I met with a potential client a few days ago and he tells me that he feels like he’s on a hamster wheel, but if he gets off his business will not survive. At that point I remembered an article I read years ago that asked the question; “are you running a business or have you created a job for yourself?”
The difference may not be obvious, but your answer will make a significant difference in the way you operate your business. Question! What will happen to your business if you had to leave for 3 months? Will your business continue to generate revenue? Will your business survive?
I’ve come to the conclusion that you can’t really say you have a business unless you can leave it for several months and the sales continue to come in. So I ask you, are you running a business or have you created a job for yourself?
Personally I’ve created a job for myself, but I have a goal and a plan to create a business.
It’s a worthy goal to create a job for yourself, but the downside is you will always feel like you are on a hamster wheel. You’re likely to be often stressed out, work very long hours and family vacations are usually just a dream.
My experience with most entrepreneurs and small business owners is that they have created jobs for themselves. The glaring indication of this is the lack of systems, especially marketing and sales systems. Most things are done on the fly without strategic thinking.
Why are franchises so successful? Because they have systems for everything. You can export the McDonalds Franchise to almost any country and it will be successful, because the success isn’t dependent on the individual workers, but on the “Franchise system.”
If you really want to create a long-term growing business then the success cannot be solely dependent on you. You need a turnkey style operation, a business that is so systematized that you don’t have to be involved in the day- to-day activities of the business.
You need to find ways to automate many of your daily activities so you can get off the hamster wheel. I think every small business owner and entrepreneur should think about developing systems so they can stop being a slave to their business. I highly recommend Michael Gerber’s book: The E-Myth. In his book Micheal talks about the important role systems play in transforming your technical skills (your job) into a profitable business.
Understand that business is a combination of systems and a marketing system is arguably your most critical system. Can you write down your process for attracting prospects, converting them to customers then turning them into repeat sales and long-time clients? If you can’t write it down, then you really can’t do it.
“Organize around business functions, not people. Build systems within each business function. Let systems run the business and people run the systems. People come and go but the systems remain constant.” (Michael Gerber)
So, do you have a business or have you created a job for yourself?
The Four Mind-Sets of an Entrepreneur (Video)
