The Automated Millionaire: Recent Episodes
The Automated Millionaire
Insights, lessons and confessions of a top business consultant and business turn-around agent that all business owners and entrepreneurs can learn from. Having helped a lot of businesses of all kinds, in a myriad of industries and spread all over the US and Canada, as well as in Europe, I have seen how a lot of poor performing companies can quickly be turned around and become successful. Serial entrepreneur, business consultant and top business turn-around agent, Mikkel Pitzner, shares his insights, lessons and experiences, that can help you as a business owner become more successful, so you can make more money with your business, and so you can create the lifestyle you’ve always wanted and pursue your passions.
We are in our current series which is all about the mistakes we as business owners make when we're setting our prices.
In this series we will look at 8 specific mistakes we tend to do surrounding the topic of setting prices for our products and services in our businesses. This episode discusses Mistake #8
I have chosen these mistakes because these are the ones I have witnessed the most from my work as a business consultant and a business turn-around agent and having helped hundreds of companies.
We are in our current series which is all about the mistakes we as business owners make when we're setting our prices.
In this series we will look at 8 specific mistakes we tend to do surrounding the topic of setting prices for our products and services in our businesses. This episode discusses Mistake #7
I have chosen these mistakes because these are the ones I have witnessed the most from my work as a business consultant and a business turn-around agent and having helped hundreds of companies.
We are in our current series which is all about the mistakes we as business owners make when we're setting our prices.
In this series we will look at 8 specific mistakes we tend to do surrounding the topic of setting prices for our products and services in our businesses. This episode discusses Mistake #6
I have chosen these mistakes because these are the ones I have witnessed the most from my work as a business consultant and a business turn-around agent and having helped hundreds of companies.
We are in our current series which is all about the mistakes we as business owners make when we're setting our prices.
In this series we will look at 8 specific mistakes we tend to do surrounding the topic of setting prices for our products and services in our businesses. This episode discusses Mistake #5
I have chosen these mistakes because these are the ones I have witnessed the most from my work as a business consultant and a business turn-around agent and having helped hundreds of companies.
We are in our current series which is all about the mistakes we as business owners make when we're setting our prices.
In this series we will look at 8 specific mistakes we tend to do surrounding the topic of setting prices for our products and services in our businesses. This episode discusses Mistake #4
I have chosen these mistakes because these are the ones I have witnessed the most from my work as a business consultant and a business turn-around agent and having helped hundreds of companies.
We are in our current series which is all about the mistakes we as business owners make when we're setting our prices.
In this series we will look at 8 specific mistakes we tend to do surrounding the topic of setting prices for our products and services in our businesses. This episode discusses Mistake #3
I have chosen these mistakes because these are the ones I have witnessed the most from my work as a business consultant and a business turn-around agent and having helped hundreds of companies.
We are in our current series which is all about the mistakes we as business owners make when we're setting our prices.
In this series we will look at 8 specific mistakes we tend to do surrounding the topic of setting prices for our products and services in our businesses. This episode discusses Mistake #2
I have chosen these mistakes because these are the ones I have witnessed the most from my work as a business consultant and a business turn-around agent and having helped hundreds of companies.
We are in our current series which is all about the mistakes we as business owners make when we're setting our prices.
In this series we will look at 8 specific mistakes we tend to do surrounding the topic of setting prices for our products and services in our businesses.
I have chosen these mistakes because these are the ones I have witnessed the most from my work as a business consultant and a business turn-around agent and having helped hundreds of companies.
How are you setting your prices?
If you are anything like 99% of all the businesses that I meet, both in forms of clients as well as in forms of just connections, then you are probably doing it wrong and leaving a lot of money on the table.
Pricing is so incredibly important to your business results, that it's not a topic area to be taking lightly.
This episode is really short, because basically it's just an invitation for you to go ahead and download a free report I have created which I believe can help you see where you need to make some changes in your business that will increase your profits.
In yesterday's episode we discussed the fact that most of the businesses I have helped all have made the mistake of not charging enough for their products and services.
We looked closer at just how powerful and effective a price change can be for your bottom net result.
But in conjunction with the advice of increasing your price by far the most common objection I receive is that of: "But, I cannot charge any more; I'll lose business to my competitors!" or words to same effect.
So let's handle this objection. Just how could you get away with a price increase? How can you charge more than all your competitors, even in a highly competitive marked?
We are starting our third series of episodes with this episode today. This series leans a bit up against the second series we had which was all about the mistakes business owners make.
This third series will have a lot to do with more mistakes business owners tend to make, but these mistakes we will be looking at in this series will be concentrated much on the topic of price setting, price structures, discounting and the like.
To shoot off this series we will be looking at what is the easiest, the fastest and the most effective way to grow your business. As you will find out, it is in fact just one simple avenue that actually is the easiest, the fastest and the most effective way to grow your business and your results.
Where there is no vision the people perish.
I believe this passage is mentioned in the bible and I believe it certainly seems very true of ourselves as individuals and likewise for our business. I believe the more clear our vision is for our business and what it is we wish to grow that into, the greater the chances are that you'll actually achieve it.
There's a dreaded human condition that as we business consultants see all to often.
The fizzle factor is when clients willingly spend a lot of money with you, implement and learn what you instruct them in, get great results, but soon after the consultancy engagement is over and the consultant is no longer in the business keeping an eye on things, the client engagement starts to fizzle.
Soon enough the client "forgets" the great leaps and results they were getting with the changes that were implemented and soon enough the client begins to reap the same mediocre results the client used to get before the consultant came and showed a better way.
In this episode we will talk about Mindset, and the need for being able to keep a positive and constructive outlook even when everything seems to be doom and gloom and not working out for you.
It's pretty much impossible to go through life without experiencing some mishaps and upsets along the way from time to time.
Redirecting our focus when these occur can help us become not just more resilient, but also more constructive, so that we can quickly overcome the challenge and move past it and end up stronger and more capable.
Life shows up and as I have mentioned before, as entrepreneurs we kinda put ourselves in a place where we probably get even greater share of these little events that life sometimes tests us with.
But what are the consequences of breaking your commitments? What does it mean when you break your own commitments to yourself.
Our discussion go deeper into this in this episode of The Automated Millionaire Podcast.
Often in life and certainly as entrepreneurs we are met with the occasional setback. As entrepreneurs we take risks and sometimes these give us extra challenges.
In this episode I provide insights on how to handle these more constructively and also so that you can actually be happier.
One of my mentors has a little saying he shared with me just the other day.
He says: Perfection = Poorhouse
He is so right. When we wait till things are perfect before we make our next move, the opportunities pass us by and soon enough we won't get anywhere and won't get any results. Certainly no results we do want to get.
Aiming for perfection is also in fact another avenue for procrastination.
We all have these tendencies of procrastinating. Some people more than others. Some people too terribly much....
In every business you'll be met with challenges along the way. Sometimes these challenges can become rather severe, and you may find yourself in a position that truly stresses you out and which really gives you high levels of anxiety.
I learned from one of employees once how to view this with a bit of a different mindset, that really helped me not to be so nervous when landing in these kinds of situation.
With a different way of looking at things, I could calm myself better and become more resourceful, which I needed to become in order to solve the serious issue(s) at hand.
How to show up confident.
How does the confidence - competence loop work and how do you show up showing confidence when you may in fact be lacking some.
Related to previous episodes, we continue our discussion of what sometimes holds us back, and what we need to do in order to break the vicious cycle, so we can achieve the success we seek and desire.
In this episode I discuss two of the greatest fears most of us have in some form or another.
It took forever for me to commence, and the reason it took forever really only had to do with my personal fears (these two fears I'll discuss in this episode).
Thank goodness there are actually ways of overcoming these fears, and I'll give you the key insights to do so here.
You may want to listen in...
I was challenged to write down my dedication to my clients for the rest of 2021.
This is actually a great idea as it helps to focus on who you want to truly help, what you need to do and keep your focus on and why.
Perhaps this would be a great idea for you do to do as well in your business and for your activities.
It's time for you to leave your garage.
If you're a business owner who started your business, maybe even from scratch, and maybe even literally from your garage, but now you're considerably bigger business, well, now you may find yourself still carrying what I call the garage mentality.
What is that?
Well, when you started you were happy just to make a little bit of money on what you sold, so your margins were very small, but you were happy. As you grew, your prices may have grown too, but actually grown too little, and now that you have dealerships and/or distributorships as part of your equation, there's too little margin to give everybody who needs a piece of the pie, enough to be happy.
I have seen this in many businesses, and it often leaves them in the situation where, they'll end up with the short stick. The distributor and dealerships won't take on their products if their cut doesn't make it interesting for them.
But that leaves very little left for the business owner and his/her business, and now they're struggling to make profits.
It's time you leave your garage mentality and perhaps charge way more than you used to.
When your product is great, of great quality and has sound brand recognition, your customers will probably be alright with it too.
Hiring friends or family come with a myriad of challenges and the question quickly becomes whether it's worth it for you to hire either friends or family.
Mixing money and livelihoods with friendship or family relations can be a cocktail that can soon ruin any friendship and challenge a family.
I get it. I would hire either too for the right reasons, but for sure, I would also be a bit nervous about how well it would pan out. I mean, it isn't cool when you have to fire your friend for whatever reason, is it?
I believe, there are ways of hiring them and setting expectations that may help you should the need to part ways in your business become necessary later on.
We all have a tendency making assumptions.
But you do know the acronym of assumptions, right?
Assumptions make an ass out of u and me.
That's right. We often get it wrong, and that can wreck havoc or we can miss great opportunities.
In my unique business system, The Automated Millionaire Business System, we have set up metrics, goals and measures for what each individual, team and department need to fulfill upon in terms of performance.
Here in this episode we will discuss how to handle the experiences of when one or more come short on the agreed upon goal. We will talk about how to powerfully align employees and team members with delivering everything it takes to reach the goal.
Most business owners carry out their business without a true purpose or a true vision. Is this wrong? Perhaps and perhaps not.
However, what I believe is certainly true, is the fact that if you have a real purpose or a true vision for your business, your results are likely to get bigger. It's also more likely that you can rally your troops, i.e. your employees, around your vision and make them happier and more performing in the process of their daily work life.
Most businesses make the huge mistake of actually not setting measurable goals and milestones.
Not only do many businesses not even set overall goals, such as how much in sales they aim to reach for a fiscal year, but even more businesses fail at setting specific and time bound measures for what needs to be achieved with individuals or individual departments of their businesses.
We will dive deeper into the discussion on this topic here. It's a key area to get right if you truly wish to attain the grand results of your dreams.
As you most likely have experienced when you don't set expectations in your private life, soon enough others may feel you have let them down, because they set their own expectations of you or of what they believe you promised them.
The same goes for your business. It's extremely important that clear expectations are set in multiple areas.
E.g. when I sell my premier program, The Automated Millionaire Business System, I talk about the gain in making much more money that the client will be making fast when they implement my system. However, in the same breath it's critically important that I clearly set the expectation that they'll likely only make more money from the program when they adhere to using the system and methods I teach, and that when (or if) they revert back to doing things the way they used to, then they'll likely see the same old results they used to see.
Similarly, it's critically important in your pursuit for greater results and more profits that clear expectations are set for your people for their performance in their various roles.
Do you have specific goals? Do you have an actual vision for your business and where you wish to take it?
Many business owners aren't really driving their business. Instead they basically just show up, open the doors and switch on the lights, but they really aren't actively driving the activities that will help them achieve a realization of their vision and wishes for their business.
Too many people leave school (what ever level they finished school at), promising themselves that they'll never open a book again.
Oh, what a shame to bring such attitude and what they seem to fail to realize that the reading wouldn't be for others or because they have to read something to satisfy their homework for a teacher, but instead that this reading is in fact for themselves and that they'd be benefiting potentially greatly from reading.
I have been a reader for a long time and have been known for reading a book a day, for long periods of time, and I can tell you, that the insights gained have helped me elevate my worth and what I can charge for whatever it is I do for companies and people.
Perhaps you could gain too.
Continuing our new series on the Mistakes Business Owners make, we will look at the grave mistake that A LOT of business owners are making of not making use of a Budget, but in fact often completely disrepute the value of a budget.
This is a grave mistake, for let's just take a lot at what a budget really is.
Well, one of the extremely important things a budget does for you is to help you map out how you would go about reaching the goal you hope to achieve for e.g. the current year.
It's always been unfathomable for me when I meet business owners that don't seem to make use of their numbers of their business. But this happens more often than not.
So many of the businesses I have helped, made little to no use of their numbers, such as reading their Profit & Loss statement every month. In fact often the business owners would only learn of their numbers come tax season.
Even Chief Financial Officers are sometimes culprits of not consulting the numbers in the business they are serving.
If you want to have a great business it's critical to stay on top of your numbers.
Many business owners don't know how to prioritize in their business.
Sometimes it's because we have no plan at all or haven't spelled out a goal for e.g. the year. Other times, and often, it's because we aren't doing so well, so we have a lot of obligations, typically especially cash obligations, and only a limited cash production. So we lose overview when the troubles keep brewing and become more abundant.
We will discuss how to prioritize and how to make decisions on prioritization much easier.
In our 4th example of Mistakes Business Owners Make, we will be looking at the morning routine most business owners get wrong.
This mistake which I believe by far most business owners make, is absolutely costing far too many far too much money if in fact it's not costing their dreams altogether.
Learn which mistake we are talking about and make sure you course correct what you're doing in your business.
In our third episode on the mistakes that business owners make, we are looking at the mistake of going it alone.
As if life isn't challenging enough, and as if business isn't challenging enough at times, we often forego great opportunities to fast track forward towards the results we wish to attain because we choose to go it alone, when in fact we could potentially have availed ourselves of the expertise and insights of those who went before us.
Far too many people are too proud or whatever to hire an expert or find themselves a mentor who can show what to do and what not to do.
Instead we tell ourselves that we can do it all by ourselves.
Don't get me wrong, part of this mentality is in fact what makes us able to become entrepreneurs, but staying in this path isn't the smartest and certainly not the fastest way to reach the goals we want.
We are currently in our second and new series, this time on the Mistakes that Business Owners make.
I'm highlighting a string of mistakes we do as business owners that all cost us a considerable amount of money and lost efforts in and for our businesses.
It's my hope that by me sharing these insights with you, you may avoid making some of these yourself altogether, or may becomes aware of one or more you're currently doing so you can course correct and stop doing so, so you can gain more out of your effort running your business.
We are starting a new series of episodes in which we will look at the mistakes that business owners make. I have personally made a lot of these mistakes, and they have all cost me money.
If I'm lucky I'll catch you before you make the same mistakes, so you can avoid wasting money on these like I did.
It's likely though some of you may actually be in the midst of making similar mistakes, in which case I hope this may serve you and help you to "fix" them, so you can save money and make more money instead.
The most successful people I know of, either from having met them or from having studied their successes from afar from books, DVDs, courses or other, all have demonstrated clearly that they have been are continue to be willing to invest in themselves and their businesses.
Often business owners are willing to invest in their businesses. They buy a new machines or add additional vehicles to their fleet or such, but often when it comes to the willingness to invest in themselves by hiring in expert help to help them make more out of their business, more out of their time and efforts, they often choose not to invest.
I believe sometimes it's because we don't wish to look stupid. We don't wish to admit that sometimes we don't know all the best routes of getting our business to work. We are pretty much shy for lack of a better word, so we just simply choose not to consider that perhaps we could have a so much much better performing business if we got the help to get us there.
We're looking at finding the cash in the business. I have been continuously astounded by the levels of cash I have found in ailing businesses, simply because I knew how to find it. The business owners had been struggling making money and producing necessary cash in the business, but with the right system, you can actually find a lot of cash in what seems to be any business.
The system I teach my clients, I call The Automated Millionaire Business System. It's a fully integrated systems that ensure that you, as the business owner, and your team actually find what needs to be done, by how much, how soon, and by when and by whom.
By its design, it will actually ensure that you not only typically get all the results you set out to achieve, but you accomplish it almost as if it ran on automation.
In this episode which is still part of our first series called The Secrets Of A Top Business Turn-Around Agent, we look at how we ensure that all our business improving action steps we have decided on, actually gets carried out and that we can track the money on a weekly basis.
So What's The Next Action Step We Need To Take?
We have found some undesirable outcomes and found these cost us enough money that we are now committed to do something to fix them.
In this episode we talk about what we need to do, and assigning values to who will take care of it, by how much, by when, and who will ensure this is followed up on.
We will talk about establishing the Metrics that will ensure that your desired results will actually be reached.
We go back to our series on The Secrets Of A Top Business Turn-Around Agent.
In this episode we will talk about the need for doing all the calculations when we look at the Undesirable Outcomes. We want to be careful about making any assumptions or just go by gut feeling or on how big the issue seems to be on the surface of things.
Instead we want to actually have the discipline to go through the motions and do all the calculations to find out in detail just how much each issue is costing us, either as an actual expenditure and or as an opportunity cost.
Only when we have made the calculations, can we make educated decisions on what do to about the issue at hand and also on how much to prioritize the fixing of the current issue as opposed to other issues.
More details in the episode.
In this episode I'll talk about how the name of The Automated Millionaire came about and was chosen.
Some great connections of mine, who were helping me at that time with some business development, actually coined the term when they inquired deeper into my background and story on how I acquired my expertise.
Seeing I was able to make a lot of money from a "remote control" position, without pretty much ever being present in the business, they thought it was like making millions on automation.
It wasn't all automation, but yes, in essence there certainly was some sense of that.
Today there are even more opportunity for making this happen for business owners. New tools, and especially the internet, make more things possible than what I really had available then, or at least what was truly adopted fully when I began.
As I celebrate my 10th episode and the fact that after a long wait filled with excuses and procrastination, only because this is a new arena of doing something I'm uncomfortable with here in the beginning, I finally got myself together and commenced putting out content on video and podcast platforms.
I meet the same challenges with everyone on my journey as we try to avoid having go new routes or venture into unknown territory.
So today is a celebration for me.
It's my hope that this will also be a celebration for many business owners, as I'm sharing a lot of the insights, expertise and secrets that I have gathered from my work as one of the leading business consultants and business turn-around agents in the world.
My charge is to help as many business owners in the world as I can by helping them make more money with their businesses while also making them transform their businesses into more smoothly run operations.
When implemented and followed my systems will transform the lives of the business owners and possibly the lives of the employees.
The better we are at calling out the BS, even when such BS resides with ourselves the better we can become at making our business work well and perform at a much higher level which will result in much more money earned.
In this episode we will discuss how we often fill in our time with "stuff" that doesn't help us produce a better result, often because we really don't want to face what we really need to do or because perhaps we know that we are not that good a fixing and doing what must be done.
We also talk about the importance of quantifying how much your various undesirable outcomes are costing you.
In business we invariably have things that irritates us, sometimes quite a lot. If you dive deep enough, you may find that the same things that irritate us, also is actually costing your business a lot of money.
I call these Undesirable Outcomes.
These can be issues that seem to come up every so often, e.g. a delay in production, a service that takes us longer than we typically plan for, a break down of a machine, an employee who doesn't show up for work on time etc.
Identifying Undesirable Outcomes and then working on fixing these are often a great avenue to finding cash in your business.
In this episode we discuss this topic and also the topic on the need to bring everything, including the ugly, out on the table, so you can either clear the air or resolve an underlying problem.
In previous episode we spoke about establishing a Management Team. Continuing our series on the Secrets that make the best business turn-around agents so successful we now will discuss a couple more secrets, including the topic on developing leaders.
Here's another episode in our current series of the Secrets Of A Top Business Turn-Around Agent.
Again, we're looking at how it is that top business turn-around agents can enter into a business that they may know little about that may even operate in an industry of which the business turn-around agent has no prior experience, and yet be able to turn a struggling business around and make it vastly profitable often within just a few weeks or a few months.
In this episode we reveal 4 more secrets.
As we continue of exploration of what secrets a top business turn-around agent has that makes he/she so successful in helping businesses of all kinds make much more money FAST, we have come to explore secrets number 9 through 12.
I hope these insights will help you in your business.
We are continuing the current series of the secrets of a top business turn-around agent, and in this episode we have come to secretes number 9 through 12.
What is it that a top business owner can enter a business with no prior knowledge of this business and perhaps even no knowledge of the industry in which it operates, and yet within a few weeks or a few months can put said struggling business onto a path of success and prosperity, when its business owner and he/her team have been at it for years and have failed at making it successful as it may have been several years ago.
We will discuss more of the secrets of a top business turn-around agent and for you as a business owner it means that you can learn these insights and adopt them for implementation in how you're running your business.
If you're already doing great in your business, then use these insights to take your business to a level of performance even much higher up.
The Secrets of a Top Business Turn-Around Agent
What is it that makes it possible for a Top Business Turn-Around Agent to go into a business that he or she knows little to nothing about, and that operates in an industry of which the agent has no prior experience and yet, is able to turn the struggling business around from perhaps even near bankruptcy levels onto a path of prosperity in matters of weeks or a few months?
How are they able to do this, when the business owners may have been at it for years and still haven't been able to make the business profitable again?
What is a Top Business Turn-Around Agent and What's In It For You?
In this episode we will learn a bit more about what a Top Business Turn-Around Agent is, and how you can use the lessons from such an expert to either turn your business around (if it's struggling) or make a well-run business even better.
Learn more of my background, so you can feel comfortable that I can bring you useful insight and valuable tips you can use and implement in your business, so you can make more money.
Welcome to The Automated Millionaire.
This is the first episode of The Automated Millionaire podcast and it provides an introduction to what this podcast is all about and who is behind the podcast and how this podcast can help you as a business owner and entrepreneur to create better results and make more money.
Mikkel Pitzner, the creator of The Automated Millionaire courses, programs, coaching and podcast, provides you with a quick background story outlining some of his vast and deep experience as an entrepreneur and business owner, as well as a top business consultant and a top business turn-around agent.
His background includes working in businesses as a hired hand all the way from the lowest position of the totem pole to the highest position within the same company in a matter of just a few years. He has owned, run, bought, merged and sold several businesses spanning Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Poland, Germany, and the US.
He has consulted businesses all over Europe, all over the US and all over Canada. Oftentimes helping businesses that were on the brink of bankruptcy and helping turning them around to highly profitable and productive businesses in just a fe weeks or months.
His focus is to help business owners create much greater results, which basically means helping them making more money. Additionally, to help them change their lives from being stressed and overworked to finally be able to achieve the lifestyles and lives they all probably had hoped for when they set out to become business owners.