How much money do you have?  If you are like most business owners I speak with, probably not as much as you would like to have.  What if I told you that at any point in your life, all the money you have is all the money you can handle and the reason you don’t have more money is because you don’t know how to handle it.

Many of us believe that if we were given more money, we’d know what to do with it.  Unfortunately, money doesn’t work that way…first you need to decide how you are going to use, circulate and enjoy money, then you will create more money.

You see, dollar bills are not worth anything…they are just a piece of paper.  And different currencies printed on different pieces of paper have different values…why is that?  So let’s look at what money is:

Money is an idea backed by confidence, and because money that is not being used has no benefit, it needs to be circulated.  A better way to quantify the value of money could be as follows:-

MONEY = IDEAS x CONFIDENCE + ACTIONS

What I am really saying is that the money you have right now is based on your capacity to create money.  Those people who have more money than you, have a greater capacity to create more money.  So if you choose to have more money, then you need to choose to increase your capacity to create money.  And, if you don’t have all the money you desire, it’s because you are lacking ideas, confidence or are not taking the actions necessary to create money.

No matter what type of business you are in, you first need to innovate the ‘Idea’ behind your product or service.  Many business owners compete on price because their ‘Idea’ for their product or service is not unique enough or does not have high perceived value in the eyes of their target market.  An idea could create a completely new and unique product or service, or it could be a new way of using or delivering an existing product or service.  Let’s use Chipotle Restaurants as an example.  Did Chipotle create the burrito or the taco?  No.  Yet Chipotle Restaurants make lots of money.  Why?  Because they came up with a new idea on how to make, sell and market the burrito and taco.

Before you can make money with your idea, you need to increase the level of confidence in that idea.  Who needs to have confidence in your idea?  Whoever is going to benefit from that idea and that could include you, your business partners, your investors, your bank, your suppliers and definitely your customers.  How do you increase confidence in your idea?  By clearly identifying the benefits of your idea and creating the systems necessary to consistently deliver on that benefit.

And no great idea or high level of confidence will make money for you unless you take action.  At the end of the day, it’s all about the execution.  Knowing the right actions to take and taking them on a consistent basis.

Every business owner has the opportunity to make more money, however, with a changing marketplace, the ideas, confidence and actions that made you money yesterday may not be the ideas, confidence and actions that will make you money today and into the future.