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.
As an Entrepreneur, I expected to
work very long hours, seven days a week, because at the beginning of a startup you
have to wear many hats, from the CEO of the company to the mail room clerk, and
everything in between. While the company was immediately successful and kept
growing, after a couple of years I found myself working harder and longer just
to keep up with the daily demands, but something was missing, I never seemed to
have enough time to implement new sales initiatives, and I had become a
prisoner of my own creation.
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 6-7 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 ISOs 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 simply cannot afford 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 of Card
Payment Solutions and Vice President of Sales at iPayment Inc.
If you want to more information
read more: Aaron
Nasseh
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