Making Your First Million Dollars

Making Your First Million Dollars

Most people get it all wrong when they think about making their first million dollars, but when you know the truth, you know what target to aim at, and because of that, you’re far more likely to reach your goal.

Here’s an example...

Most people think that if they get into business and their business makes a million dollars, they’re a millionaire.

But that’s not the case!

After you take out expenses, taxes, and everything else, you’re not left with much; in fact, I know businesses that gross a million dollars and, after all is said and done, they’re left with less than $400,000 to their bottom line, and the owner might be able to take 12 of those for himself or herself.

So, grossing a million dollars in your business is not the answer.

And for those of you who have companies that net a million to you, meaning that you, as the owner, can take a million as distributions from your company, you know that after personal taxes (because once you take the money out of your business and put it into your personal account, you have to pay even more taxes on it), and after all that, you’re definitely not left with a million.

So, to make your first million dollars, I’m going to suggest that you get smart so you can make a lot of money and keep it!

3 Rules To Make Your First Million And 3 Rules On How To Keep It

#1: Find Something You Love That You’re Good At

And that does not mean that you should follow your passion, because most people’s passions are too hard to monetize.

But it’s much easier to be persistent with something long enough to make a lot of money doing it if you love it. and we usually love what we’re good at. So, find something you love that you’re good at.

And if you can’t figure that out or want a more creative solution, or if you already have a business and want creative ways to scale it much faster, then travel more.

Look at how businesses like yours do things in other countries and in other industries, then look for ways to leverage what you learn from them to develop a company of your own or to scale the company you already have.

Because many of the best businesses and business ideas were already being done somewhere else, someone saw it and pulled that idea over to their business, and since it was brand new in their industry, they flourished.

#2: Learn From People Who Are Already Making Lots Of Money Doing That Thing

The first thing I ever do when I want to grow a business is to find people who are doing what I want to do and who are already successful, and I find a way to learn what they know.

That might be by studying them and their company, or it might be by hiring them as a coach, or maybe it means taking them out to lunch and asking them if I can pick their brain, or sharing information for information.

Meaning they share what I want to know with me, and I share what they want to know with them.

And you don’t need a lot of money or special skills to do this!

You can study someone’s company for free (or for very little money) by becoming a customer of theirs and watching how they handle a sale, how to onboard a prospect, or how to communicate with their customers.

Or you can read books and watch videos like this one by business leaders who have already made a lot of money and had a lot of success in business.

#3: Do Everything You Can To Become Great At What You Want To Do

Most people never focus long enough to make anything great in their lives, but I promise you that if you spend a year mono-focused on growing almost any company, you can scale it to a very respectable size.

There’s no secret sauce to making your first million.

There’s no shortcut.

You decide on a path, you find someone who’s already walked that path (preferably many times), you learn from them, and you bust your buttocks to become great on that path.

And when I talk about finding someone who’s already walked the path, that can also extend to aligning with people who are great at subsets of your business. Meaning they’re great at sales, marketing, customer support, management, or whatever, because you can shortcut your success curve (from 10 years down to 1... or from 1 year down to a month) by becoming a great leader of smart people.

And I’ve made videos about how to be a better leader and how to develop a leadership team. But in short, every rock star you align with and add to your team can shave years off your growth, and those rock stars DO NOT have to be high-paid employees; they can be vendors or independent contractors too, who are great at what they do and who can help you become great on YOUR PATH.

In fact, the companies that scale the fastest from $0 to $1,000,000 or from $1 to $10,000,000 have grown faster because the person at the helm has been willing to delegate certain tasks to others.

If you choose the wrong path, then making money is going to be a struggle. If you love making eggs and you’re the best at it, but you can’t find anyone who’s ever made money making eggs before, then you’re forced to cut your own path.

You can still do it, but find something you’re great at that you can monetize in a big way, and you’ll be a much happier person.

Now... you also need to know how to keep your money, and I’m not going to give you accounting or legal advice here, you need to get qualified legal and accounting advice before doing anything you learn here or anywhere else, but I can share a few things I do because I’ve lost a lot of money in business early on and learned a lot of lessons along the way, and those lessons have made me a lot more money and allowed my companies to now keep much more of what we make.

3 Rules On How To Keep Your Money

#1: Set Up The Right Kind Of Business With The Right Kind Of Paperwork

The wrong kind of business, like a sole proprietorship or a general partnership, is going to be more heavily taxed, but more importantly, if you ever get sued, you can lose everything, even your personal savings.

Our rule of thumb is that every entity we begin with starts with a meeting with both my attorney, who’s there to protect us legally, and my CPA, who’s there to protect us from a tax standpoint.

Neither one has the final say, but both have protected me massively over the years.

And more than likely, the people you work with are going to guide you to an LLP, LLC, or corporation. Depending on your situation

But as the person leading that meeting, you need to be in charge of making sure they stay focused on protecting both your company and you.

Especially if you’re going to be starting a partnership, because if you don’t have the right paperwork in place in a partnership, there’s a lot that can go wrong.

The right kind of entity and the right paperwork are vital to keeping the money you make in business.

#2: Reinvest In Your Growth

Think about this...

If a company makes $1 million this year and has no expenses, they owe taxes on that full million dollars, right?

But that never happens.

We have a lot of expenses that we need to account for before paying taxes, which is why you need a great accountant. If you have a million in revenue and a half million in expenses, you’re only paying taxes on the half million that’s left over (in most cases).

So, part of the game is to become smart about investing in your growth, meaning that if I have a million left over after taxes and I can re-invest a portion of that into legitimate ways to grow my company, then I owe taxes on far less.

Take marketing for example...

What if I took a portion of that million and invested it in buying Facebook ads, Google ads, radio ads, or TV ads? The money I spent would be subtracted from what my revenue was before I paid taxes, but that money (spent wisely) could turn into a lot more money next year.

The same could be true, depending on your business, for consulting. If you have a big tax burden at the end of a year and you hire a great consultant, then whatever you pay them (again, this is for your accountant to have the final say with) would come out of your revenue before you calculate your taxes. But I’ve hired consultants who have helped 10x our bottom line, so was it worth it? Of course!

#3: Invest Your Money In A Smart Place AUTOMATICALLY

So as you grow your income, a portion of all your income automatically goes somewhere that earns more money for you, like a tax-deferred Roth IRA or something like that.

The idea is that you focus on what you’re good at, learn how to make the most money doing it, protect your money, and allow it to work for you so it grows in value. so that you can keep focusing on what you’re good at.

A lot of people tell you that your first million is your hardest, but the truth is that making your first million is just like anything else in life.

If you set yourself on the right path and are willing to work for it, you’ll get there, and you’ll get there quickly if you don’t try to cheat the system.