How We Got Here
Part 1:
A Job, Not a Business
After several years as a Chartered Accountant in professional practice, and almost a decade in international corporate world I (Chris) started my first independent business as a freelance Finance Director.
Within a few months I'd built a portfolio of fascinating client businesses, and a lucrative consultancy practice.
Friends and family would comment that I'd built a successful business. Turns out I'd actually created a job, as I then discovered ...
Want to escape the 'business as a job'?
Our family life was turned upside down when my wife was diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour.
Here was a wake-up call - the purpose of work is to live. As her condition worsened I became full-time carer.
Now it was clear I'd built a job, not a business - as I stopped working, I stopped earning.
Part 2:
What Matters Above Everything Else
Part 3:
"Time is Money" Myth
After my wife died I had to rebuild financially. This time had to be different. With two kids I couldn't be out at clients day after day.
Charging for my time was no longer viable. I had to find a different way.
I started to be paid for results and impact. This changed everything.
This is the first step to "investor" thinking. "Time is money" is back-to-front. I learned not to SELL time for money, but invest money to BUY back time.
Want to stop selling time?
"Selling time" is a deeply ingrained practice. When everyone else is doing it, the instinct is to do the same.
As I worked with more and more clients it became crystal clear - those who can think differently can change ... and those who "follow and fit in" will likely stay where they are.
When others tell you "it can't be done", it takes courage and commitment to break the pattern.
Part 4:
Commitment To Think Differently
Part 5:
Marathon Not A Sprint
Sprinting is not a sustainable long-term strategy.
But it pays well today ... and most people prioritise today over the rest of their lives.
However, long-term security doesn't need sprints ... just a smart, consistent, sustainable commitment to building a valuable asset that will continue to pay you whether your work or not.
Which is what we do with clients - step-by-step build a Financial Security Platform and Sellable Business that gives more security, and more choices for the rest of life.
Want to build a Sellable business?
The purpose of your business is not to keep you busy. It's to have all 3Fs - Financial security, Freedom and Fulfilment.
A Sellable Business is a 3Fs business.
chris gardener
