A Business or A Job

Do you have a business or a job?

Ask yourself this question. Now be honest. If you have been in business for a while, do you have a business or a job? Do you remember when you started your business? Does it look anything like you visualized?

If you said yes, you need not read anymore. Go play golf assured the business is running as you planned. If not, maybe you should stick around.

If you are thinking of starting a business, take notes and make sure you don’t fall into the trap of creating a job.

Most people love the idea of starting their own business and being their own boss. Who wouldn’t?

With all the freedom and creativity to produce your widget or to offer a service. How much fun and enjoyment will it be?

Tempted to go it alone?

Ever been tempted to take your expertise from the business you are now working in and go out on your own?

You can do it better, right?

Of course you have. You may have already tried and failed.

You maybe doing it now and already realize this self-employed caper is not all it’s cracked up to be.

If you find yourself working long hours, feeling irritable, drinking more, and getting little sleep, then maybe it's time to re-assess what what the f#ck are you doing.

After all, you had no stress and frustration when you were working for the boss, but now!!!! What the f#ck’s going on? You’re working more hours and getting less reward. How the f#ck did this happen? Have you created a business or a job?

Confused, stressed, tired, and angry. All the attributes of a business owner who has a job, not a business.

Well, I’ll tell you how it happened. You built yourself a job and not a business. That’s what happened. Mentoraus can help.

Most business start out with great excitement and hope only to find it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. Damn hard work, that’s what it is. BUT, it doesn’t have to be this way. No.

Starting from the wrong end.

Most budding entrepreneurs or budding business owners start a business from the wrong end. No, dammit, I’m calling it ….They - ‘ALL’ - start from the wrong end.

If you are still here after reading the above about drinking, sleeping and so on, you are who I’m talking to. How do I know? Because I have been in the mentoring business for nearly 20 years. I have seen it time and time again. Ask yourself have you built a business or a job.

Look at your systems. It’s all about the processes, planning, vision, and execution.

Having pronounced this - and to keep you from being the - ‘ALL’ - get yourself a mentor from the start. If you are already in business, get yourself a mentor as soon as possible. It will be the best investment you ever make.

Save yourself a lot of money, stress, anxiety, and frustration. It doesn’t have to be me (although I’d love to help) but do it. Please get yourself a mentor. Get a mentor that’s had experience in running a business, not just a job. There is an enormous difference.

Experience is not the best teacher, it’s the only teacher.

Without being mentored in the best practices and processes for building, organizing and managing a business, you will find yourself in the self-employment “money pit,” always working 80 hours or more a week as you attempt to handle the marketing, sales, recruiting, management, accounting, public relations and legals of the business, all the while delivering the product or service by yourself. Doesn’t this sound like fun? Not!!!!

Have you built a business or a job?

Eh, it’s great to have you read this far.

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Do you have a business or a job?

Most small business owners do not actually own their own businesses — their business owns them. They never learn how to create a business capable of producing both time and financial freedom.

They don’t have proven strategies, systems, or processes in place so that the business can run without them.

Ask yourself this,… if you had a severe accident or illness or you went on an extra-long vacation, how long would your business continue running at the same pace? A few hours? A few days? One week?

In order to be an actual business owner, your business has to have systems in place to scale and run without you being involved in the day-to-day operations. Make sense?

Work on your business, not in the business.

I know. I know. In the early days, with a lack of capital, it is hard. In reality, it’s just not doable. All sounds good in theory, but in practice, it’s a different ball game altogether.

Know, please, there are ways to create your business with the correct time management and processes to ease you into the correct path of working on your business, not in your business. It takes time, but it is time well spent when you're working on the right thing at the right time. This is where a mentor who has been there before knows exactly the right steps to take and in the right order.

Unless your business can run without you, you have a job, not a business, because the business owns you. If you do not address this issue, nothing will change. You will chase your tail all the way to bankruptcy.

Sorry, we have closed. Maybe never to re-open.

Get out while you can and go back to your boss and beg for your old job back.

“Can someone else do this job”?

The best piece of advice I can give you is to stop doing everything yourself and ask yourself, “can someone else do this job”? "Have I got a business or a job?"

“Can I train someone to take over this task”?

This is a small step, but it needs to be addressed. It is part of the questioning you need to have with yourself to come up with the answers. Wouldn’t it, or doesn’t it make good damn sense to have someone to bounce the Q&A’s off? A mentor is the person.

It is all in the detail!

Take the time to record your situation. Write it down in longhand in your notebook. Schedule time for your planning and process meetings.

Time spent here in the planning and creating processes is time well spent indeed. This alone separates the men from the boys, the women from the girls, and the also-rans from the champions.

Take stock. Notetaking and recording is an essential component of a successful business.

Create a business, not a job

Create a business, not a job. Start right from the get-go. Create a business, not a job. Work on your business, not in your business. Get this printed out and hang it over the door to your office. Put it where you can see it every day.

Summary

I want to leave you with this little adage. I don’t know who penned it, but it is worth reading.

“If your business depends on you, you don’t own a business - you have a job. And it’s the worst job in the world because you’re working for a lunatic!”

Get off your fanny and do something about it now.

Get a mentor. The best business investment you are ever going to make.

Get a mentor with experience and age. Don’t go getting involved with graduates with well-meaning theoretic qualifications who have never run a business never failed. Be careful who you get involved with. Do not engage a family member or friend. Dangerous practise for ending friendships and creating family rifts. No, find your self an experience mentor who can tell it how it is whether it hurts your feelings or not. They need to be brutal at times.