80/20 Effect: Less Job? More Business!
August 28, 2006 – 9:21 pm
I don’t know how many people out there realize this but running a business a few hours out of a day while you work full-time isn’t that hard given that you can leverage your time, resources and actions to make sure you are using them to the best of your ability.
I was reading a post of Yaro’s and it got me to thinking about even what I’ve been doing over these past few months with CommerceCubes and now most recently with BizCandy. I don’t have tons of time to market or run the business I currently run (maybe 1 to 2 hours per day) and I’ve managed to do some great things with just that. Most recently I’ve thought about where I am heading with all this and developing a plan for it.
The way that I personally see it is this your first few businesses you are going to want to just get your feet wet, if you make money great and even if you only break even that’s fine too. After a while you’ll realize that playing to your strengths while building what you are doing you have to have a plan that can change and grow with you. Now what do I mean when I say “plan”?
The best laid plans of Mice and Men
Plans come from envisioning what you want in your future by using what you are doing today and growing from that. Some people say “I want to play in the NBA” or “I want to be a millionaire by the time I am 23” and that sounds great.
“Without acting there is no action”, So many people talk a big game and few if any ever follow through. You can talk until you are blue in the face but the simple truth is that talking about anything gets you no where, especially in business.
Outside of acting on a good service, product or business you need a clear plan as to why you are doing what you are doing and where do you see things going. Picture this; you start a small business that you want to grow into a huge multi-division international business. Something like this takes great planning and many years of growth. Most people are not capable of building something as big as this because it takes years and decades to grow it and most people don’t have a long term outlook on their life or any aspect of their life. Planning on any level is the key to true success.
Case in point
Recently I’ve been thinking about where I am headed, how I want to get there and what it takes to get there and I’ve been working out a plan that works for me. It is measurable, simple and I’ve set it up to handle any changes that will come up. It’s manageable for me to plan this way because of the values that I have and you will no doubt be different. If you value running a successful company you need to ask yourself in a sense “what do I want?” Do you want…?
- To become a successful business owner
- To become an investor
- To make enough to pay any bills your have
It’s really a personal question with many answers. As any good plan goes, you need to expect change over time because let’s face it you cannot plan for things that haven’t happened yet and expect everything to go according to plan. Life seldom works this way and so does having a plan for your future.
Your personal plan is unique to you because it involves you and you are at the center of your plan. Nothing is going to happen unless you make it happen so get out there and make it happen!
Lucas