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The Weekly Tone

I politely declined a flute of complimentary bubbly as I settled into my leatherette, reclining nest aboard a transcontinental hop the other day. I also made sure to switch off the myriad of entertainment and tempting still-in-theatre options that glowed in full HD inches from my face too. For the entire flight from London back to Miami, I vowed to confront my most burning money challenges with a simple Excel spreadsheet and checklist; WiFi off, thank you very much.

Welcome to the Thunderdome of problem-solving a mile overhead.

There are plenty of things that we'd rather weasel our way out of. Ironically, for a guy who talks about money all day, for me, this was some aggressive financial planning and setting revenue goals within my social media business. In this particular business of mine, I just kind of keep growing, accidentally, without the methodical nature that really makes a business, well, a real business. That means that there is pesky variability in month-over-month revenue and low predictability.

As they say in Texas, no bueno. As they say in Oaxaca, muy malo.

Recently, I set new targets for 2023. As such, to hit these targets smoothly, I needed to understand exactly what I needed to do and how much it would cost me to kick off the process.

Now, you can only scale your business (any business) in two ways: with people or with tech.

But before you start hiring or writing code, you need to get organized.

I ran this process multiple times, one for each of my revenue sources. Here's exactly what I did on my flight, so you can copy my homework:

• Built a bulleted list of all the areas in which I'm currently making money or showing the ability to immediately make money (no speculative things here, please); these things must truly add value otherwise they're removed from the list

• Determined what I needed to scale each area: sometimes it was just clarifying my product more (in one sentence preferably)

• Determined if each area was actually scalable (I make money when I'm sleeping) or unscalable (I have to show up to work in order to get paid)

• Ranked scalable things first

• Identified if the unscalable areas could pay for tech or talent immediately (similarly to how Tesla sold a high priced model to pay for the eventual rollout of a more affordable model)

• Identified how tech or talent could grow the scalable areas and by how much

• Determined how much everything would cost in absolute terms

• Determined time to breakeven (eg. it will take me 3 months to repay the $100K investment)

• Decided if I would pay with (my own) free cash or use some debt to get it all done

Like all good checklists and spreadsheets, soon aggressive targets and financial goals quickly became palatable and approachable, like a friendly dachshund.

By the time the finger sandwiches and mini carrot cake were handed out a few hours later, I was ready to flip on the 3D Rugrats cartoon movie.

Note: you don't need to book a flight to "lock yourself" into problem-solving mode for a full day; but it doesn't hurt.

This week, I'm taking meetings in Miami, FL.

R/RR

Rich: Game the system.

Really Rich: Build the system.

This Week On The Really Rich Podcast

In episode 6 of The Really Rich Podcast, I sit down with Y Combinator alum, Max Cho, of Coverage Cat. Max has raised millions for his insurance-tech startup that helps people find optimized coverage after leaving lucrative roles in both finance (at a hedge fund) and at Google. Man, this was a good one.

Available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

🤝 How I can help you:

1. The Entrepreneur’s Field Guide (Book) - learn the rules for entrepreneurship and how to blaze your own path.

2. The Guided Journey (Course) - I’ll be your personal guide on your path to success in my comprehensive digital lecture course

3. The Really Rich Podcast (Free) - a weekly deep dive into business, finance, and wealth mindset.

The Really Rich Spirit

By G.B.

On Effects of Money:

Money is an amplifier.

Imagine this: you have amazing closeness with your friends and family, you’re confident in yourself, and you believe work is the cornerstone of success.

Throw money into the equation. Money strengthens your relationships, allows you to work the way you want, and invest in yourself.

Now, imagine this: you’ve never been able to be honest with yourself, you’re always worried a family member or friend is out to get you, and you work only to get to the next rung.

Throw money back in. The money makes you less trusting of your friends, family, and yourself as you now really have something "they want". The money funds bad habits and a toxic moat is built up around you.

It doesn’t matter if you have $200, $200,000, or $200M. The money will amplify who you are, what you do, and who you connect with for better or worse.

Consider this phenomenon before, during, and after getting Really Rich.