventured out
and began offering other services such as Merchant Cash Advance and consumer
financing. All of this being done with a lower headcount.
I became far more efficient in my work
day, and at this point I had cut down my work day to an average of 6-hours per
day, and focused primarily on business development. Business immediately began
growing as I implemented these new sales initiatives. Within a matter of 7
months our production had more than tripled, with fewer employees in the office,
and a bottom line that was looking better each day. In the following months I
secured a seven figure line of credit, commenced negotiations in some strategic
acquisitions, signed some larger ISO and surpassed our 24 month plan in only 9
months. Needless to say that I was very happy.
Today, on average I work no more than 5-6
hours per day. I am able to spend much more time with my family and good
friends, and I am able to take part in other activities that I enjoy, all while the company is setting record numbers.
All of this to say that as an
Entrepreneur you simplification to lose your Entrepreneur’s mind, and it’s
very easy to do so when you are caught up in the day to day operations of a
business. Allow yourself the freedom to take more time for yourself; it’s an
investment that pays very high dividends.
The days of reaching high level of
success through sheer had work seem to be behind us? We live in a digital age
in which you are not rewarded for how much you work, but for how efficiently
you work. I hope that this chapter of my life helps you to take a step back so
that you may take 2 steps forward. As the legendary hockey player Wayne Gretzky
said “Skate to where the puck is going, not where it has been.”
Aaron Nasseh is the
founder and Chief Executive Officer at Finical Inc. His extensive sales and
management experience includes having previously served as the General Manager
ofCardPayment Solutions and Vice President of Sales at payment Inc.