The Art of Leverage: Utilizing other people’s resources (OPR)
Leverage is the principle that separates those who successfully attain wealth from those who do not. it is that basic.
Most people are scared of taking the leap into entrepreneurship or owning a business because they do not have the money, the right connections, the time needed, or the right skill sets. This is a typical average scarcity mindset that squashes dreams, potentials and keeps one in a survival loop, at the best.
It doesn’t take magic or being extraordinary to build a million-dollar company or franchise, as a matter of fact, an average Joe can, all it takes is the right mindset and you will find out most obstructions and difficulties are nothing but a mirage, designed to keep you stagnant and wrapped in a wrong and limiting ideology.
What is the right mindset?
LEVERAGE!
Leverage is the ability to capitalize on resources that someone other than you possesses, to your advantage. It is the single most important skill in business today. Understanding the art of leverage alone is enough to make you a successful business owner or completely change the trajectory of your current business or enterprise.
Why do you need to leverage?
A limiting factor we are all faced with as business owners or individuals is that of Time. Even If you are certified in Time management with exceptional skills, the truth is you are only you and you can’t get more than 24 hours a day. The same is applicable to resources like skills, talents, capital, soft wares, and many more, It takes more than a set of skills to build or scale up a business.
The good thing is with the proper understanding of how to leverage, you don’t have to learn all the skills or have all the money needed to start or scale up your business. A few years ago, I read a book “the millionaire success habits” The author described a situation he faced at a point in his life. This author is a successful writer and a real estate developer but lacks basic bookkeeping skills, his office is always scattered with documents unorganized but instead of this author learning bookkeeping skills, he focused on developing real estate management skills and hired a skilled professional as a bookkeeper. The moral of this story is that you don’t have to be good in everything, Just stay focused on what you are good at and have others do the rest.
From my perspective, too busy is most often than not an act of laziness or ignorance, if you are struggling to do what others can do better, then you haven’t taken the time to leverage other people’s skills, talent, and time. One of the greatest skills you should possess is the ability to access and manage how other people spend their time and not just how you spend your time.
8 ways to access other people’s resources.
1) Knowledge: As stated earlier in this article, you do not have to possess all the skills needed to start a business or to scale it up. A few years ago, I started an IT firm (globallynks.com) This firm offers website development, Application development, and more. I actually used the tag “A one-stop shop for your IT needs” but in reality, I am a Business major with zero knowledge in IT. I had a website built on Fiverr , got my local marketing tools at staples: business cards, flyers, banners e.tc. As soon as I get a client, I will take down all their requirement and hop on Fiverr, Upwork, or a local digital agency to negotiate quote business to business explaining I have lots of projects and I need to outsource for few of them, giving room for interesting negotiations. Once I get the quote I will revert to the client, get the job done and earn my cut without any coding or technical skills. This was my model for the first few years and now I have over 50 developers working at Globallynks inc. The moral of this story is: As long as you can imagine or think of an idea/concept you can achieve it.
- Outsourcing– turning specific functions over to a third-party provider to implement and support, for a fee. For instance, to develop an application or systems, you need developers across few languages, graphics skills, content writers, etc. with the proper use of leverage, you do not need to possess any of these skills, you can outsource the entire process and even its marketing to professionals at a fee and get your product and service out there with a tag name founder and CEO. Till today Steve Jobs the founder of Apple is recognized as one of the greatest minds of all time due to its revolutionary products like Macintosh and other Apple products, you will be surprised to know that he personally possessed no skills in engineering and programming. He outsourced. You too can, and you should. Give those ideas in your mind an opportunity to bloom and could be worth billions.
- Joint Ventures– a strategic alliance where two or more parties form a partnership to share markets, assets, knowledge, and profit. For instance: a partnership between an individual/business with a developer or group of developers. With these you can start your business or build your idea into a product/services with $0 depending on the partnership agreement you have with the other party/parties. For more information. click to get in touch.
- Affiliates– A system where an affiliate refers customers and gets rewarded financially. This model is used by organizations to drive sales and by financial industries as a multi-level marketing scheme. There are two sides to this model: The business owner- who receives the referral and pay for it and the affiliate who drives in the customer. This model can scale up your business exponentially as it gives you access to the affiliate’s personal client base and resources; however, you should be mindful of the fee so you don’t eat into your profit. Sustainability is essential for the sake of your brand and growth. I will write an article on this: do subscribe and stay tuned for updates.
- Technology– using other people’s technology to cut overheads, streamline operations, access new markets, support remote workers, etc. A good example is chatbots, with this technology a bot can monitor your website visitors, filter prospective clients based on searches and pages viewed, capture leads, and send you notifications, they can even follow up with these leads to ensure conversion to sales. This, however, can be done manually but will require you to sit down on the computer and chatting with visitors which can be time-consuming. The majority of the bottlenecks and time-consuming problems faced by businesses have been automated and are available at a tiny cost. As a business owner without these details or information, you are likely going to keep wondering why other businesses are doing better than yours. Working smart will always trump working hard at any time.
- Exchanging Services– bartering your services with those of another person or company for mutual benefit. When trying to scale your business with these models, you should ask yourself this question: What does the target business need that I can offer? As most people say: “life is about give and take” the same is applicable to business, it is all about offerings. For instance, I can offer a Store owner a discounted price on my services if he would allow me to drop my Business fliers at his Store. For online services, I can offer to post the target business offers on my website if he would allow me to post on his/her’s. With proper knowledge of exchanging services, you can easily scale up your business without paying actual money instead paying with other resources or services within your capacity.
- Mastermind Groups– regularly connecting with and exploiting the talents, contacts, ideas, experience, intelligence etc. of like-minded peers. This is essential and especially important to keep you updated in your field and to be fully aware of emerging technologies or competitions. Clubhouse, meetup, blogs targeting business and career development etc. are great places to learn and hangout.
- Financial Leverage:accessing other people’s money so that you are not limited by your own pocketbook. No matter how interesting your concept is or how important your services is, you will need money to scale up at some point. With leverage in mind and proper understanding of its use, you can access other people’s funds in multiple ways provided your business model is realistic. Of the many ways to leverage other people’s resources: you can set up crowd funding, approach angel investors, approach venture capitalists, sell private shares, offer early bird packages, etc.
Summary
Building wealth and achieving success should not be about extracting every ounce of your own energy and resources to get there, for that carries a huge personal cost and can most times prevent you from sustaining this success. The tank literally runs out of gas! Therefore, it is essential to explore the use of Other People’s Resources in a mutually beneficial manner.
The possibilities in leveraging other people’s resources (OPR) are only limited by your imagination, information available to you, the principle of fair exchange and your ability to negotiate. These art and skills remain the core value and essence of an entrepreneur. If you can master these skills as a business owner or an individual you will attain heights and create wealth that can run through generations benefiting you and everyone connected to you.
You only live once, why not live BIG and create your own multi-million-dollar business? Go from No Money, No Network, No Experience to a REAL Entrepreneur!
Source: Ebenezer Olarewaju
