Over a quarter of a million businesses start up each year in this country. Why do we do it? Let’s take a look at the top 5 reasons.
There must be a reason why over 250,000 new businesses are founded each year, right? In Australia according to the ABS, 294,210 new businesses started in 2011. Well, based on that, there must be plenty of good reasons to own a business.
A small business survey was conducted and business owners were asked to list some of their top reasons WHY they prefer to be in business as opposed to having a job in a larger organization. From that survey I’ve compiled the top 5 reasons that business owners having given, plus some thoughts over the last 3 years. The businesses and names have been withheld for professional respect and privacy reasons.
1. You get to control your own destiny
Entrepreneurs are people who like to take control and make decisions. In other words, owning a business saves them from having to work for anybody else. “One reason to own a small business is so you can install your culture into the company”. When you‘re in control, you get to make the decisions on how to best direct the company into the future. This can be a bit daunting to some others so it’s good to be aware of when to delegate and who to. However when you become conditioned to making and ‘owning’ each decision, you begin creating a culture, a brand and ultimately a strong organization.
2. You can create your own work/life balance
One of the most common benefits of running your own business, according to many Entrepreneurs, is the flexibility that comes with it. Whether that’s working from wherever you wish, or just setting the hours you work for yourself, or even wearing whatever you feel like on the day. If you want to work with the baby sleeping in the next room, or with your dog on your lap, it doesn’t matter.
What could be better than that? Another massive benefit is setting priorities: say many successful Entrepreneurs. What is motivating for you will no doubt be different to a ‘boss’. Therefore you can always prioritise based on the things that mean most to you, at the forefront of how you spend your time. So if you want to build a legacy for your family for example and that’s what you work for, then that will be paramount when selecting the order of work and duties.
3. You are responsible for results, no one else
Being in business is undoubtedly a risk. However it is said that ‘the biggest risk of all, is not taking any’. Yet with any risk is the chance of the reward that comes with it. In Business it’s a case of managing the risk. Business owners don’t decide lightly, and many are just as wary of risks as the average Joe. However they know that without risk, they are destined to be like everybody else and place a barrier between what is and what might well be. Speaking with a Gym owner on the Gold Coast she told me “Business is so dynamic it takes a ‘changing up’ attitude regularly. You must be constantly looking at what’s new, listening to what clients want and as you advertise to get new customers the requirements are always changing.
It takes risk to provide the latest, newest, cleanest, fastest and best people, products and service. If you have an obligation to success for them and for your business, you must be prepared to risk the old to have the new” It’s a risk sure, but there’s nothing better than the reward of hearing others speak highly of your business and having new clients walk in and say ‘Mary told me this was the place to go when I said I needed a gym”. Risk is kind of like a game. The more you play it, the better you get at it.
4. You Can Follow Your Passion
Most Entrepreneurs are happy to put in long hours as an investment to the success of their business. You will hear them say that they don’t work hard because they are doing what they love anyway. A lady (yes lady) who runs a very large earthmoving company in the Cairns region spoke to me about her business success. “While I didn’t necessarily love the physical work, once I was in control and learned what worked, I loved all the aspects of the business I was running. So it wasn’t the actual type of work but the whole aspect of business and all the challenges and rewards that came from that.
When people asked me what I love about what I do, I reply its BUSINESS that I love” it could be any type.
5. You can choose your work colleagues
How often do you get a choice of whom you’re working with? Entrepreneurs have a different set of values and expectations that they require when selecting who does what, in their organisation. “And they get to select those individuals”
“Over the years, I’ve hired personal friends, certain family members and even previous business colleagues to work in my companies hoping for the best. Inevitably, most don’t workout so I go for people that believe in what I believe in”. Coming from a successful screen-printing business owner of multiple sites. He says “It’s my responsibility to articulate that vision to my team so we all head for the same result. Which isn’t only to have a secure job”. “That’s not to say that family members don’t always work but in my experience it’s harder to fire someone you’re closely related to. They also can take some things for granted when they feel the business is closer to them than it really is”.
About Gary:
Gary Jeffress (known as The M.A.D. Guy) teaches people the skills of buying a business. He believes there’s so much untapped potential in ‘businesses for sale’ that its counterproductive to start a business in some cases. Especially given that very few people research where to look, how to find them and how to acquire funds to buy a business that often has all the assets that you as a ‘new start-up’ business will be spending the next few years and many thousands of dollars trying to attain so it becomes a success. If you don’t have that in mind when you go into business (and most do not) then your just dipping your toe in the water to see how it feels. That’s NOT having a business.
Email: gary@buyingsmallbusinesses.com
Phone: 0422 411 440
