Business Owners- Do you actually own a Job?
by Greg Chapman
Published on this site: July 6th, 2005 - See
more articles from this month...
How many hours do you work a week? When was the last time
you took an uninterrupted holiday? Do your staff have a better
job than you? Now ask yourself, Do I Own a Business or a Job-
with Overheads? Are you happy about the answers to these questions?
If not, read on.
In Empower Business Solutions experience, too many owners,
after investing their time and money, have not got a fair
return from their business. Sure they are making ends meet
(well some are). But are they getting what they deserve for
the effort they make? Think about it this way. Take the money
you have put into your business, and take the time you have
put in as well. If you had invested those funds wisely, and
got a nine-to-five job, would you be better or worse off?
And what about the hassle factor?
So what should be a reasonable return on your business? After
you pay yourself a wage, you should be returning at least
25% of your asset value. Another way of saying this is that
if you were to sell your business today, you should get at
least 4 times its annual profit. But too often, the business
owner is their business, and if he or she were to leave it
for even a short time, there would be a sharp decline in its
profits. And no-one will pay them for what is a personal business.
If you are in this situation, here are some steps you can
take to increase your business efficiency and make your business
operate without you:
- Firstly recognise that if you change nothing- nothing
will change.
- Make a commitment to yourself that you will act now to
- make a difference to your business and your life
- Start to separate yourself from your business
- Set goals for your business, create a business plan
- Set in place a regular formal review of your progress
against your goals.
- Map your workflow process and seek opportunities to make
it more efficient
- Re-organise your business to reflect your processes
- Look for ways to outsource parts of your business
- Manage your business by reports
And lastly- get help! Everyone who has achieved success in
their business or their life will freely admit that somewhere
along the way they have received assistance from someone else.
It may have been from a relative, a friend, a colleague, a
mentor or a business coach like Empower Business Solutions.
These steps are about creating a Business System. By systematising
your business, you make your business more efficient, reduce
your costs, and ultimately, make your business run without
you. Even if you are a one-man-band, there is still a lot
you can do to separate yourself from your business, by creating
passive income streams, and leveraging your knowledge.
Business Owners who own a job, already know they do. (Don't
you!) They know they spend all their time working in their
business, not on their business. And their reason for not
doing anything about this, is that they say they are too busy.
However, if they saw an opportunity to double their income,
they would find the time! So it is actually about whether
the rewards that come from their business running on auto-pilot
are sufficiently attractive to them to finding time. If they
still can't find the time they should never again complain
about their business running their lives, as it is clearly
not that important!
Dr Greg Chapman assists small to medium sized businesses
with business planning, business systems and marketing strategy.
To find out how you can Multiply Your Profits & Make Your
Business Run without You, and to find out How Good Your Business
Really Is with a Free Online Business Medical, go to Empower
Business Solutions website at: http://www.empowersolutions.com.au
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