The Necessity of Changing Your Lifestyle
If you are serious about starting or buying your own business and becoming an independent provider, the very first thing to do to get off the treadmill is to change your lifestyle. Anytime God calls us to obedience, it is almost always accompanied by a drastic change in direction and in this case it is no different. If you have the typical lifestyle of credit card payments, car payments and a house payment, it will be nearly impossible for you to start/buy a business and get it ramped up to the same level of income you need in short order.
The question we should ask ourselves at this stage is not "how do I replace my current income with my own business?", but rather, "how do I reduce my expenses (lifestyle) so I can gain the independence to take the enormous risks necessary -- and to have the time necessary -- to make a go of it with my own business?".
Ramping up your business will take years and the landscape is littered with landmines, especially for the uninitiated. Issues of cash flow, working capital, liability, insurance, taxes, accounting, human resources, sales, etc. are indeed daunting for someone who has not had general management experience. You will need all the runway you can get. Having that big house payment hanging over your head is like the proverbial sword of Damocles that will continue to snuff out your joy.
As you prayerfully consider stepping out onto this path, first seek God's blessing and direction, and then, if you are married, seek your wife's commitment to the process. If both are a green light, you are ready to take action to reduce expenses, which usually means: cut up those credit cards, pay off those loans, downsize your home, stop eating out and in general, cut your budget to the bone. It's the austerity plan, but not just for austerity sake. It's a plan the whole family can get behind, because of the vision you lay out of gaining your independence.
- April 21, 2007
- Introduction to Entrepreneurship
David Craig September 15, 2007
One lesson that I have been learning about entrepreneurship is that, in addition to changing lifestyle, it is also important to change thinking patterns.
One entrepreneur that I read about, had a young man that he was mentoring, working in his shop. The entrepreneur choose not to financially compensate his intern because he did not want to nurture a mentality that only focused on the job and the money that was generated by working it. Instead, he wanted to force the young man to engage his mind in looking for needs and independently coming up with creative ways of meeting them.
As of yet, I have not taken the step of telling my employer that I no longer want a paycheck, but I have begun to study and learn about how successful business men think, realizing that this is an integral part of entrepreneurship.
Andrew Zwart February 1, 2008
As Robert Kiyosaki discusses in his book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, it is good to have a creative mentality, work to learn and let your money work for you, as opposed to focusing on working for money.
However, there is still a place for earning a wage, as the worker is worth his wages and we do not muzzle and ox while it is treading out the grain. The paycheck may be a good source of capital that can be put to work.
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