Financial Pictogrigm, Money Matters, and that sort of stuff...

Dien wrote -

> Owing a small
> business------------------------------------
> 1,000 to 1

Yup. You got the "owing" part right! *g* I'm sure you meant "owning" but this brings up an important issue.

As small business "owners" we need to make sure we don't "owe" the business. I'm not talking about money although a small business can be just as much of a financial drain as any other debt.

I'm talking about "owing" our lives to the business. We have to do as Michael Gerber says and work *on* the business and not just *in* the business. Otherwise, we've traded one type of rat-race for another.

What do I mean by working *on* the business as opposed to working *in* the business? Let's say you write software. A client calls you to write a new software package. You spend 10 hours writing the application. That's 10 hours you spent working *in* the business. Now. You finish writing the application and the client has allowed you to keep the copyright. You decide to market the software. You spend 10 hours creating a web site to post the demo version of the software. That's working *on* the business. Basically, working *on* the business is anything you do that gets you closer to your goal of having your business run on autopilot. Working *in* the business is anything you do that can be classified as the "technical" components of producing the product or service whether it's wrtiting software, carving exquisite eggshells, whatever. (This was kind of a poor example because there are obviously technical components to creating the web site but the effort still goes to working *on* the business.)

Rick Smith, "The Net Guerrilla"