3 Limiting Beliefs That Stifle The Success Of Contractors

3 Limiting Beliefs That Stifle The Success Of Contractors

Limiting beliefs will make or break you. They’re going to limit you, hold you back, disable you and potentially kill your business. let’s face it – I’m not going to sugarcoat it, limiting beliefs can be hard to change, and in large part, are often only confronted when strong internal, or external forces are present and forcing you to do so.

They often run in the background, hiding away from our normal conscious awareness, yet they influence the way we move through the world in the same way that a splinter left stuck in your foot causes you to walk differently. When left unchecked, limiting beliefs cause you to limp and walk awkwardly through the world by influencing your decisions and actions in a way you’re not consciously aware of. Eventually, the dysfunction in your walk causes downstream effects in your body. Your knee starts hurting. Your impaired knee function leads to hip and back problems and now, it hurts to get up from a chair.

When you remove the psychological splinters that limit your movement through the world, you become aware of new opportunities and successes. Not because you thought positively and used the “law of attraction”. They were there all along… but your limiting beliefs kept you from seeing them.

These “psychological splinters”, are the causes of your limiting beliefs and are often rooted in early childhood experiences. Let’s identify some of these limiting beliefs so that you can become aware of them and start to diagnose their cause and enact a plan to overcome them.

#1 – You believe that more profit = more problems

We’ve all heard it before. More money = more problems. But have we ever stopped to think if it’s true? I mean, it’s a pretty catchy saying, and intuitively it feels right.

Most of us know that our feelings can be useful, but we also know we can’t always trust them. In this case, the feeling that this statement is right, is a reflection of a limiting belief we have surrounding wealth. We hear it all the time. Rich people are bad, money doesn’t make you happy, successful people are the least happy people in the world.

It just doesn’t add up, and when you get to know successful people, people with money, you begin to see that it isn’t the case.

“More money doesn’t mean more problems, it means different problems, It means more sophisticated problems.”

The truth is – More money doesn’t mean more problems, it means different problems, It means more sophisticated problems. The problems you’re going to face at 10k/month are going to be different than the problems you face at 100k/month, no doubt. But it doesn’t mean you’ll have more of them.

More money means more success and more prosperity for everything and everyone around you. The money you make and the money you spend circulates through the economy and has a positive impact on the world and people around you.

You’re always going to have problems. The only difference from one level to the next is the type of problems. In the words of Ed Latimore, heavyweight boxer and writer:

“More money never hurts. Less money never helps”

Simple, and we know this from experience to be true. So why do we want to believe that more money is actually going to make our lives worse?

…Everyone is different, but some of the common causes of this limiting belief are fear of success and fear of responsibility. When you become successful things change, your life changes, your routine changes, the people you’ll be around changes and your responsibilities change.

On top of that, our brains are hardwired to seek the path of least resistance. Doing things the way we’ve always done them is always the easiest path.

#2 – You believe you need to price based on the time and effort that you’re putting in – not the VALUE that you’re providing

Starting with our first job delivering papers or attending a cash we’re taught that to earn money, you must expend time and effort. It’s the classic employee mentality. Selling your time and effort and not the value you provide.

How can one contractor charge more for the same time and materials – and get it? Did they put in more effort? No…. Did they spend more time? No….

They sold a result. Not their time and effort. When you get your oil changed you’re not concerned with how much time and effort they’re putting into your car. If you’re leaving it there for an hour, you wouldn’t expect to pay more if they got it done in 15 minutes instead of 45. That’s because you’re not paying for their time and effort, you’re paying for the result that they provide.

The $80 in your pocket is worthless to you than the value of having fresh oil, expertly refreshed in your vehicle. So you fork it over.

If you’re selling art, are you going to price your work based on the hours you spent on it? What would you price yourself at? $50/hour? $5000?

What if it took you two hours and you decided you’re worth $1000/hour, so you sell it for $2000. To the buyer, the piece was a perfect fit for his collection and he was willing to drop $10,000?

What if you were doing a job for a client but you stopped at 95%. Would you expect to be paid based on expending the time and effort used by your team to get to 95%? No, and your client wouldn’t pay because they don’t care about how long or how hard you worked, they only care about the result.

You need to stop pricing your work based on time and effort, that’s how employees think. Business owners and CEOs think in terms of value provided.

If you can provide a superior or unique result, if your results are proven and time tested, you can charge more for them and people will pay, because they want the result, they don’t care about time and effort.

#3 -You believe that there aren’t any good people out there

Are you always hiring and firing for the same role? Do people leave after a few days or weeks? If you ask yourself what the common denominator is… It’s you! I hate to tell you but it’s not lazy millennials.

The limiting beliefs around hiring usually have a number of symptoms:

You won’t let go of toxic team members.

Your network stinks.

You over-value your company and skills.

Your business has no identity and brand.

You under-estimate people.

Your attitude is terrible.

You only hire “experienced” people.

You keep saying there aren’t good people out there.

The truth is that any successful contractor treats hiring and onboarding employees as serious as their cash flow or sales and marketing. In the next 5-10 years, we will witness one of the largest exits of skilled labor from the workforce. This is a massive opportunity for you to set yourself apart and truly excel as a leader and owner.

Ever wonder how your competition is able to land and keep great team members. They’ve made hiring a process and systematized their approach.

Secondly, they only work with people who are fit, and they give the tools and training to succeed out of the gate. And when your competition can’t find skilled people, they create them. Investing in someone’s success is one of the biggest ways to create loyalty and retention.

CONCLUSION

A lot of these limiting beliefs are conditioned into us from an early age from living with people who have fixed mindsets and who haven’t done the work of overcoming their limiting beliefs. As a CEO and owner, you have to develop a growth mindset. Limiting beliefs, or the lack of them, is a huge difference between the contractors who will be wildly successful and those who hamstring themselves with thoughts like…..

“Money is evil.” “ I’m only worth my time and effort.” Or, “There’s no one good worth hiring.”

Just like professional athletes who look great on paper but constantly underperform, your attitude towards these beliefs can make or break your contracting business. No one else in your business or your family can fix these issues, you have take charge and become the business owner you want to be.

The good news is, by reading this article you’ve already made the first step towards fixing any limiting beliefs you might have, you’re increasing your awareness. It’s often helpful to connect with other growth-minded individuals who you can ask questions and get accountability from. That’s why we created the contractor tips group. We wanted a place where tradespeople across North America could connect and share their insights across a variety of industries. CLICK HERE to join the group

Here are 2 more ways I can help you grow your business

1. Apply for a calibration call where we’ll drill down on where you are in your business and what strategies you need to employ to get to the next level

2. Check out our new Profit Plan Accelerator course which contains over 60+ video modules and 20+ downloadable resources that will take you from contractor to Champion CEO