Building a business requires leverage.
Even if you're a solopreneur.
You can't do everything on your own. Not even if you're David Goggins. Everyone only has 24 hours in a day.
Here's something for you to realize my friends.
Time is your only non-renewable resource.
Figure out what you're worth per hour. Then try to pay people to do anything that's less than that amount. Time is your only non-renewable resource. So to spend it doing things you're not good at is a waste of time.
The world doesn't care about your effort. It cares about your output.
That's why you need leverage.
Leverage means amplifying your effort. Leverage gives you more output for the same amount of effort or costs you put in.
Give me a lever long enough and I can move the world - Archimedes
The fastest man in the world can deliver a parcel to a location 10 kilometers away, in 26 minutes. An old woman can deliver the parcel in just 5 minutes. She simply drives a car.
Whoever was receiving the parcel probably doesn't care if the delivery person trained for 10 years to run 10 kilometers in 26 minutes. He just wants his damn parcel.
In a world where people only care about output, we have to leverage to win.
4 leverages for businesses.
Inspired by Naval Ravikant.
You take a bank loan to buy a RM1,000,000 shophouse and rent it out. You're leveraging.
Leverage is everywhere. We just have to look for it. When it comes to business, there are generally 4 types of leverages.
Labor
You hire someone to do the work for you. This person could be smarter than you and know how to do something that you don't.
You're leveraging his skills and time.
A great employee can produce 10X what a bad employee produces.
Money
If you look at the richest people, CEOs, and bankers, around – they use money as leverage. A skill they got good at is managing capital.
Money allows our business to grow faster.
With money – you invest in better people, better systems and allow ideas that require scale to work.
Sure, there is no wrong or right when it comes to building a business – bootstrapped or funded. But understand that money (or capital) is a form of leverage.
Software (or Code)
I see many businesses grumble about paying recurring software and platform fees. Only if they see that software is leverage!
A great example is ChatGPT.
You can use ChatGPT to write social media posts, create content, and generate ideas. All at 100X faster than if you were to do it yourself.
That's leverage.
Leverage software, code, and AI to get things done. Spend your time working on the business and building relationships. Things that software and AI cannot do.
Media
Getting attention online gives you more opportunities. These days, it's possible to write a post or create a video that gets seen by millions of people.
The same cost to create one video, seen by 1 person or 1 million people.
That's leverage.
Think about how digital entrepreneurs are creating digital products (courses, books, guides, software, etc.) once – and selling them over and over again.
Before we end... here's a bonus leverage.
Advertising.
In the world of business, you have to sell. But how many people can you sell to with your limited time?
Advertising helps you sell at scale.
You're leveraging advertising technologies provided by platforms like Facebook and Google to sell your products on autopilot. It continues to sell your products even as you sleep.
Consider joining Underdog Ad Con to learn serious advertising skills:
So continue finding leverage.
Instead of designing things from scratch, use tools like Canva. Instead of messaging clients manually, use email platforms like Sendfox or WhatsApp automation tools like OtoWA.
Start creating content and use it as leverage to amplify your message and thoughts. Get us to feature your brand on Daily CMO. Become a sponsor at Underdog Ad Con in May.
