Episode 43: ActionCOACH Ben Fewtrell — On Starting a Proper Business and Time Management

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Ben Fewtrell is a certified Business Coach, providing business help, business advice, business coaching and mentoring services to small and medium sized businesses. He has a passion for helping businesses grow and become profitable, so that business owners can enjoy the lifestyle they deserve.

As a Business Coach and advisor, he helps deliver the desired results using proven tools, methodologies and systems, tested and perfected over tens of thousands of businesses worldwide for over more than two decades.

“I will hold you accountable for your results,” he says on his website, “and just like a sports coach, push you to perform at optimal levels.”

 

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

00:56 – Meet our guest for today; Ben Fewtrell, the CEO of Australia’s most awarded coaching firm, Action Coach. He gives us a quick background to him and his business; who he is and what he loves doing. The first thing he mentions is how people are often surprised by the fact that he’s never had any formal training, nor does he have the standard “qualifications.” “I don’t have any letters after my name,” he jokingly says.

01:33 – Truly an example that the past cannot define you, Ben admits that he left school before he was sixteen and even got into a bit of trouble with the law. Eventually, he got involved in the transport industry. He started out fixing cars and gradually worked his way up to managing a team of people in a transport company. “That’s where I fell in love with the business of business,” he says. “I thought; I could do this for myself.”

02:18 – He tells the story of starting his own transport company, which was – as he puts it – “the best and worst thing I ever did in my life.” It fulfilled his dream of owning a business, but it very nearly cost him his marriage – and a whole lot else besides. It got to the point where he was working a hundred hours a week but wasn’t making any money to show for it. That was when he met his first business coach.

02:49 – “Back then,” Ben says, “business coaching wasn’t something that many people were really doing. There wasn’t a lot of coaches around, [and] there certainly weren’t many businesses using business coach[es]. It was still a new industry.”

03:22 – It wasn’t until he got out of his transport company that he wondered how many business owners had found themselves stuck in the same situation he had been in; giving in one hundred percent of their passion and effort, but still not making any money. That’s what led him to becoming a business coach. And then he realized that he could only help one person at a time, and that’s what led him to build a whole team.

04:40 – What is the “entrepreneurial seizure”?

05:10 –For the person who, in his job, looks up and realizes “You know what? I could be the boss,” Ben gives some sound advice; take your time. You’re not ten feet tall and bulletproof, and you don’t know what you don’t know.

06:35 – “As an entrepreneur, we get these ideas … [and] we just fly towards every shiny object. It’s good to have someone who can just ground you every now and then.” Find your grounder, Ben says, and pitch them your idea. Let them play Devil’s Advocate, let them bring you to reality.

07:05 – For all Total Freedom listeners out there, Ben Fewtrell’s got a great surprise for you: a business plan template designed by Ben himself, which he is giving out for free. You can access it here:

07:21 – Ben tells us a little bit about the Business Plan (see previous paragraph) and how it can help aspiring entrepreneurs start their own business. After twenty years of being in the game, Ben’s found that a lot of business owners and entrepreneurs are missing one essential thing; a business plan. And the reasons why they don’t have it are similarly outrageous. So to address this, Ben has taken it upon himself to create a sort of Action Plan Template based on his experience and the best bits of everything he’s learned. Note: this Action Plan Template is personally designed by Ben himself!

09:07 – Chris points out the two sides to planning; the Underplanners – the ones who don’t think much before taking the leap – and the complete opposite to them, the ones who tend to Overplan. They overthink, second-guess, and make back-up plans … and they haven’t even started yet! For those overplanners out there, Ben has some great advice as well.

10:14 – “You’ve got to spend some time on your plan, but don’t do the Analysis-Paralysis, because [then] you’ll never get there.” One of Ben’s biggest learnings was this; the best mousetrap doesn’t sell the most.

12:26 – Chris and Ben take a moment to talk about the employee mindset – that seems to be the default mindset for a majority of us – and the huge effort it takes to shift to the entrepreneurial mindset. How do you go from working a hundred hours a week to running a team who can do that for you?

14:10 – Ben goes into the concept of employment, which is essentially trading time for money. “Your time is one of the most limited resources on this planet.”

14:40 – “When you have a business, the difference is you don’t earn money anymore; you make money.”

15:07 – So why do people struggle with the shift over to the entrepreneurial mindset? It’s mostly a trust factor/issue. Their business is their pet project – or their “baby,” as Ben puts it – and they don’t trust others to do as good a job as they can. The latter reason is purely ego, as Chris points out. This, according to Ben, is the Superman Syndrome, and all entrepreneurs start out with this. “The thing we need to learn the most, we teach the best,” Chris says.

18:32 – Chris and Ben share their definition of a successful entrepreneur and a proper business.

20:27 – What’s the difference between billionaires and millionaires? Billionaires will never spend their time ahead of spending their money. Millionaires will always spend their money ahead of their time.

21:29 – According to Ben, there are two resources in life that are important to people. And it doesn’t matter what you want – all people will automatically want more of this. One is time, and the other is money. Everything comes back to time and money.

22:05 – “You can lose all your money. You can always make some more. But once you spend your time, it’s gone forever.”

24:21 – For all listeners out there, be sure to check out Ben’s own podcast show, The Business Brain Food Podcast if you want to hear more from Ben. He also leaves the audience with his personal mantra; “If you want to learn more you’ve got to earn more… you have to invest some of your time in your own education. If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.” Ben offers a quick solution to achieve this. Halve the time you spend watching mindless television or watching funny YouTube videos – but don’t get rid of it altogether! Halve that time, and spend the other half on education. “Invest in your own education,” Ben says, “because you just don’t know what you don’t know.”

WANT TO AVAIL OF BEN’S GREAT FREEBIES?

Download his Business Planning Template (mentioned earlier) here: CLICK TO DOWNLOAD

It’s compatible for both Microsoft Word and Pages.

You can also get a free copy of the “Buying Customers” eBook, usually priced at $29.95! Get it here: CLICK TO DOWNLOAD  but hurry! Offer is good only while stocks last.

If you want to contact Ben Fewtrell, you can visit ActionCOACH website here: http://www.actioncoach.com/