The 9% Edge

CHAPTER 3Creating a Scalable, Sustainable, and Sellable Business

Unless you want to work forever, you need to build a business that generates revenue and creates wealth so you can actually achieve what you truly want – FREEDOM.

After I concluded my second exit, I started sharing some business tips on social media. I had been nauseated by some of the information I saw online, and what I heard that was shared. It was obvious which of these “experts” were in the first few years of their first business, or had never built a real business at all, compared to how you converse with those who built a scalable, sustainable, and sellable model with people, processes, and of course the holy grail, profit.

I genuinely wasn’t sure if anyone would care to hear about, or learn about, financial reporting, understanding your numbers, how to evaluate data, and measure KPIs – I mean, who wants to get real and hear the truth these days? So I was quite shocked to find out that some people did.

Often, the truth can hurt like a mother. Sometimes it’s not fun, and quite frankly it can suck sometimes. But as hard as it might be to hear, the truth is just the truth and if we don’t attach a negative feeling of guilt or shame to it, we can see it for what it is – just the truth and that it’s not a reflection of your worth, your intelligence, or your abilities. We don’t know what we don’t know. But once we do know, it’s what we do with it that matters.

The worst thing you can do is live in denial. Ignorance ...