Having an Alpha 2.0 Business means having 100% location independent income. Most people understand the concept of being able to do this when you sell physical or digital products, but I’ve noticed a lot of people have trouble wrapping their heads around the concept of doing this when you sell a service, like when you’re a consultant or something similar.
When I started my first full-time business as a computer consultant I was the typical service provider in that I drove out to my clients’ offices every time they needed me. Sometimes that meant visiting four different offices per day.
I spent thousands of hours in my car. I still remember all those countless hours I spent during my twenties driving all over the place, heading to and from consulting appointments. The good news is that I was able to spend a lot of time listening to business cassette tapes (we had those back then) and CDs in my car. I was also able to charge for a percentage of that travel time. Regardless, I really would have preferred to have done that consulting and been paid for it without all that time in the car.
By the end of the 1990s we had ways of accessing clients’ computers without actually being there, but the systems were primitive and not easy to set up or use. Often the end-user had to do a bunch of things to let you into the computer. If that person wasn’t very computer literate it would be too complicated for them. If you set it up for them, it was easy for them to break. They also couldn’t help you if they were busy doing something else. So this lessened the driving load a little, but on-site visits were still mandatory.
A few years later we had systems like LogMeIn and GoToMyPC which made things a lot easier. You could actually access a remote computer without any humans on the other end doing anything. If I worked with a company fancy enough to have Wake-on-LAN systems, I could even turn the computer on remotely. Pretty cool.
I also started having clients of all types actually ship laptops to my office. I would work on them, turn them around the next day, and ship them back. If they were located in my city the computers would get there the next day. If they weren’t, it would take just a few days, or we shipped it “next day air” ir if it was needed. It worked surprisingly well.
It was around this time I started doing business consulting and time management consulting since I got tired of working on computers. All of my experiences above showed me that I could really help companies without ever stepping foot into their offices. I started closing deals in distant parts of the U.S. over the phone and email, and later, over video calls.
When I mastered this, I started doing the same thing internationally and started getting clients all over the world. I got a lumber company in Japan, a steel company in Finland, a hotel management company in Hong Kong, and so on, all without ever having to travel to their offices. I would simply gather all the information I needed by having them email it to me, or accessing it on their servers, and/or through interviews with their staff. I improved their companies, got paid, and never needed to leave my home to do it. It was a win for everyone.
I started to notice other people delivering services remotely. Bookkeepers, consultants, financial guys, and so on. I also started to meet creative Alpha Male 2.0 doctors who handled all of their patients 100% remotely. Using phone, emails, and video calls, they could serve their patients, give advice, write prescriptions, and ship them what they needed. Today, my testosterone doctor is 100% location independent.
So yeah, you can deliver all kinds of services and still be 100% location independent.
But Caleb, what if I’m a bricklayer? What if I own a janitorial service? Those can’t be location independent!
In those cases, the actual service can’t be location independent, but you can. Have subcontractors do the actual hands-on work while you manage the business, marketing, customer service, and the client relationship. These things pay more than the actual implementation of the service anyway. You don’t want to be the one cleaning toilets or laying bricks, right? You want to be the guy who gets paid by the customer and then pays the janitor or bricklayer a cut of what you receive. That’s being an entrepreneur. If you do that in a location independent fashion and have no employees (using subcontractors instead) that’s an Alpha 2.0 entrepreneur.
I’ve seen mental health firms, construction companies, pest control services, and many other types of businesses operate this way. It takes a little out-of-the-box thinking, but with today’s technology it’s not difficult at all.
In all seriousness, I have not yet encountered a business that couldn’t be made into a location independent version, given a little creativity. It’s certainly harder with some businesses than with others, that’s true. That’s why I like consulting so much. It’s extremely high-margin and can very easily be done in a location independent way.
At noon on June 18th I will have a free, live online training webinar where you will learn how to make a high income as a location independent consultant, with a full Q&A at the end. Click here to register. Right after it’s over, The Six Figure Location Independent Consultant Course goes on sale for just four days. Regardless of whether you want to be a consultant or not, location independent income, even when selling a service, isn’t very hard.
Will the seminar be available to watch afterwards for people who cannot make that time slot?
I am looking for a good, location-independent TRT doctor! Can you please share the name of yours? (If for some reason you don’t want to advertise your doctor here, I can send you this request by email.)
Regarding the rest of your post, I have no idea what a “business consultant” actually does, but I’m a bit surprised it can be done without actually observing the office and the interactions of the people in it. I’m happy to hear that it’s true, though.
If you mean the First Date seminar tomorrow, yes, if you buy a ticket before 1:30pm PST tomorrow, within a few days you will be emailed a link where you can download a video of the entire seminar even if you don’t attend the live seminar.
Yeah email me. He’s actually attending the next Focus Program meeting with us next Saturday as a guest speaker. 🙂
It’s someone who improves the processes or results in a business, usually at higher (macro) level. But yeah, it’s a very generic term.
It’s true for many types of business consultants, but not true for others. If you were a consultant who focused on team building or customer service (for example), doing that in a 100% location-independent matter would be difficult. But if you were a process consultant, inventory consultant, security consultant, productivity consultant, marketing consultant, and so on, then no, you don’t need to go to their office.
I mean this:
At noon on June 18th I will have a free, live online training webinar where you will learn how to make a high income as a location independent consultant, with a full Q&A at the end. Click hereto register.
Haha man my car still has a cassette player! Love the noise the it makes when you’re playing a tape
Would you also say that those things are also less physically and mentally exhausting than performing the actual implementation? I.e. you’re less tired at the end of the day doing marketing or managing a client relationship vs implementing a service?
Eventually there will probably be copy of that webinar somewhere but I couldn’t tell you where or when. That’s really up to my marketing guys.
What the fuck year is your car?
Remember CrO2 tapes? Those were badass. My Def Leppard Hysteria album was on that. 🙂
We’re so old.
Completely depends on your personality. If you have a high Implementor score on your Kolbe A test, then you won’t feel exhausted at all doing implementation and you’ll actually feel energized by it. But if you’re a more cerebral guy then yeah, you’ll worn out after a day of implementation.
Another great article BD. Gets the wheels turning. I’m still having a bit of trouble wrapping my head around this concept though. If I’m a house painter and I don’t want to paint houses anymore and all I want to do is sub it out to another painter/company, how does one even present them self to a prospective customer. Do I look and act like I’m the guy that’s going to do it, or play the role of the salesman/rep or what have you. As far as I know it’s highly unusual for a salesman to show up and not the guy that’s actually going to be doing the work as far as painting is concerned. Let alone do it from another state or country.
If I was the one actually doing the painting say I’d charge $5000 for labor (not including materials) but if I subbed someone else I would then have to jack up that price considerably for the customer so it was worth it for both myself and the hired painter. However, with painting (as well as most trades) it’s highly competitive. Catch as catch can, as they say. You run the risk of pricing it too high they’ll end up simply going with another, cheaper painter. So you don’t really have much room to inflate the price unless you really want to take a small cut, and then is it even worth it.
So does the residential house painter not exactly suit the location independent business model very well or am I missing something?
Oh and CrO2 tapes were badass! Metal Bias were even better!! But I had that Def Leppard album on vinyl 🙂
Through marketing. Direct mail, PPC ads, referrals, etc.
Neither. You look and act like the owner of the business, which is exactly what you are. I don’t necessarily expect the owner of the business to come paint my house. I just want my house painted.
Sure, a percentage of your market might be confused. So what? You only need a tiny fraction of that market to say yes to make a six-figure income.
Fine. I never want to be the lowest price business in my market. I’d rather be one of the more expensive providers.
That’s why you NICHE.
No. Terrible, terrible business frame.
I’m picky about who I allow as my customers and I fire both customers and prospects all the time.
That’s why you NICHE.
Example: We here at ABC Painting Company only paint these types of houses in these types of neighborhoods using these types of processes for these types of homeowners. Because we only focus on people with homes just like yours, we are literally the best company you can hire for your type of house.
Having a painting business that will take anyone who needs their house painted is a horrible idea and I would never do such a thing.
That’s why you NICHE.
NICHING!
1986
Haha I’m not that old. I use one of those MP3 to tape adapters
Daniel,
Reframe: You SOLVE PROBLEMS. The problems you solve involve getting houses painted but the customers you want want to have the confidence of having someone, ONE guy, be reliable, accountable and take care of their PROBLEM. They don’t want to watch over someone’s shoulder, supervise the job, arrange another guy to work with this other guy, blow a gasket when they come home because the color is wrong etc. etc. because they are too busy with their high-income lives (the customer you want is this, no?).
There are plenty of customers out there who will pay that extra amount to have a very competent and trustworthy person Be The Fucking Man when it comes to jobs like this. You have to step up and deliver of course, and some of them might be pretty tough customers to work with, but if you can claim a high-end niche and deliver great results your name will get passed around to lots of other wealthy folks like joints at a Dead show.
In my consultancy I charge a lot to people who have quite a lot of money (in one instance billionaires) to be The Guy. They love it. I don’t nickel and dime with hourly fees (just charge by the month) and sometimes I’m not doing a lot at all but when shit needs to happen I’m the one who makes it happen, always, even if the cash has to come out of my own pocket.
For that I get almost 100% client retention, never any pushback on my fees and a great reputation.
Now I just need to work out the location independent transition….