The truth is, examples like our barber above are exceedingly rare. The “entrepreneur” is really just a Technician, as Michael E. Gerber pointed out in The E-Myth Revisited and the Technician only wants to do the work.
Cutting hair.
Fixing cars.
Filing taxes.
They’ll do it because they know how to do it and with them being the “boss,” no one can tell them how to do the job.
And they’ll quietly, frustratingly, go out of business in the next few years, with less money, less time, and less freedom.
Wouldn’t it make sense, then, to reimagine how you create and run a small business? If nothing else, so that you, as a technician, can enjoy the fact that you aren’t working for someone else?
You can’t run from the facts – 90% of all small businesses will close their doors in the first 5 years, and most of them because no one in them – the owner, let’s be honest – took the time to create a system to actually do the work needed and to handle the tasks associated with running an effective small company that had the ability to grow.
Most of us have heard of Warren Buffet, and he makes a very strong point in an interview I recently saw with him: Success is a matter of creating the steps needed to be successful, and then simply following them. Step by step by step.
You don’t even have to know how to do it, only that you want to do it. Walt Disney didn’t know how to make a feature length, animated movie, but he wanted to, so he figured out how to do it.
It’s the same thing with your company and your dreams! You can do anything you want if you’ll only take the time to quit doing “busy work” and start thinking how to create.
Until you can do that in your own company, you can’t be sure of success, but you can be sure of worry, cashflow challenges, and long days. Take time, stating today, and document the tedious things that rob you of time in your own business and then implement ways – or people – to handle those tasks. You’ll thank me for it!
Sincerely,
