KickStart: Build a big(ger) company OR stay small (both business models work) but do NOT stay long-term ‘In-Between’!
Few things in life can bring more joy than creating your very own business. For me, my residential Critical Mass Business gave my employees better lives, Personal Freedom for my family and a very nice income too!👍👍
“Personal Freedom, Steve?” Absolutely! I remind my clients that ‘the freedom to live your life as you wish’ is the New Wealth!😎 And yes, the Home Services industry can provide you with unlimited ‘Life Options’ going forward IF you ‘do it right’! On the other hand…
‘Do it wrong’ (as many do) and the life of a small Home Services entrepreneur will quickly become ‘Hell on earth’!😲 The biggest mistake I see? Far too many Home Services professionals wind up…
Stuck on the ‘Road in-Between’!
“Say what, Steve?” Simply put, the agonizing ‘Road In-Between’(RIB) is where you are too big to enjoy the ‘simple life’ (supposedly) of an owner-operator. Even worse, these poor RIB folks are too small to hire mid-level managers to share their crushing load. In other words…
The ‘Road In-Between’ truly is the ‘worst of both worlds’! And yet I see so many small service business owner sort of ‘stalling out’ on the RIB! If you doubt me let’s chart out the typical business trajectory of a Residential Services entrepreneur.
#1- Dreaming about it. This may be the most enjoyable step of the Entrepreneurial Ladder. What’s not to love? Lot’s of warm and fuzzy day dreams and none of the nasty realities of business!
#2- Start up! Our newby scrapes together funding/ equipment, etc and goes for it! (Usually testing his or her skills in the forgiving homes🙄 of family and friends.)
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#3- The owner gets busy. Thanks to pricing their services way too cheaply, hard work, reliability and (most important) a sparkling personality things get busy, busy, busy! CONGRATULATIONS… sort of because they now hit…
#4- Exhaustion/ burn out. Well-meaning friends are worried so they say, “Buddy, you can’t keep up this pace! Hire some employees to take the load off of you!” Their advice sounds good so our hardworking business owner…
#5- Hires employee(s). WOO-HOO! Life will be good now! NOT!😡 Instead, this Home Services Pro’s daily routine becomes a living hell of unhappy clients, short-term (marginal) employees along with a dramatically higher overhead! YIKES! That’s right… this residential entrepreneur didn’t have a ‘Hiring Infrastructure’ to guide their recruiting efforts. So they…
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#6- Quickly downsize and go back on the truck… sadder but wiser.😥 But are these chastened business owners “wiser”? Seriously? Instead, through a fateful mix of inertia, ignorance and plain old stubbornness they wind up…
#7- STUCK on the ‘Road In-Between’. Yep, These RIB owner is too afraid, too tired and/or managerially clueless on how to build a Critical Mass Business(CMB) but too stubborn to ‘get small’ by going back on the truck. So very sad!
FYI: Both business models (either small owner-operated or a large, smoothly running CMB) can work well. (If they are built and managed correctly.) But the Road-In-Between is the prescription for disaster!
NOTE #2: To progress from owner-operator status into a CMB you will need to ‘grow through’ the RIB phase. (You’ll look back at this time and cringe!) But once again, please don’t spend your life on the excruciating Road In-Between!
Best wishes going forward!
Steve