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Many people have dreams of owning their own business, of
being their own boss. Some people muster
up the courage to take the leap into the world of entrepreneurship. Very few people are actually successful at
it. Unfortunately the statistics show us
that only a small number of people that start businesses make it to the five
year mark, let alone the ten year mark.
So why do so many entrepreneurs fail to succeed? There are numerous factors that go into a
business succeeding or failing, but we are going to discuss one of them here
today. Are you an entrepreneur or a
volunteer? This might seem like a silly
question, but it is at the heart of a lot of "business owners" problems. An entrepreneur is someone that solves
problems for people at a PROFIT.
All business revolves firstly around solving problems. Problems can be defined in many ways;
technical, mechanical, security, physical, emotional, and perception to name a
few. We do not provide mere products or
services, we solve problems. If you do
not know what problems you are solving you have another issue that we will talk
about in another article.
Secondly, we solve problems for PEOPLE. It does not matter if you sell to companies,
over the internet, through mail order, network marketing, or through a
storefront, you need to realize that you are dealing with other people period. Understanding that is a huge step towards
becoming a successful business.
Most people understand the first two points, but trip
themselves up on the PROFIT portion of the equation. If you are not making a profit, you are not
an entrepreneur you are a volunteer. I
love volunteering. It is a great way to
help the world, feel better about yourself, meet excellent people, and give
back, but it is not to be confused with running a business. You must make a profit in order to stay in
business.
Where a lot of the difficulty around profit is focused
around is a feeling of guilt for charging for something that we are just
naturally good at. "I can't charge for
that because I didn't have to do any 'work'."
Just because it is easy for you to do for what ever reason does not mean
you should not get paid for it. The only
question that needs to be answered is did my customer receive value from what I
provided? If the answer is yes, (and it
better be or you have way bigger problems) then you deserve to be properly
remunerated for your efforts.
If you do not make a profit, you are not running a business
you are a deluded do-gooder. If you do
not make a profit you cannot continue to keep helping other people through your
business, because you will not be able to pay your bills. If you do not make a profit you cannot expand
your efforts to help more people, provide jobs, support charities, or feed your
family. Profit is a must for every
single business in the same sense that oxygen is important to your body.
Make a choice to be an entrepreneur and embrace profit. If you still feel guilty, find a way to
increase your perceived value so that your customers feel great paying you for
doing a fabulous job of solving their problem.
"To open
a shop is easy, to keep it open is an art."
Chinese Proverb
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