The Story of Found Money

Mark and Tracy smiled, thanked me for my time, and then got up and strated to leave my office.

We had just spent the last couple hours going over their financial statements together (I still had a full-time accounting practice at the time). Their financial statements showed that their business had grown yet again – about the same increase as they’d been seeing for the last five years. The were happy that their business was improving (at least on paper).

But at the same time, they had told me how disappointed they were that they never seemed to really “get ahead” even though the business continued to grow. Their business never really seemed to move toward the point where it could start to fulfill the wishes and dreams they had when they first started.

What they really wanted, more than anything, was for their business to make enough money so they could finally get out of their line of credit, pay themselves both a wage that fairly compensated theme for their time, risk, and expertise, position the business to safely grow, to contribute generously to their church, and help them build some wealth for retirement and their children’s education.

With those things on my mind, as they left my office, I was struck with a VERY uncomfortable thought. A thought so uncomfortable that it actually made me feel a little sick in my stomach.

Mark and Tracy Really Didn’t Have a Clue!

I realized that, despite being great people, despite how hard they worked, despite all their experience in the business, despite EVERYTHING, they really didn’t have a clue!

They didn’t have a clue about HOW they were going to make changes to their business so it would start to give them more of the financial results they wanted. They didn’t have a clue HOW they could transform their business. HOW the could STOP doing some things and START doing other things what would begin to CREATE the financial results they had been hoping and praying for all the years they were in business.

It occurred to me that, at that moment in time, the BEST Mark and Tracy could hope for was that their business would somehow continue to “hold its own” each year. To hope that the economy wouldn’t be too tough on their industry. To hope that their competitors wouldn’t be too aggressive. To hope that their customers wouldn’t demand too large of price concessions. And to continue to hope that SOMEDAY their business would magically “really take off” and finally make some real money for them.

When I realized Mark and Tracy didn’t have a clue it hit me hard.

But not nearly as hard as the very next thought I had…

I Didn’t Have a Clue Either
Here I was – Mark and Tracy’s accountant – the one they looked to for financial advice and often advice about other business issues. And I always did my best to provide them with advice in those areas – but it was just that – advice.

I couldn’t really help them know what to DO DIFFERENTLY to get a different result. Oh sure, as their accountant I could clearly show them how to MATHEMATICALLY improve their business – increase price by 2%, shave costs by 1% and things like that to “magically make more money”. But that kind of advice was completely out of touch with their reality in the business. It simply wasn’t advice they could specifically act upon.

So I Vowed To Figure It Out

Right then and there I promised myself that, in order to help Mark and Tracy – and every other business owner like them – I would figure out a system and process for ANY business to create the financial results its owners truly wanted. I vowed to figure out the things that really mattered and could actually be used, day to day, by business owners so they could go from wherever financial starting point they were at and start CREATING the financial results they truly wanted so they could finally live their Dream Lifestyle.

Marketing Was a Natural “First Stop”

I reasoned to myself that I could better understand marketing tactics and strategies I could help business owners like Mark and Tracy improve their businesses. Based on that belief I spent thousands and thousands of dollars and hundreds and hundreds of hours going to seminars and taking additional training in this area.

I learned about positioning, copywriting and salesmanship. I learned about creating great offers, building value statements, and creating unique selling propositions. I spent time with radio advertising experts, direct mail experts, and internet marketing gurus. I started to really understand all these elements and felt that I could offer business owners like Mark and Tracy something more now.

But It Still Wasn’t Enough

I started helping business owners like Mark and Tracy “improve their marketing and sales”. I would be able to give them great insights and tactics, and off they would go to implement them in their businesses.

But something was still missing.

That was obvious because, while the business owners went out and used the tactics to increase their sales, none of them truly transformed their businesses. None of them really CREATED the financial results they were looking for so they could live their Dream Lifestyle. Most of those business owners realized some improvements – that is a fact. But I was looking to help business owners TRANSFORM their businesses in a meaningful way – I didn’t want to help them make just a few incremental improvements.

Next Stop Systems and Processes
Not willing to give up, I reasoned that I needed to also help business owners with their “process thinking”. I thought that THEN they would be able to more easily implement the marketing ideas and tactics I had been providing to them.

So off I went on another round of learning.

I spent more money and more time learning about process-thinking, bottlenecks, key performance indicators, and critical success factors. I learned how to identify key processes, create systems for them, and create an accountability structure to make sure those things got done.

I was confident, at that point in time, that when I combined these “system and process” tools with the marketing tactics I would help create I would help business owners simply EXPLODE the financial results they had been getting.

But It STILL Wasn’t Enough

I simply was NOT prepared for the shock I received, though.

Again, business owners got great new insights about their businesses and how they could do things differently. They valued those insights and my advice and they made small incremental improvements.

But I wasn’t looking for small and incremental!

I wanted to help business owners CREATE the specific financial results they wanted so they could TRANSFORM their business and their lives. But it just wasn’t happening that way. There were definitely improvements in the businesses of my clients. But not the kind of transformational, Dream Lifestyle-fulfilling improvements in financial results I desperately wanted to help business owners create for themselves, their families, and their communities.

Frustrated and disappointed, I realized that there was only one thing left for me to do…

I Had To Create The System That Would Help Business Owners CREATE The Financial Results They Wanted

I finally realized that there was a fundamental problem with the earlier approaches I had used. The problem was that there wasn’t any linkage between the current financial results each business owner was realizing and the future financial results they truly wanted. It was like all the best marketing, systems and process advice was simply revving a high performance engine that wasn’t connected to the road by a drivetrain.

What the missing element had been was an effective way to link the activities, product and services, and the customers that were part of every single business to the financial results that were created. Without that, every business owner was simply revving their engine and hoping they would end up where they wanted to go. It was insane when you stopped to think about it.

The Found Money Process Was Born

What business owners needed was a system that acknowledged the current financial position of the business, whatever it was (okay, so-so, desperate – it didn’t matter – what mattered was acknowledging it as a first step), and then worked from that starting point to move toward the financial results the owners wanted.

Based on this need the Found Money Process was created.

It still wasn’t easy. It took about three years of full-time research and development, work with countless business owners, and looking for common themes and patterns from over fifteen years of experience with hundreds of business owners. It took a lot of money; it took a lot of mistakes; it took a lot of incorrect theories; it took a lot of new discoveries.

But finally the Found Money Process was ready to give business owners a practical, usable and effective way to take their business from wherever it was stating from and move it toward wherever the owner really wanted it to be.

That perspective is really the true magic behind the Found Money Process. It’s a simple law of physics that you ALWAYS need to start from wherever you are. Trying to start from ANY other point is simply impossible. Yet too many business owners seem to think they can defy this basic law. And their business, and their financial health, suffer for it.

It’s been amazing, exciting, and incredibly rewarding.