Amanda Horsburgh, Chiang Mai, Thailand
Even though I was introduced to Wealth Dynamics Profiles 6 years ago, the biggest difference Wealth Dynamics has made to my life has been in my recent failed, then successful restart into the business world. Using just the basics of Wealth Dynamics (because that is all I know), I have re-launched my previously failed business and in the space of 4 months I have turned this business, and just $1000, into a fast growing, global company, that I run from my dream location – Thailand.
A few months after originally doing our wealth dynamics profiles (I am a creator), we decided to move from Brisbane, Australia, home to our 4 business at the time, and re-locate to Phuket, Thailand. We moved and continued to run our businesses in Australia, from Phuket. It was a big step for us. While operating our businesses remotely I became fascinated by the world of Outsourcing and what it makes possible for businesses and business people. Phuket was a great place to be while having this interest, as thousands of business owners from around the world, who have made outsourcing work well for their company, spend a lot of time in Phuket. I had endless streams of people to talk to about it. For years I delved into Outsourcing as a personal interest.
After the birth of our second baby I took a year off. I then decided I wanted to start into business again and I wanted to follow my intense passion of Outsourcing, to create for others what we had created for ourselves, in terms of lifestyle, flexibility and new possibilities for business. So off I went, and launched my new company, Half Price Staff, providing full-time, managed, outsourced staff for smaller companies. Quite simply, it did not work. I got it going, but it was s l o w. The concept seemed fine, but the market was not keen, I couldn’t get the ball rolling. It was failing. I felt tense. I couldn’t think clearly. How could it be that the business in the industry I knew so much about, that I could provide so much real value to people in, that I loved, could be struggling so badly to get going? I got sick. I got sick again.
Then had our 3rd baby. Then moved across the country. The timing was wrong. My approach was clearly wrong too, but I couldn’t work out what was wrong with it, nothing was working. So I stopped operating the business and decided I would come back to it at some later date. When? I didn’t know. Another way to say it, would be to say I ‘quit’. I feared I had lost my mojo for business. Watching our bank balance shrink as I was failing, was enough to put me on the verge of giving up on it all together. I was so frustrated. People would ask how I was going with my business and I had nothing to say. It was depressing. I really didn’t want to give up though.
In my search to work out what I was doing wrong, I re-looked at the business and my Wealth Dynamics profile and realised a big part of what was wrong was that I was not being ‘creator’ enough, or ‘creator’ at all really. I had been focussed almost purely on the “systems” required for the business and not on the real thing I could do for people, which was to revolutionise the way they do business. I could completely change the beliefs and reality of what lifestyle a business could provide and that I could make this happen in a fairly short space of time. It was even all positive cash flow for the owner from day 1. I knew I had something special, but I was not getting the message across.
I identified 2 key things I needed to do – as a creator I needed to ‘create’ (in this case I saw I needed to share my unique take on outsourcing as original content), and to stop being held back by the ‘systems’ the business would need. I had previously cast aside creating great original content as ‘non-essential’ until I had the ‘systems’ sorted. Big mistake. I worked on organising all my research and experience of Outsourcing over the past 5 years into a clear model of the 7 strategies of outsourcing for small and mid sized companies. I worked on clarifying the step by step process that makes outsourcing work for some companies, but be a disaster for others. I focussed on what I could create in other peoples businesses, not just the savings, but the models and the lifestyle.
By the end of that, I had ‘created’ a new foundation for the business. Then onto the ‘systems’. I decided to stop worrying about the systems and I stopped looking for a ‘mechanic’ person. I realised I simply did not need one. What I needed to notice was that, some of the most talented ‘mechanics’ from around the world had already done what was needed. They had made millions of dollars from creating amazingly simple systems – designed to be used by creators to bring their creations into the world. These systems were available for free or very little cost, all I had to do was work out what I needed, sign up and start. I am no ‘mechanic’ but I now have the tools to run all the systems in my business and I can understand and use them. A big thank you goes out to the ‘mechanics’ of the interwebs !
With my new base of unique content and my new love of the simple systems available, I re launched Half Price Staff. Nothing fancy, I just started talking about my knowledge and views on Outsourcing on facebook. I let my thoughts and experiences come through. I simply let myself be ‘me’. I searched for, found and learnt from people who used facebook as the main source of attracting customers to their business. Some people loved what I had to say, some hated it. After a few weeks of simply doing this while I set up the final tweaks in the background….. BOOM….FLOW. Not a gentle flow like a slow river, more like a gushing whip torrent. A year ago I was hitting my head against a wall, with the exact same service offering.
Now with a different approach to the exact same thing, I am like a magnet. I had struck a chord and was off like lightning. Just 4 months ago I was wondering if I should give up on this business that I love, thinking I many never get it profitable and that I would be facing years of struggle to get to that ‘point’ of it working. Wondering if anyone really did want what I could offer, maybe I should just keep my outsourcing abilities and strategies for my own use, keep things as they have been for the past 6 years. Still, in the face of that, I went back in to bat with my new ‘creator’ friendly approach…….more hoping it would work than expecting it would.
In the 4 months since, I could not have imagined what has happened. Half Price Staff has already become a profitable, cash generating company with a backlog of customers, existing customers who are ordering more staff, enquiries from around the world, me being interviewed by major newspapers on outsourcing for low costs start ups, the future of outsourcing for traditional businesses and outsourcing strategy on a national level. This has all been done remotely from overseas. They are finding me.
I have been in initial discussions to start a business incubator in Asia for companies, following my strategies in outsourcing, to penetrate Western markets faster. I’ve been asked to speak at conferences later in the year and 3 large multinational companies have been in contact with me saying they have had someone mention me, my content or my company, in the course of business. All this since the start of the year, with less than $1000 invested, with clients I have never met in person, with staff I have never met in person, while living in a tropical paradise and having the time of my life. I LOVE what I do, HOW I do it and WHY I do it. I am extremely happy of course, however, still in shock about how fast….and easily…. it is all happening now.
