13-Mar-2012 10:25

Are you ‘Self-Employed’ or a ‘Business Owner’?

Are you ‘Self-Employed’ or a ‘Business Owner’?

Well, which are you?

Oh… I hear you shyly ask, “What’s the difference”?

Well, to my mind, a true ‘business owner’ controls, manages and supervises his businesses, but the day-to-day operations are done by others; be they employed directly by the ‘business owner’, work contracted out or delegated...

So how do you get to be a Business Owner?

Importantly, you need a plan.
A plan involving money and people but not necessarily in that order…

Nobody has an exact formula but there are simple guidelines to follow.

1. You do need to calculate how much is required to cover your costs

2. You also need to know how much is needed to employ (or contract out or delegate to) an Operations chap.

3. Then you need to know your costs/turnovers/sales/margins to employ additional sales-person(s).

It will almost certainly not prove easy or smooth or profitable at first. Quite the contrary, there will be heartache, self-doubt, delays, tears and a myriad of other problems to distract you from your ‘plan’.

However, persevere; move slowly but surely, day to day, month to month and year to year until you find that energy and profit really build ‘your’ business.

So, let us know… what are your plans?

Are you happy being self-employed? Or do you ask yourselves - often - what am I doing, where am I going, & where will I be in 1, 5, 10, 15 + years from now..?

If you build ‘your’ businesses around positive answers you may very well become a rather more satisfied person and a true ‘Business Owner’.

Best of Luck :)