Are You A Business Owner, Or Are You Self-Employed? Why Is The Difference Huge?

What is the force that drives your business? It may not be what you believe it to be. It wasn't for me. However, until you know and understand what drives your business, you could very well be limiting your own success.

 Is it possible that you like to be in control? Could it be possible that you love being in control, or maybe even that you are a bonafide Control Freak? I was, and what I didn’t know is that I was continuously holding myself back.

 One of my mentors tried to explain to me where I was hurting my own business. He told me that we, as children, are dependent upon others to do most everything for us. Then hopefully, as we grow we become independent and do for ourselves. But, to truly reach the pinnacles of success we need to learn to become interdependent and learn to grow as a team. Intellectually, I understood this, but emotionally I found it very hard to let go of control and truly share the load with others.

Have you ever read a book that changed your life? I hope you answered yes to that one. Several years ago I was fortunate enough to read "Cashflow Quadrant" by Robert Kiyoski. What I read opened my eyes to my own belief systems. I saw myself in a way I never had before.

The concept is that there are four different ways people earn money, and you will operate in the one that aligns with what you truly value in your business mindset.

What you truly value places you in one of these four quadrants.

Employee:

 It isn't money that is the driving force for employees, it is security. The security of a pay check. However, of the four quadrants the least secure is the employee. They do not own their job, are at the mercy of the employer, and could be terminated for any number of reasons, fair or unfair.

Self Employed:

 It isn't money that is the driving force for Self Employed, it is control. The Self Employed are by nature perfectionists, no one can do it as well as they. They are the ultimate control freaks. When they hire employees, they do not try to hire someone who would be capable of taking over and running the business. They fear that someone might take what they know, and go in business competing with them. Long hours await them there. Where the business owns them, rather than owning the business, is the norm.

Business Owner:

 It isn't money that is their driving force, though normally they make much more than either of our two on the left side of the quadrant. Their driving force is systems. What they are most interested in is creating systems that will run their businesses when they aren't there. When the Business Owner hires employees, he/she will try to hire someone who is smarter in an area. The Business Owner needs employees who can be trusted to do what they are hired to do, can run the systems they have been hired to run. This way, the Business Owner can step away and start up something else.

 There is a story of a town that needed water. The townspeople took bids on someone to bring water up over the big hill between the river and town. One guy took the bid to carry water in buckets, he started right away, hired several others to help carry buckets and immediately they had a business carrying water. His competitor seemed to disappear for a year as he got bids from engineers and construction firms to build a pipeline and aqueduct. He  allowed his competitor to carry water until he opened the pipe and started collecting his checks. The one who had been carrying it had to find another job. That is the difference between self-employed and business owner. The self employed water carrier laughed at his competitor for losing out on all the business and money, until the business owner's system took all the business away.

Investor:

Investors make money with money. They do not have to work, because their money is working for them. The "I" quadrant is the playground of the rich. Regardless of which quadrant people make their money, if they hope someday to be rich, they ultimately must come to the "I" quadrant. It is there that money becomes converted to wealth.

 When I read this book I finally understood what made me tick. I was a passionate Self  Employed person, the product of several generations of Self Employed people. So relinquishing control is why I could never actually become "Interdependent." I was always grabbing things back from those I was trying to train, because I knew I could do it better and quicker myself.  Does that sound familiar to you? Fortunately, after reading this book, I took a position managing 15 different new home sales representatives in 20 communities over 7 counties. It quickly became clear that I couldn't be in every location at every minute. I had to force myself to learn to develop systems, train my people on the systems, and empower them to succeed. It was painful at first, but it truly works.

 Are you, as a REALTOR or other commissioned sales person, trying to do it all? Or are you becoming Interdependent and using a team of some sort to make you better?

I was speaking with an agent with another firm over lunch the other day. She told me what she had planned to do over the next couple of days. She had to go to a sign company to design and order signs, she needed to pick up those signs and place several of them at a large commercial property, along with several other projects. None of the items on her “to-do” were face-to-face with a client. She estimated these tasks would take her around 12 hours to complete. Even if you consider her productive time at a very low value of $500/hour, that is $6,000 in time lost. How much is your time worth to you?

 How can you as an Agent operate as a Business Owner and not be consumed as a Self Employed?

 What we offer our agents are systems. Our agent can take advantage of any that fit their business model and ignore those that don't. 

At RE/MAX Ability Plus we realize that we work FOR our agents. This mindset allows our agents to focus their time on productive activities and provide services to better their business.

Systems they take advantage of:

1. A full-time marketing department to assist with all their marketing needs.

2. A wide array of automated systems that will send clients follow up cards, emails, gifts, etc.

3. An in-house courier that will deliver anything (earnest money, for example), whenever, wherever they need it delivered. 

4. A completely integrated paperless system, so that they don’t have to run around to chase paperwork or signatures.

5. A showing agent program. They can hire an experienced agent to show properties for them, go to a closing, do an open house, etc. for only $40/hour.

6. A fully mobile Intranet platform to give them full access to everything at their fingertips.

 Dozens and dozens of systems well beyond these, creating a smorgasbord of opportunities for agents to move away from the time-controlling and income-restricting Self Employed quadrant and into the life changing Business Owner quadrant.

What quadrant are you? If not the Business Owner, how do you plan to make that jump?

More time, more money await. Start making a life instead of simply making a living.