BusinessWeek

Is Working Out of the House The Same As Creating a Business?

BusinessWeek: "Ralph Blanchard

Nov 5, 2009 1:01 PM GMT
There is a big difference between working out of the house and creating a business. Most home workers are a one-man/woman band. If they get hit by a truck there is nothing left. They don't really have a business until they have something that can function smoothly when they are not around. When that happens, the value (as in future value when sold) of their business skyrockets and they begin the create some real wealth. There is nothing wrong with earning a living working from home but let's not confuse that with creating a true business."

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Very well stated. It's certainly not that these businesses are not important, they clearly are very important. It is merely that distinction of what value gets created in a company. As solo operators, home-based businesses generally don't build value above what the owner/operator may generate in income. There are exceptions of course. Still, it doesn't mean that some home-based entrepreneurs don't make fabulous income and enjoy an incredible quality of life.

M. Stacey

Keeping Things Simple When They Aren't Easy

In helping companies get unstuck and grow to their next logical level, I try to be persistently consistent with people.

Success is when what we communicate is simple, direct and crystal clear.

We will complicate it. It is our nature.

It should never start that way.

I often think of it in the way Michelangelo described his sculpture of David: the art was already in the stone.

It isn't what you add but what you take away.

It is important to stay in that thought as you begin the dialog that goes with improving any enterprise.

It is ESPECIALLY important when you start engaging prospects.

It is IMPERATIVE when they become clients.

They will fill in the blanks if we are quiet long enough to let them.

It is that simple.

It is rarely that easy.

It is always important.

The Paradigm Shift

When I was a young man working for the Federal Government, I worked shift work. Every six months or so, it was time for me to do my part and work from midnight to 7 a.m., the "graveyard shift," (you only had to work 7 hrs. because the work was supposedly more cruel and unusual overnight). I worked cleaning up and playing night watchman at the three buildings that comprised the Border Patrol Academy's administrative offices and classrooms. It was very different from the job I had when I worked the day shift. I had basically no supervision and was honor-bound to do my work and not sleep all the way through the night. I took it seriously. Oddly enough, it proved a powerful impetus for my thought processes about life, work, education and so forth. It gave me time and quiet to think about a lot of things that I might not have taken the time and energy to consider. It forced somewhat of a paradigm shift on my malleable psyche. And it was good for me. In that time, I decided to get a college education, commit to military service in the Marine Corps Reserve and basically devote my life to ideas of higher thought and service. That was a bit of an odd thing for those times and for someone my age in South Texas. It was, in retrospect, a paradigm shift. And that shift was basically forced upon me by the circumstances of my employment. It was a necessary and ultimately good thing.

It seems to me that incidences and circumstances of the past couple of years and 2008-2009 in particular, have hastened paradigm shifts in many areas: money, government, business, social responsibility, education, faith, war, disaster relief and so forth. The vast majority of these changes are good, and some even wonderful and wondrous. They may never have happened or would not have been expedited had it not been for the financial, political, climatic, economic, military and spiritual challenges and debacles we have experienced and continue to respond to. From the dark of night in the formative years of my youth to these uncertain and unsettling times from the perch of my mid-years, the changes at play are essential. Going forward, things will be different sure; likely to be better, more focused, more efficient, more appropriate, more caring and more to the point. It is likely to mean better government, better business and improved focus on the things that matter most to us as humans. Comparisons notwithstanding, I refuse to think of it as having been time spent on the "graveyard shift."

In The Beginning ...

It may be simple coincidence that I begin this dialogue in the middle of The Dog Days of Summer 2009 and in the midst of the worst economic environment this country and the world has experienced since The Great Depression. Or maybe not. Perhaps it is just as it should be. As in the beginning there was the Word. And words are much of what we have to declare that there is in the world and therefore what we as humans must manage. Or not manage. Or at least not manage well. Of course that may raise the question of opinion. What does "managing well" mean? Is that open to debate? Of course. We have free will and therefore opinions. On that we can all agree. As for the rest, alas it may well be that this is our most important contribution: the exchange of opinion, the hashing out of ideas and harnessing the energy of debate. That is what I tend to believe. It is not perfect. But little is.

What we must do in order to strive for some semblance of perfection is to align ourselves with the values of Truth, Honor, Integrity, Compassion, Unselfishness and thereafter temper our Words and indeed our works with Service, Courage and Self-Control. When we do, we ALL succeed. And when we say it, we become it. It is certain that we can all manage what we say. In that spirit we open this discussion. I say "we" because all of us have a stake in this. And the ideas and inspiration that will expand hereon are from the many great minds of the world: past, present and perhaps future. To that end, I encourage you to share. Share often and share loud. Good wine is not made without first smashing the grape.

As stated, this dialogue is intended to be a dynamic platform for bold thinking and active debate on the evolving nature of enterprise and modern business around the world. It is your World and your Business. Let's make them both better.