Is Your Business Actually Just a Job?

There’s a big difference between being your own boss and starting a business, and it’s one that a lot of entrepreneurs don’t fully appreciate until after they’ve made the leap into this life.

Everybody has a boss. We all serve somebody. Even the world’s wealthiest, most successful entrepreneurs are accountable to someone else: their customers. The question is, how do you serve your customers?

hempKCIf your employees and systems produce the bulk of your company’s services or make its products—essentially autonomously from you—you have a business. But if you’re the one who’s doing most of the work, many folks would say you have a job.

How else can you tell whether you own a job or a business?

>> A business can survive without you, at least in the short term. It can continue to generate sales even if you get sick or go on vacation.

>> A business can be sold. If your company relies on you so much that it can’t run without you—if most of your company’s value is located between your two ears—then you don’t really have an enterprise that anyone will choose to buy. A job supports your lifestyle. A business supports your lifestyle and has stand-alone value because it can go on without you.

>> In theory, at least, a business has unlimited potential. As a business grows, it can hire more employees that allow it to increase production and pursue more customers. But if you’re the one doing the work, then you’re going to be limited by how many hours you have in the day. (To say nothing of what that will do to your stress levels!)

This great article, posted over at Capitus Group’s website, has more ways to tell the difference.

As the weeks, months and years pass, constantly assess if you have a job or an enterprise. It’s too easy to get on the treadmill of working in your business instead of on it.

Unsure if you have a job or a business? Maybe you realize that you have the first, but really want the second? Organizations like the Helzberg Entrepreneurial Mentoring Program are available to help you get the result you desire.