ElevatedBusinessOwner

 For the first time in history we are facing problems of abundance rather than scarcity.  This generally applies to food as we now have an obesity crisis more commonly than famine's in years gone by. I also think this applies to many entrepreneurs. If you are the type of person reading this blog, signing up to courses or watching Ted Talks on YouTube you probably don't need to be told to 'work harder' or 'grind'. For many of us a constant quest to work, likely fuelled by social media, is actually doing us no favours. Taking downtime is KEY to ensure that the hours we do work are focused and productive. For me this time is doing the sauna and ice bath. It allows me to reset and de-stress so that when I go back to work I'm operating on a higher frequency. For the driven entrepreneurs reading this we are in the 1%.  We are the people for whom discipline is NOT working rather than working. For me taking the hour from 2-3pm to go in the sauna and ice bath and res...

 I have split up my working schedule a little differently this week. On Monday and Wednesday I worked from home to get some big admin tasks done (I find it can be a struggle to be as productive inside the gym as I invariably end up chatting to members or analysing coaches sessions). If your in the UK you'll know it's absolutely FREEZING. So I decided to sit in bed with a coffee and my electric blanket on and nail some work from there and do you know what? I got LOADS done. Contrary to social media you don't need 2 hours of meditation, an ice bath, greens smoothie and whatever else to get some good work done (although there is a place for those things). Find what works for you, not what your favourite influencer tells you is the right thing.

 I write this on a Friday night sitting in a hotel in London. I was down visiting my mentor today for a deep dive on the business going into next year. Looking at financials, staff progression, member improvements and much more. My brain is now entirely frazzled as you can imagine. Now I'm not going to go into the mentor spiel again, I think you know by now how strongly I feel on that! What I am going to say is just how powerful time away from your business is. I like to take a holiday a quarter as a reset and to spend some quality time with Christie/family but I also like to try and get away a couple of times a year for a course/seminar and spend a little extra time wherever I am to have some breathing space. I finished up at about 4pm today and am staying until lunch tomorrow. I've booked myself into a decent hotel and had a lovely dinner before spending some time just deep diving into what I want from the business, how I can grow my team and improve the product away from the...

  I feel I should start this by saying this is in no way financial advice haha! Before I started doing more networks and masterminds I thought I was a little 'weird' (some of you are probably reading thinking that I am). I thought this mainly because I used to make up little frameworks in my mind and play games within the business. One of the things I liked doing was strategic 'emptying of my bank' account on investments. This lit up a fire inside of me to make sure: A- The investment was worth it. B- I learnt new stuff or got inspired from the things I invested in (mentorships/courses/new kit etc). C- That I filled the hole in the bank. So I have now learned that I am not the only one to do this and that many other entrepreneurs think the same. It's just an extreme form of accountability! It's like when you start up a small business the motivation to make it work is huge because you have no choice! So while i'm not saying to leave yourself in financial peri...

 'You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with' Now unless you have been living under a social media rock I'm certain you will have heard this statement over the last few years. Now while there are elements of truth (and I have built one of my businesses Elevate98 around having a group of like minded people) there is, as always, more context needed. I have went through phases constantly surrounded by people WAY ahead of me and while it can be a little inspiring it can also be a little deflating as it seems so far away. In my opinion business owners have 4 groups of people they need to spend time with: Heroes- Whether this is actual in person time at conferences or events or via social media like YouTube and Instagram it helps to have the people at the very top of the game as inspiration. Mentors- This is people ahead of you who share their wisdoms, lessons and insight into what it will take to get you to the next stage of growth. I now mentor a few peopl...

 CPD. Continual Professional Development. Basically the continual learning and development of you as a business owner or person. I'm guessing if you are the type of person to read this blog then you show some kind of interest in continuing to learn and evolve. In my opinion this is one of the BEST bits of being a business owner, you are never 'done'. There is always something new to learn be it sales, marketing, delivery, leadership or tech. It has also never been easier to learn. Blogs, podcasts, courses, youtube, reading and more are all available online with a lot of them also being fairly inexpensive or free. So what is the 'best' CPD? There is obviously a lot you can learn that's industry specific but I think there is one thing that's valuable no matter what business you run. That's being a customer. Go and spend your money being a customer in someone else's business, particularly higher end establishments like restaurants, hotels, cafe's, g...