How do you master timing and change in your life and business?

In this episode of the Bean Ninjas Podcast, BN Learning & Community Lead Anfernee Chansamooth interviews James Schramko of Superfast Business. James’ story of building and growing his business and helping others achieve what he has done is such an inspiring one. And this is what we’re going to talk about today.

Learn how you can prepare yourself for uncertain times and move through it by accepting change and seeing opportunities. If you are thinking about what you need to do next or what you can do to pivot your business right now, this episode is for you.

In this episode, we discuss:

[02:30 ] James’ backstory during the recession in the early ‘90s.
[07:44 ] His interesting story of how he matched his salary to his business income and how long it took him to do it.
[12:15 ] Embracing change in life, preparing contingencies and finding opportunities.
[17:35 ] His transition to the next stage of his business and income.
[19:55 ] The current business model opportunities present in the market.
[22:44 ] Implementing and teaching Own The Racecourse philosophy.
[24:25 ] Tips for taking control of your business.
[28:16 ] His number one tip for entrepreneurs on improving cash flow over the next 90 days or six months.
[29:30 ] James’ recommendations on websites teaching people how to go online and sell knowledge.
[31:16 ] His book “Work Less, Make More”
[32:54 ] A sneak peek on his upcoming books.
[33:23 ] The reason why he advocates memberships as a good business model.
[35:07 ] The right goals you need for your online community.
[39:14 ] James explains the Effective Hourly Rate (EHR)
[40:58 ] Key takeaways about mastering timing and change.
[43:11 ] The meaning of financial freedom for James.
[45:00 ] Best lessons he wants to teach his kids.

If you just accept change, it's going to happen no matter what. So be ready for it, embrace it, get yourself thinking about the various scenarios. ~ @JamesSchramko
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Transcription

How to Master Timing and Change with James Schramko

Announcer Welcome to the Bean Ninjas Podcast, where you get an all-access pass to see what happens behind the closed doors of a fast-growing global bookkeeping and financial reporting business.

Anfernee Chansamooth:

Welcome to the Bean Ninjas Podcast. This is Anthony Chansamooth, Learning and Community Lead here at Bean Ninjas. And in this episode, I have a really cool chat with our good friend, James Schramko, who is the Founder of SuperfastBusiness.com. And the topic for this particular conversation is a timely one. 

It’s how to master timing and change, and we go into different things such as James taking us back to the last recession in the early ‘90s, and what he was doing then, and how he was, especially during that time was when he left his corporate role, his company job, and then, he actually started his business.

And how throughout that time, he learned a lot about preparing yourself for uncertain times like what we’re going through right now and how you can really set your business up in a way that you minimize the impacts of the economy or external forces, right?

So we talked about different business models that James sees as opportunities right now. James shares his number one tip for improving cash flow over the next 90 days. And we also talked a bit about his book, which is Work Less, Make More.

So if you are thinking about the opportunities that are available to you, if you’re questioning what are you going to do next, or how can you pivot your business, or what are some online business models, or what’s there that’s available to you, then this episode is worth a listen. And let’s bring on James Schramko.

Alright. Hey guys. Welcome to the Bean Ninjas Podcast. This is Anthony Chansamooth, and today, we’re talking about how to master timing and change with James Schramko from Superfast Business.

James, welcome to the show.

James Schramko:

Thank you for having me.

Anfernee Chansamooth:

And before we jump into timing and change, you’ve got a remarkable story, which is the reason why I wanted to have you on the podcast. And certainly, right now, we’re going through a period of change and timing and understanding the impacts of preparing for situations like this. 

But also, what do we do if we’re not prepared and we’ve found ourselves struggling or just trying to keep our heads above water, which some of our clients are certainly going through, but also people in our community.

So let’s just go back to; I like to go back to the first, well, the last recession because you shared a bit of an insight on a post that I put on Facebook; a question, which was really how are you doing right now. And then, you were kind enough to put a comment there to say, “Well, you learned a few things going back to the last recession, which was back in the ‘90s.”

So do you want to just re-tell that story and give us, the audience here, some insight into where you were, what you were doing and what you learned throughout that period? 

James Schramko: 

Right. Well, there’s that and there was also a great financial crisis as well in between there. So at that time, in the early ‘90s, I was studying accounting. And there was this recession and it affected my family. 

My dad was made redundant. He had a home mortgage. I think the rates were going up to 27%. There was this; the government forced the recession on to us according to him. He had a car payment. So he was basically left without employment having to pay for a house and a car. Then he had to sell up. 

Short story – so moved from the big, nice house to a little makeshift shed in the back of my grandfather’s house. It was an old shed that we sort of knocked down and rebuilt with brick and wooden floorboards and a little kitchenette. It was a nice thing, but it was like quite a big shock to go from one scenario to another. 

And I also felt an obligation to go and get employment. So I got a job as a trainee account manager in a debt collection firm. So my new job was collecting telephone payments and it was also to set a system; car services through to electrical equipment loans, etc. We had to follow up. 

And I learned all about the psychological process involved when people are owing money. I also learned about the legal process and the process of recovering debt. And it really affected me from the point of view that I really had an unusual relationship with debt from that point. It was strange because it was providing me employment, but I could see how devastating it was for the people who were on the other side, I find. 

And my next job after that, I actually went out into the field and I was repossessing cars that were overdue. So I repossessed over a hundred cars. I worked for a company called GMAC Finance, which was the finance arm of General Motors. So it was financing car dealerships. And I learned a lot in that role as well.

So, yeah. I sort of worked my way from there into the emerging digital telephony industry. Back then, Vodafone was starting up in Australia in about 1993. I got a job ‘93 and ‘94 and sort of starting to open up and boom a bit.

And then, I went to sales in BMW ‘95 and ‘96 and then Mercedes Benz from ‘97 on right through to 2008. And you could say that was like a boom time; like the luxury car segment was taking off. People were getting sloppy and lazy and developing bad habits, and those that sort of grandiose excess again.

And then, as an employee, I was starting to feel very concerned that I was being paid by one person and I knew I needed to start a business like my successful Mercedes Benz customers. But I just didn’t know what.

And again, my family were now suffering the next time around because they’ve gone into the travel industry