[S915]Start Your Own Business Magazine

The aim of this article is to have you reassess your goals and get your business to give you what you really want in life.

Is your business working for you or are you working for it?

The first step in getting your business to work for you is to mentally step outside your current business and make a list of exactly what you would want your business to provide for you in an ideal world.

The first area to consider is money.

What sort of regular income would you like your business to bring into your pocket each week or each month?

The second area is time.

Do you really want to spend so many hours every week working in your business? If you were to have the ideal life how much time, if any, would you want to spend each week working in your business?

The third area is stress.

Does your business currently cause you more stress or worry than you want in your life? Would you prefer your business to be virtually stress free for you?

Most people are so busy working IN their business that they don't have the time or energy to be working ON their business.

Let's start with the basics. If you business requires you to work in it in order to function then you don't have a business at all. You are not a business person you are a self employed person.

The first goal for most owners of small businesses should be to graduate from being self employed into being a business person.

If you ask the right questions often enough then you will find the right answers. The first question to ask is how can I phase myself out of the business so that instead of working for the business I can get the business working for me?

If your business is not earning enough money to pay wages for all the necessary employees and then, over and above this, provide you with enough profit to for you to fund your lifestyle then it is not currently a viable business.

Most small business owners see all the money that comes to them as business profit. But if you are working in the business then some of the money that comes to you is in reality wages. To determine if your business is running in profit or loss then deduct a realistic amount of money that you would have to pay someone else to do your work, and then see if there is any left over. Most businesses that think they're in profit are really running in loss. If there is not enough money left over, in true profit, for you to live on (without you working) then your business needs an overhaul.

Here's a good question to ask.

What do you need to do with your business to get it to the point where you are no longer needed and yet it will still consistently produce enough profit for you to comfortably live on?

Now look at each of the other things that you would ideally like your business to do for you and start asking the right questions to lead you to rebuilding your business so that it provides that desired benefit for you.

If you can mentally stand outside your business and look in as if you were an independent consultant then you may just surprise yourself at how well and how quickly you can go from self employed to financially secure business person.