Entrepreneurship, Thinking Of Doing It Alone ? Don't
Too many people are of the opinion that being an entrepreneur pays more when you do it alone. Let me tell you something about that theory, it does NOT hold any water.
Gene Marks of The Marks Group once wrote "There was once a time when it was just me. I was providing computer services. I was working a lot of hours but I wasn't making much money at it.... Today I'm making a lot of money because I'm supervising 10 people who are providing computer services for me. I'm making money off them. "
Sure, you may be making a couple of bucks here and there but it is nothing compared to what you'll make if you decide to do it with people. Here's why.
Firstly, we'll start with the obvious. There are only 24 hours in a day and we have 5 working days in which you'll probably be working for 50 hours. Let's assume you charge $100 for an hour, you will be making $5000 in a week and $20000 in a month. Cool right? Wrong! Why? It does not happen (unless you are a robot with five arms and the ability to teleport).
In reality, there is no way you'll be able to work the entire 50 hours because you are alone and there's only so much you can do at once. There's the administrative tasks, paperwork and the search for more work when the current one runs out. Performing the above listed tasks is as exhausting as it is time consuming.
Let's now assume you spend half of the 50 hours performing those tasks, your revenue becomes halved which means you'll be earning $10000 per month. It's not that bad right? Wrong. You'll still have expenses (rent, transportation, repairs, import and export duties, etc. ) and the expenses may take about 30 percent of your monthly revenue, leaving you with about $7000 per month. The future is beginning to look bleak now right? Right.
However, there is a way to run a business successfully without all that stress and dwindling figures but you can't do it alone. You'll be needing...... Wait for it..... PEOPLE!
There's no denying the fact that it's your expertise, specialty etc etc etc. But the customers are not interested in buying from your business, they just want to hire you, Period. You're the product and you are the one to sell. If you can't sell, don't even start because successful business owners are good salespeople. Ask Bill Gates.
Nevertheless, everyone has their specialty, yours may be to come up with the ideas or bring it to reality, you will need a team or partners with a different set of skills to complement your own skills. Initially, it will be hard for you to work with people as you will probably feel that no one can do as good a job as you and you'll find that you are busy all the time doing the actual work you have a team for, but you'll eventually realize that there is more to be achieved with teamwork and as you begin to get more clients , you will get more work and instead of thinking "how do I do this? " your thoughts will be more in line with "who will get this done for me? "
Your clients may find it hard to accept that it's not you doing the actual work then they'll get used to it and if you assembled the right team, they may actually do a better job than you and you'll be making more money than you could have made alone. Your only job being to get the clients.
Now the future is looking bright.
If you still feel like going on the journey alone, by all means do. But keep in mind that there's more to be achieved with 4th a team.
Gene Marks of The Marks Group once wrote "There was once a time when it was just me. I was providing computer services. I was working a lot of hours but I wasn't making much money at it.... Today I'm making a lot of money because I'm supervising 10 people who are providing computer services for me. I'm making money off them. "
Sure, you may be making a couple of bucks here and there but it is nothing compared to what you'll make if you decide to do it with people. Here's why.
 |
| Sole proprietor |
Firstly, we'll start with the obvious. There are only 24 hours in a day and we have 5 working days in which you'll probably be working for 50 hours. Let's assume you charge $100 for an hour, you will be making $5000 in a week and $20000 in a month. Cool right? Wrong! Why? It does not happen (unless you are a robot with five arms and the ability to teleport).
In reality, there is no way you'll be able to work the entire 50 hours because you are alone and there's only so much you can do at once. There's the administrative tasks, paperwork and the search for more work when the current one runs out. Performing the above listed tasks is as exhausting as it is time consuming.
Let's now assume you spend half of the 50 hours performing those tasks, your revenue becomes halved which means you'll be earning $10000 per month. It's not that bad right? Wrong. You'll still have expenses (rent, transportation, repairs, import and export duties, etc. ) and the expenses may take about 30 percent of your monthly revenue, leaving you with about $7000 per month. The future is beginning to look bleak now right? Right.
However, there is a way to run a business successfully without all that stress and dwindling figures but you can't do it alone. You'll be needing...... Wait for it..... PEOPLE!
There's no denying the fact that it's your expertise, specialty etc etc etc. But the customers are not interested in buying from your business, they just want to hire you, Period. You're the product and you are the one to sell. If you can't sell, don't even start because successful business owners are good salespeople. Ask Bill Gates.
Nevertheless, everyone has their specialty, yours may be to come up with the ideas or bring it to reality, you will need a team or partners with a different set of skills to complement your own skills. Initially, it will be hard for you to work with people as you will probably feel that no one can do as good a job as you and you'll find that you are busy all the time doing the actual work you have a team for, but you'll eventually realize that there is more to be achieved with teamwork and as you begin to get more clients , you will get more work and instead of thinking "how do I do this? " your thoughts will be more in line with "who will get this done for me? "
Your clients may find it hard to accept that it's not you doing the actual work then they'll get used to it and if you assembled the right team, they may actually do a better job than you and you'll be making more money than you could have made alone. Your only job being to get the clients.
Now the future is looking bright.
If you still feel like going on the journey alone, by all means do. But keep in mind that there's more to be achieved with 4th a team.
Comments
Post a Comment