The lever is a simple machine for amplifying force, and it works very well. Back in Ancient Greece, Archimedes said, "Give me a long enough lever and a place to stand, and I will move the world." The concept of leverage, as the amplified force is called, applies very well to business -- and the richest people in the world use leverage a lot. The best thing about leverage is that you get other people to help you make money. In some businesses, that may be as simple as working with your customers to get referrals, offering special compensation or gifts for every referral they bring in.
My mentor worked with the top real estate salesman in El Cajon, California for years. This man had a whole army of people telling their friends and relatives about how good his service was. Once he sold a house to someone, he made that person into a salesperson for him -- and of course he rewarded them in some way. This is something all businesses can do, and you should consider it.
Some business people tell me, "I'm working my rear off, but I'm not making much money." The thing is, you have to realize that hard work does not equal wealth. If it did, people who dig ditches, work food service jobs, and pick up garbage would be rich -- and they're not. So working smart, rather than just hard, is the best way to go. You want to create multiple streams of revenue that run through your business. Positive cash flow gives you tremendous leverage, and there's nothing like getting a whole horde of people to help you make money.
That's one of the benefits of multilevel marketing, love it or hate it. The successful companies, some of which have gone on to become billion-dollar enterprises, have hordes of salespeople out there beating the drum and selling their products. There can be thousands of them in a downline, which means that you don't need to work hard if you have all those people working for you. Your share of what they earn can go right through the roof if those people are serious marketers.
Whatever your business is, get people working on your behalf. This might involve hiring sales staff who work on commission only, so you don't have to pay them unless they produce. At a very simple but important level, it's also about turning your customers into testimonial builders, people who encourage their relatives and friends to buy -- which means extra profit for you. Once it's in their hands, you can sit back and enjoy a big boost in your business. Leverage is crucial if you want to make real money.
Let me re-emphasize: it's not necessarily working harder that matters, but working smarter. We've all heard that, but few of us really believe it; we think, "If I work harder, surely I'll be rewarded for it. If I bust my tail on a day-to-day basis, that's going to translate into success." And sure, there's a great deal to be said about working hard and being dedicated to your craft. But the truth is that when it comes to making money, it's not the quantity of work that you do that matters, it's the quality. Productivity at the right things is what ultimately determines the level of success you achieve.
When discussing the benefits of direct mail at our live events, we often talk about the difference between sending a salesperson out to make that sale versus sending a sales letter. A salesperson can only knock on so many doors in a day, and may make a few sales. We can be a lot more productive if we write a letter that says the same thing the salesperson would say, and mail it to those same houses. Actually, instead of being able to visit only a few dozen or hundreds of homes in a day, we can mail to tens of thousands if we want to, all over the United States or the world.
Our sales message will hit all those doors within a few days of each other, depending on where they're going and where the business is located. Because of the huge numbers involved, direct mail gives us massive leverage over the alternative. We get more productivity out of less work.
Leverage is something you have to acquire and use to your advantage, no matter what your business is. If you can't find ways to leverage your time, energy, and resources, you're limiting your ability to make money. If your time is billed based on the number of hours you're working, then you have to work more hours if you want more money. Well, there are only so many hours in a day -- and you have to sleep, eat, and do other things during some of that time. Leverage allows you to go beyond getting paid directly for your own efforts, and start getting paid for other things in ways that aren't related to you having to work hard.
The idea is to find something that works and then roll it out as big as you can. The richest people in the world have the same number of hours in the week that you have: 168. In many cases, they're no smarter or talented than you are; they simply have a lot of other things besides their time making money for them. You can do that too.
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