Brendan spent 3 years meeting with over 1500 businesses and learned 5 fundamentals that most business owners don't know but should. The fundamentals are: (1) Know how to make money by investing in existing customers rather than just getting new ones; (2) Online marketing like traffic and SEO are not always the key to success; (3) Understand the numbers like cash flow, margins, and KPIs; (4) Having goals is not enough, you need a vision to drive your goals; (5) Learn how to sell which requires understanding needs, trust, and return on investment.

1. 3 years & face to face
with over 1500
businesses
5 fundamentals I learnt that most business
owners don’t know but should

2. Hey, I’m Brendan
DC-er since mid 2011, live in Sydney Australia
Primary business is The Search Engine Shop
Started as an SEO consultancy ~4 years ago, evolved into
a “digital consultancy” (local business marketing)
We help businesses get more new clients & make more
money by properly leveraging the internet
Won government tender in 2009 to deliver 36x 1-day
business workshops over a year
Through workshops & consulting have had face time with
1500-1600 businesses in last 2-3 years

3. My goal for this session:
Give you one idea or concept
you can run with, implement &
take your business to the
next level

4. 1. Know how to make
money

5. Default thinking: more clients=more money
Getting more clients is the most expensive way to
generate revenue & usually takes the longest
Your existing customer base is the biggest untapped
resource you have
Counter intuitive: often spending money (investing) is the
quickest way to make money

6. How to Make Money &
Dominate
Diagram copyright Lisa Reed - from the book “The Business Mystic” by Lisa Reed & Mardi Palmer

7. 2. Online Marketing:
Traffic & SEO is not the
secret sauce to success
Who wants more hits?

8. Resetting limiting beliefs…
We started as an SEO firm, found quickly that was limiting
us
Blogosphere thinking (traffic+conversion=success) is also
incomplete and limiting you
You don’t even need a website - have met 100s of 7+
figure businesses without a website.
Based on the “make money model” we know that more
leads or clients is not the only way to make money –
therefore traffic is not the secret sauce

9. Diagram copyright Lisa Reed - from the book “The Business Mystic” by Lisa Reed & Mardi Palmer

11. 3. Understand the
numbers
My $200,000 education
How good is your napkin maths?
All businesses run on money
if you don’t understand money
you don’t understand business

12. All businesses run on $$$
What’s the difference between cash & accrual accounting?
Do you understand cash flow & your cash flow cycle?
Do you know the difference between markup and margin?
Can you read and understand a P&L report and balance sheet?
ROAS & COA – what are your KPIs, how do you measure
them?
Trends are often more important than individual numbers
Minimise tax, minimise risk and ensure compliancy
Stop doing your own bookkeeping and accounts
Don’t grow too fast – not all growth is good

13. 4. Want to do big things?
Goal-setting is not
enough
You need a vision

14. Vision=fuel, your “why”, your vision drives your goals
Goals are useful but are more like checkpoints, without
vision your goals are limp
Tim Ferriss’ dreamlining exercise is a good starting point
Don’t limit yourself – vision for your life, your business &
specific areas of your life
Your vision MUST be fresh & you know it instrinsically

15. Example: Didgeridoo Dojo
Vision: We’re the leading didgeridoo lessons and “learn to
play” didgeridoo resource on the planet (beginners right
through to advanced). If someone is looking to learn to
play the didgeridoo our products and services will reach
them no matter where they are and people rave about
how good our stuff is
Goal: rank in top 3 positions for “didgeridoo lessons”, “how
to play didgeridoo” in all major search engines (Google,
Bing, Apple Store/iTunes, Amazon)
Goal: create physical DVD products & distribute in all retail
stores where didgeridoos are sold
Goal: all video in HD, streams seamlessly

16. 5. Learn how to sell
Nothing happens in business until a sale is made

17. 3 ingredients required to
make a sale
• Even if you don’t do the selling, you need to understand
selling as a business owner
• Marketing is useless unless you can sell the prospects
1. A Need or Want and Demand or Desire to get it
2. Trust: in you, your product AND your company
3. $$$, real AND perceived ROI

18. Share the love
Twitter: @tullibo
Email: brendan@thesearchengineshop.com