"Most people with their own business are not entrepreneurs but 'technicians'. They create a job for themselves. And it becomes the worst job in the world, because they are working for a lunatic " - the words of Michael Gerber, author of the E-Myth.

You have heard phrases such as:
- "The business does not work – the person who owns it does".
- "Working for money, or money working for you".

When you live out this experience of working, working, working all hours of the day, getting home late and not being able to sleep, such words have a certain ring to them.

Apart from wanting a job for yourself, what was your motive for starting your business?

Maybe you went through the rationale, "I was working for an idiot – there was no one better than me at my work, so I will build my own business"; You get rid of the boss, and become your own boss, and you find yourself working for a lunatic!

You end up doing the things you know how to do AND the things you do not know how to do. The work is consuming: and the business runs your life.

Why did you, or will you, start a business?
Whatever the answer, it is a goal – it is where you want to be. You may even have a vision of what you want the business to become.

As with all goals it is important that it is measurable so you know when you have arrived – when to open the champagne!
And when you have arrived, what to do? What are you going to do now?
Sell the business – and do something else? Transfer it to the children?

In other words: "What is your exit strategy?"
When you get on a train you need to to know where you are going, and where you want to get off!

Are you planning to take the business public (to be quoted on the stock exchange): sell out when second-round financing is needed: or some other important moment in the evolution (which may not be economic, but may be managerial or organizational).

What will the business look like and what will it feel like when it has reached the point when you have accomplished your goal? Have a walk around it; meet the people; meet your customers; look at the plant, the warehouse, the offices; where do you do business; how do you do business and so on.
Visualizing the goal will pull you towards it.

How much do you want to sell the business for? What features must the business have to have that value?
What must the business be like so people will see it and want to buy it for the price you are asking?

"How to make the business work?" This is the question to be considered from the outset. Normally it is understood to mean – how do I make money from doing this business: but that is only half an answer.
To have a life that works, you need to have a business that works; otherwise we are working, working, working and that is probably not what we want out of life.
A business that works is one where you have gone beyond doing, doing, doing, busy, busy, busy. You are creating a system so that ultimately the business will run without you. This is creating freedom. A business that works!

Anyone saying this is idealistic – a business that runs without the owner. One test of whether your business works on its own is: "Can you can give the organization and know-how to someone and they can replicate the business so it functions". This has become a business in itself – franchising.

There is another viewpoint which says that we should have started out with a different question from "Why do you want to start a business?": that is "What do you want from your life?"

There are some great inspiring stories of men who have made a life's work out of an idea, or vision – Henry Ford to make automobiles for the masses: Bill Gates to create a software standard across the world - to name but two.

The ultimate business experience may be to start a business that fulfills your reason for being here – which probably is not working, working, working, busy, busy, busy! If you have your own business, or you want to start your own, then you probably have more than hours to sell – you have ideas with value. Go to the moon and beyond, but don't work for a lunatic!

Enjoy!