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Why Business Owners Work So Hard and Why They Shoudnt

Written by: Christine Sutherland

Article Overview: Most business owners are well aware of the fact that they can’t take a holiday, or in many cases even a day off sick. They are very aware that in fact they ARE their business, and without them, there is no business. And they are very aware that every other area of their life is missing out, including their partners and family.

Why Business Owners Work So Hard and Why They Shoudnt

Shocking figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that

* 65% of small business owners work more than 35 hours a week,

* Over 30% work from 51-75 hours per week, and

* 4.7% work more than 75 hours per week!

Most Business Owners Don’t Think They Have a Choice

Most business owners are well aware of the fact that they can’t take a holiday, or in many cases even a day off sick. They are very aware that in fact they ARE their business, and without them, there is no business. And they are very aware that every other area of their life is missing out, including their partners and family.

Jim Penman’s Story

Jim started out “in business” in 1982 with a second hand lawn mower and a trailer. Today he heads up an organisation that includes more than 2300 franchisees in three countries and which has become one of the largest home service franchises in the world.

While Jim chooses to have close contact with his franchisees every day, the truth is he no longer has to. Jim could walk away from that business any time he likes, with complete confidence that it will continue growing, and continue to increase in value should he choose to sell.

If Jim, a lawnmower man, could do that, anyone can! Let me explain exactly how ….

How Did He Do it?

The development of a lawnmowing run into a full-fledged business requires a series of steps that almost anyone can take:

1 Jim learned how to control the number of clients he acquired and also control his client retention rates. In other words, he became aware of the specific "recipe" for acquiring new clients and keeping them! He developed this into a fixed sequence of activities that could be used to plan and accurately predict income levels and cashflow.

2 Jim realised that in order to grow he had to replicate himself, and that to do that really well he needed excellent systems and procedures, with built-in quality feedback mechanisms.

These are the 2 steps: gaining total control over the earnings of the business, and putting in place systems to ensure truly accurate replication of your own role.

There is much more to business success than this, as you'll discover from other articles on the speedbusinessnetworking.com site, but these 2 steps are critical to solid and lasting business growth.

Wishing you the greatest success
Christine Sutherland


PS: Mark Walsh, president of VerticalNet, says that business people who avoid on-line strategies are “like dinosaurs that gather together to eat the last leaves."

Don’t be a dinosaur, take the plunge into on-line business communities and reap the benefit, not just today, but for your future!

Your Simple Steps to Easy Business Development

1 Download the free ebook “Speed Business Networking – the Manual” to understand a much more effective (and more fun) approach to utilising networking to get real results. Your business community is your key to success if only you know how to build it, not only for referrals, but for advocacy, strategic alliances, and generous sharing of expertise.

2 As well as attending your business community’s networking events (and of course we recommend you join Australia’s ORIGINAL Speed Business Networking group), and getting help to carry out your own schedule of informal networking for warm referrals, diarise at least one hour a week where you will LEARN and USE far easier, faster ways to take your business to that next level, enjoying more success than you ever dreamed possible, with far less stress than you have experienced up till now.

3 Free business development resources are available on www.betterbusiness.speedbusinessnetworking.com.

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