If you are a small business owner who can't keep up with your business and hasn't taken a vacation in three years, this article is for you. Stop and read this information, so that your business stops owning you!
If there is a book that I would "blindly" recommend to anyone starting or already running an Internet business, it would be "The E-Myth Revisited" by Michael Gerber.
The myth of the entrepreneur
The word "E-Myth" refers to the myth that surrounds every startup. It is brilliantly exposed in this classic of business literature, which in my opinion, is mandatory for every small businessman.
Michael Gerber argues that most small businesses fail because they are built by technically gifted people who do not have an entrepreneurial vision for their business.
The story is typical:
A person with outstanding skills in some area works as an employee in a company. After a certain period, the employee gets tired of working for someone else and decides to go free to be his own boss.
You quit your job assuming you're up to it, as you have mastered the technical side of the business so well.
Until you realize that, as a freelancer, you not only have to worry about running the technical side of your business, but also taking orders, doing all the business paperwork, developing new products, advertising, customer support, etc.
Suddenly, seeing that he works 16 hours a day, without holidays or weekends, the great dream of independence collapses and his new job turns into a nightmare.
The nightmare of self employment on the Internet
In the field of Internet business, it is even more common, since an Internet business is relatively easy to set up. That is why the temptation to "test if it works" without prior preparation is much greater.
The root problem is that people do not understand that preparation in some technical area is different from preparation for a business. They also ignore that the traditional education they have received has not prepared them to run their own business but to be an employee in someone else's business.
The solution to this problem, according to Michael Gerber, is the implementation of systems that work without depending on the intervention of the business owner.
The three stages of business growth
According to this criterion, Gerber distinguishes three stages of a business:
1. Infant stage:
During this stage the entrepreneur is the business. You have to fulfill the role of entrepreneur and visionary, manager and worker at the same time. Like an infant, at this stage the business is not very stable and the risk of failure is quite high.
2. Adolescent stage:
If the business manages to survive the previous stage, it will pass into adolescence. The employer decides to seek help, because he can no longer cope with all the work. During this stage the entrepreneur seeks to form a team and learns to transfer certain responsibilities into the hands of others.
3. Maturity:
There is a good team trained and systems have been implemented that work without direct intervention from the owner.
During these 3 stages, the business owner learns to work IN his business instead of working FOR it.
How to Avoid the Entrepreneur Myth Trap in Your Internet Business
In the case of an Internet business, here are certain functions that you can learn to delegate so that you do not get caught in the trap of the entrepreneurial myth:
1. Instead of building your own website, hire a webmaster
2. Instead of keeping your business accounting, hire the services of an accountant
3. Instead of writing your own sales letters, hire a writer who specializes in this. This service is probably the most expensive, but it is also the one that will pay you the most when it comes to sales.
4. All those occupations that constantly rob you of time: Organizing dates, answering emails, sending articles, uploading messages, coordinating coaching hours, administrative functions in general, can be done by a virtual assistant.
5. Create the products. Although you are the person who will design your products, you can hire help to transform them into different formats. For example, if you are an exhibitor and speak in public regularly, you can record your presentations and hire people to convert it into writing (transcriptionists) and edit it (editors).
If you learn to delegate these functions, you can dedicate yourself fully to the sale of your products and new projects, the fundamental pillars of a thriving business. You can even apply the same model and start another business.
You can also sell your business, turnkey, to do something different!
The great advantage of Internet business is that you do not have to hire these people full time. They will not work for you as your employees, but as independent contractors who will sell their services to you in exchange for a set fee that is normally calculated based on hours worked.
In this way it is very easy to stay within any budget, especially in the beginning of your business on the Internet, when you still do not receive great income.
