I receive a lot of letters and emails from people who have experienced that billionth of a bolt – that moment where things begin to click and the business begins to really take off. For Meghan Ochs-Di Rocco, that moment came when she began to truly realize the incredible value of her UnFranchise Business. Many people don’t appreciate the true value of their UnFranchise Business – but when you consider all that comes with it – you’ll soon see that you have something truly valuable at your fingertips.

Please take a moment to read this amazing message from Meghan Ochs-Di Rocco, where she explains her thoughts on the amazing value we have with the UnFranchise Business. Every UnFranchise owner owns a business that would have a fair market value of around $90,000 – but the question is – do you treat this like a $90,000 business, or just a hobby?

Keep Growing!

-JR Ridinger

$90,000 – to most of us this is a lot of money.  Of course, depending on each of our individual financial situations this dollar amount means different things.  To some of us it could be a few years of college for a child, a new car or two ha or three.  Maybe it equates closely to your mortgage, or a large percentage of it, perhaps it is a year, two years or more of salary.  To those who are wealthier this might not be any of those things, it might be ‘petty cash.’  However, no matter what this amount of money would buy us relative to our current lifestyle, either way it is a lot of money.   Very few in their right mind, rich, poor or somewhere in between would turn down $90,000 if it were handed to them.  Additionally, most people, certainly not all of them, would spend $90,000 lightly or be very happy if they lost $90,000 in a poor investment or bad business decision.  If you would, then you might not want to bother reading past this sentence.

The reason I focus on $90,000 is because of a recent speech, J.R Ridinger, President & CEO of Market America / Shop.com made at International Convention 2013.  JR explained how MA & Shop.com sought out the expertise of business consultants to put a price on each & every Market America & Shop.com  franchise that has ever been purchased.  The purpose was to give each franchise a ‘market value’.  What could each franchise reasonably be sold for, given what each franchise comes with, and or what could JR reasonably charge (if he so chose) to each new & aspiring UnFranchise Owner.  The result was $90,000.

Take that in for a moment.  It is a far, far, cry from the $400 that it currently costs to start and own an UnFranchise business.  The real world value of a business, that each of us currently owns is $90,000.  That is $89,600 more than what each of us presumably paid for the one we currently own.  Most people in the world would love to have any asset with that value.  This hit me quite hard when I heard JR explain this.  He repeated this insight again a day or two later in his final speech of the convention.  $400 is less than .01% of $90,000.  In theory, if these numbers were relative to the market value of your house (I use this example since most people falsely think of their house as an investment/asset) and you could sell your house for 99% more than what you paid for it you would probably jump for joy & be happier than a pig in sh**.

So my question is do you currently treat your Market America / Shop.com business like it is a $90,000 business?! Have you ever?! If not do you plan to?! If your answer is yes to any of those questions, then I have one more for you, how long do you plan on treating it like it is a $90,000 business?!  For a minimum of 2-3 years?  When I heard JR explain that #, $90,000 it hit me in a profound way.  I do not think I have ever treated my business like it was a $90,000 investment.  In spurts I have treated it like it was perhaps a few thousand dollar investment but never a $90,000.  That certainly would hit my wallet a little harder.  I am comfortable & happy in my current financial situation.  Losing a few thousand here and there, that doesn’t hurt so much, if at all.  Without consciously deciding to, I have always thought, well if I can save money on products I love, be around people who are wonderful & learn some things along the way then that is not so bad.  Additionally, earning some money here and there and every now & then spending some to reinvest in my business hasn’t hurt my wallet at all either.  However, I can tell you would what have: writing out a check for $90,000.  That check would have hurt, that would have caused me to feel some pain, to work harder, to work stronger, to invest more in myself to invest more in my team (especially those who have quit along the way because they too did not ‘spend’ $90,000).  The $90,000 hole in my purse would have forced me to meet more people, to open my mouth more & even more importantly my ears.  It would have made me feel uncomfortable! So after convention, once I made it back home, my challenge to myself & my challenge to members of my team & all of my MA friends back in PA is do your absolute hardest to treat your business like its a real investment, a $90,000 one in yourself & your future.  Trick your mind, in the same way you are supposed to with your goals, into really believing that you wrote that check out and it was cashed by MA & Shop.com.  Remind yourself of it daily.  This is the same thing you hear spoken by leaders over and over; stop treating your business like a hobby.  $90,000 is not play money to most people.  Is it to you?!  So go ahead, write that check.  Then tomorrow, go out and work incredibly hard to earn that money back.

-Meghan Ochs-Di Rocco