by Ariell Xavier Arevalo
Did you know that you are already a business owner?
“But I am just an employee.”
“…Sales is not for me.”
“…I can’t be a business owner.”
“but I prefer to be an employee.”
These are statements I hear over and over again from people who say they can’t own their own business or start their own business. I always say this: there is nothing wrong about being an employee. What most people don’t realize is that they are already in business.
What is a business? A business offers solutions to problems for a profit. Restaurants solve people’s hunger for a profit. Apartment buildings solve people’s shelter problems for a profit. These are just a couple of examples of business. You may say, “But I am employee! I am not a business person!”, but the truth is, you are CEO of your own company [Your Name Here] Inc.
As an employee, you have one product, your time and expertise, that your customer (your boss/employer) purchases for your hourly wage/annual salary. Once you get your head wrapped around this concept, you will think of things a whole lot differently. Yes, you are already in sales, even if you say selling is not for you, because if you are employed, you are continuously selling your time to your employer, and especially in a tough economy, continuously proving that they still need your product (your time and expertise).
If you work for only one employer (read: customer), your business is running at a big risk. If your lone customer stops purchasing (read: fires you) your product (read: your time), then your business’s income suddenly stops. Would you agree that it is risky to open up a store with the intention of just having one big customer? When I explain this to people I personally mentor, it creates a paradigm shift in the way they think.
Growing your business’s profits
Would you like to increase your income? 99.9% of you reading will say “YES.” If so, continue reading. As an employee, there are 2 ways to increase your income: Working more hours, and accepting a higher paying role. When you work more hours, what it means is that you sell more of your time to your customer (your employer). There is nothing wrong with that, but just remember that we have 24 hours in a day, and not all of it could be used to work. When you accept a higher paying position, usually this is done at the employer’s discretion and/or availability of the higher paying positions. In a typical corporate structure, you won’t have the opportunity to be promoted every month.
How else could you increase your income? The only other logical solution is to increase the number of people/customers you serve. A lot of people (myself included) have worked a second or third job, meaning you sell your time and expertise to a second and maybe a third employer. There isn’t anything wrong with this approach, but we have to realize that most likely the only thing that will happen is that you will get tired from working long hours, and if you have a family, there will be adverse effects on your relationships with them if all the time is taken away from them.
Aside from working at another job, how else could you increase the number of your customers? Take this tip: Start a business (if you haven’t started already)! Even if it is from home. There are many business opportunities around that you could start part-time without quitting your job. By doing this, you are able to keep your existing employer (read: customer), while gaining more customers on the side! If you don’t know where to start, find an opportunity to sell a product/service you are passionate about. Don’t worry if the first opportunity doesn’t work out. 9 out of 10 businesses fail within the first year, so my advice is fail often, and fail fast… until you find that business that could eventually allow you to bring in an income greater than your job.
Once you have your business up and running, work on eventually replacing yourself so that your business could continue to run even without you present. That topic is for another article.
Much Love,
AX
Ariell Xavier Arevalo is happily married to his beautiful wife Lady Dyan Arevalo. Both Ariell & Dyan are semi-retired, meaning they work because they want to, and not because they have to. Both have been focusing their time on mentoring would-be business owners and investors, as well as serving as Senior Vice President of a growing Canadian financial services brokerage and having business interests in a local insurance brokerage. Ariell could be reached at a.x.arevalo@gmail.com.
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