Similarly, there is a well-known adage that is often repeated to people who are launching business consulting ventures: Until you have generated at least one client that you did not know before you started consulting, you have not succeeded. The point here is that it is easiest to build on pre-existing relationships and sell services to people you already know. But ultimately, you will exhaust this pool. To thrive, you need a mechanism for repeatedly selling your services to a broader pool of clients.

The essence of a repeatable business is the ability to create processes and systems that determine exactly how the business will work. Here’s a useful test: Is it possible to write in a notebook all of the information on how your prospective business will work? If so, then you have created a repeatable system. I am not suggesting that you undertake such a time-consuming exercise. I am, however, saying that you only have a repeatable formula when you have simplified and routinized your activities to the point that such a manual could be created.

To apply the concepts of leverage and extreme outsourcing discussed earlier, you need a repeatable formula. It’s the formula that determines which ingredients of your business should be outsourced and leveraged. A case study at the beginning of Chapter 5, pages 106–108, shows how these concepts can be applied to create a winning business and demonstrates that you can create a repeatable formula for almost any kind of activity.

GOOD IDEAS ARE EVERYWHERE

Sometimes people assume that the key to entrepreneurial success is finding that one incredibly good idea. This suggests that

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