Business owners can learn how to "fire themselves".

There was an article in the newspaper recently about a couple that was going to retire. The columnist was going through the fund of money that was necessary to replace earning income in order for the couple to live the lifestyle that they wanted. With today's miniscule interest rates, the amount of money needed to totally replace their income was staggering!

But retirement today doesn't have to mean totally going without income. If you do it right, your business can provide the income to do the things you love without the pressure of worrying. All good business owners know that one of the best parts of owning their own business is that someday they will be in a position to sell it. As strange as this may seem, in order to get top dollar for all your hard work, you need to "fire" yourself.

The smart business owner starts planning to sell his business long before he reaches retirement age. In fact, the really smart ones plan their exit strategies at the beginning of their business. After all, if you don't know where you're going, how do you expect to get there?

There are a number of different exit strategies that can be employed in business. Most of the time we have been taught to focus on selling the business and taking the cash to invest so we can live off the interest.

Your focus in your business should be to eventually make yourself dispensable so someone else can do the hard work while you reap the benefits. If you are not dispensable, are you the owner, or just another employee?

This strategy will also be a fabulous way to "be prepared" in case you are seriously injured and could not work. What would happen to your cash flow if that happened? If you already have the system in place for someone else to take over you won't have this worry.

What if you want to sell your business eventually? Think about it. If you are indispensable to your business, what do you have to sell?

The dentist thinks of herself as the only one who can do her job. But in reality, how much of her work does she really have to perform? What part of her work actually requires her to have her dental license? How much other work is she doing that does not require that license? Could she hire a team to do all the work that does not require a license? For that matter, could she hire someone who has a dental license to do the work she does that requires a license?

The secret to firing yourself is adopting systems. Systems that allow your business to operate even when you are not there. Systems that can operate even when you are there. The person who has fired themselves has a business that generates cash flow, day in and day, even perhaps while the business owner is sleeping. Would you be doing what you do today if you had been taught in school to develop cash flow businesses instead of a salary?