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Keys To Success: Four Step Plan To Move From Employee To Business Owner

Written by: Innocent Ibhaluobe

Article Overview: A lot of people start out as employees and hope that one day they would be able to gain financial success and control of their lives by owning there own business. But unfortunately, they never do. I'm sharing with you in this article success keys that will enable you to transcend from an employee to a successful business owner.

Keys To Success: Four Step Plan To Move From Employee To Business Owner

The second class of people in my title above, “Business owner” is where everyone ideally wants to be in, and there are strong reasons why this is so.

As an employee, your earnings are limited. You are only paid a fixed amount of money as salary at the end of the month, which you have traded with your time, skill and effort. This is why it’s difficult for employees to be rich - their source of income is just one-way too narrow, and predictive!

An employee is only paid when they have done their job, “no work, no pay”. This is certainly a big risk! If anything should happen to the employee, such that they are no longer able to work, or the company they are working for suddenly become insolvent, causing the salary to cease, as we are presently experiencing with the economic recession, which has caused a lot of people to lose their jobs, then the employee would find themselves in the cold.

Though that is the situation which people in paid employment fear the most, there is also the dehumanizing treatment that a lot of them get from their overbearing and demanding bosses at their work places, which wipes off their dignity and self confidence.

All of these make being an employee not the best chance of achieving financial success and fulfillment in life.

It is far better to be business owner and have total control over how you use your time and endowed creativity. And instead of relying on your own effort to make money, you are leveraging on the efforts of others (your employees) to set up a system that keeps on making you much more money.

However, it is not totally a bad idea to work for people sometime in your career, but that shouldn’t be your ultimate destination. You can actually use paid job as a stepping stone to reaching financial success, independence, and fulfillment of your life purpose.

Here is a step-by-step guide to successfully work your way up from an employee to a business owner.


Know What You Want

From the beginning, before taking up an employment, you must know exactly what you want to do in future. You need to have a plan for the future. This is key to your success. If you know exactly what you want to do with your life, say in five to ten years from now, then you will be able to make the right decisions and choices in line with your future goals.

People who never achieve financial success in life fail more because of the wrong choices they make, and they make wrong choices because they don’t really know what they want or who they want to be.

Successful people also make wrong decisions sometime, but because they know exactly what they want to achieve in life, they are able to quickly retrace themselves and get back on track to reaching their goals, while those who don’t know what they want keep on making the same mistake over and over again, and keep moving in cycle.

Having known what you want in life, then you are set for the next step.

Take Up Job In Line With Your Future Goal

I have been interacting with young people seeking job for sometime now, and when I ask them what job they would like to do, I usually get “any job” as the answer.

This is terrible! It is the surest way to fail big time in life. You must not do any job! Jobs may seem difficult to get now, but don’t ever be desperate to the point of doing any job just for the money.

The danger in this is that if you pick up a job that offers you nothing that could help you actualize your dream, other than the salary you get, you will never be able to realize your dream. This is a trap that has held a lot of people bond to poverty. Now how are you even sure the salary will keep coming for long?

I know of someone who got a job as a clerical officer with a cargo handling company soon after graduating from college. His salary was okay to enable him meet with the basic things of life and have one or two bottles of beer at the weekend.

Unfortunately, a couple of years later the job stopped. In desperation for another one so as to keep up his living style, he fell for a bakery job as a factory supervisor. He was on this for about five years before things started getting bad for the company – salaries were no longer paid as at when due, in fact, he was been owed several months salary.

Now he has a wife and a child to cater for, so the desperation to get another job fast is greater. Again, he is looking for “any job” just to get salary at the end of the month. He is unfortunately continuing the cycle that can never lead to success, but poverty and misery.

The majority of the world’s population is held to this vicious cycle of working for money at the expense of their future. You must know exactly what you want in life, and you must take up only the job that will take you closer to it.

Again, I emphasis, Don’t take up a job for the salary you will get from it, but because it will enable you to develop yourself to eventually become what you want to be.

If the desire of the fellow was to own a bakery in future, his mind would have been opened on the job to learn all there is to achieving success in the business. He would have known the keys to success in the bakery business to apply when the time comes for him to set up his. And instead of been stranded when the job was no longer paying, he would have known what to do to create one for himself in the industry.

By working not for the money, but for the opportunity to learn the industry, you will be putting yourself right on track for success. No matter what happens, you will never be left in the cold. Even if the job is taking away from you, no one can take away the expertise, and the contacts you have acquired, which you can make use of in a number of ways to make money.

In fact, on such jobs, you are been paid to acquire expertise, instead of you paying for it.

Develop Yourself On The Job

I have said a lot about taking up a job that offers you the opportunity to learn the industry you desire to later set up a business in thoroughly. Now we can move to the third step plan to transforming yourself from an employee to business owner: Developing yourself on the job.

To learn all there is about the industry, you will have to do the job as though you owned it. Yes, you read me right. Don’t shy away from responsibilities, but be available and be excited when you are asked to take up assignments, even if they don’t come with bonuses or gratifications.

Be genuinely concerned about the survival and growth of your company and suggest ways it can save or make more money. Work for longer hours if it is necessary, and go the extra mile to add more value to your company’s business.

Some of your colleagues may think you are trying to gain favor and may not like you, but don’t be bordered, you know what you are doing, you are preparing yourself for your own future business.

Going through this kind of on the job training, which takes you through all facets of the business and industry, exposing you to the keys to success, it is difficult to fail in it when you eventually start yours. A lot of start-up businesses fail because their founders don’t go through this kind of preparation before opening shop.

Start Your Business On Part Time

The fourth step in the plan to see you becoming a successful business owner from been an employee is to begin your business on part time.

As your knowledge of the business advances, you have to start putting in place the tools, machineries, and documentation that you will need to run yours. And without illegally using your employer’s time and resources, you should begin yours on part time, perhaps after you have closed from work. Note that your business doesn’t have to be a direct competitor to your employer’s; it can be a niche in the industry

Continue to build it by developing your products, acquiring your customers, and fine tuning your distribution strategy. Please do not poach your employer’s customers; it is illegal, immoral and unethical.

When your business starts making income steadily, then you can resign from the paid job to face it fully.

If you follow this Four Step Plan, there is no doubt you will be able to successfully realize your dream of owning a business – one that is sure to succeed!

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Article Tags: amount of money, bad idea, business owner, creativity, dignity, earnings, economic recession, fear, financial success, fulfillment, job, jobs, life purpose, risk, salary, self confidence, stepping stone



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