Creating A Job?

Are you building a business or creating a job?

Recently I went to a Quiznos Sandwich shop near me for a quick lunch. Interestingly the owner was operating the cash register while he had four other employees putting the sandwiches together. Whose business was he building? I’ve seen him do this for the last two years, he probably started this way and will continue to work his Job. (He’s building Quiznos’ business.) Simple facts from Quiznos:

What is the initial investment?
On average our stores range between $190,000 and $250,000 nationally.

And other sources report that first year income is around $30,000 – $40,000. How long would it take to just break even??

Was that the best use of his money? Did he own his business or did he own his job? Interesting! So how do build a business instead of creating a job? You need to put processes in place in order to allow others to do that job for you.

Let’s assume you make $100 per hour as a business owner. You can hire someone for $10-15 an hour to do tasks to keep the business running like operating the cash register, cleaning tables, food prep, etc. This will allow you to focus on the higher paying thought processes of your business. OR if you have enough people running your business- relax, vacation, spend the time with your kids.

So what are business processes? As an example, you want to get an article written to promote your product, service or business. Let’s break the tasks up into simple steps.

  1. Come up with a topic
  2. Find the top keywords to include in the article
  3. Make an outline of the article
  4. Write the article
  5. Create a resource box (who you are and how to get more information)
  6. Submit the article to article directories
  7. And more steps if wanted…

You would want to make the process a little more detailed than that, but this is a good starting point. When finished you can give the procedure to your employees, interns or outsourced help. Then all they need is the general topic or direction to make articles about. A great idea would be to create a list of 20-50 article ideas. This would allow them to remain productive, even while you are on vacation or otherwise unavailable.

What else can you set business processes up for besides article writing? Getting friends for your MySpace account, social bookmark linking, commenting on other blogs and other tasks that will allow you to focus on the big picture.

Using the 80/20 rule, you should focus on the tasks that will bring you the highest return for your efforts. Then you can re-invest a portion of your income to continue to grow your business, including more outsourced tasks. This compounding of success and efficiency continues to build your business just like compound interest of money. Further growth could allow for a manager to take your place by having them looking over the day to day tasks and it would free up more of your time.

How else could this be used? If you have a website that has loads of traffic and profits, but you see that about to change. You could sell the website off and include the business processes along with the sale. These business processes will increase the value of the sale and show that there is real value in the transaction.

Do you want to create a job or build a business? I choose to build a business.

Build a Business,
Sam Carrara

About Sam

I try to enjoy life and impart tidbits of wisdom with other people. This picture of me was taken on top of a ski slope in Aspen, Colorado after a wedding for my sister-in-law.
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3 Responses to Creating A Job?

  1. Justin says:

    I am planning to build a business after reading this post. I think building a business is easy if the things are proper.The instructions given by Carrara is really helpful to me

  2. jenny says:

    This is very true a lot of business owners spend to much time working on their business instead of running it. The tips given on this articles it very true and very useful. Thanks

  3. jenny centeno says:

    This is the best advice ever given. Let’s not waste time let’s start making money.

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