Everyone likes to dream big. But, not everyone is brave enough to actually follow their dreams. The dream of being a successful entrepreneur online is the one which implies a lot of effort, hard work, wanting to give up and getting back on track. The success is rooted in the desire for being independent and pulling your own strings. However, not every entrepreneur manages to fulfill the dream.
It often happens that entrepreneurs become the slaves of their own businesses. They feel the need to constantly monitor every single segment of the business online and be the responsible person for anything that’s going on behind the curtain. This is highly stressful, inefficient and in essence, unnecessary. Becoming a self-sufficient entrepreneur online is what the big dream is all about.
Let’s break the self-sufficiency in online entrepreneurship down and see what’s it all about.
Separating You from Your Business
What does self-sufficiency as an entrepreneur imply? There’s only one way to explain this: when you achieve the desired level of self-sufficiency it means you can decide to stop working or not to show up for work for a week and your business will still be up and running. Self-sufficiency is about:
- separating yourself from the business
- not being the only link in the chain
- detaching your presence and activity in the business from its proper functioning
But, how can you achieve this? What are the steps toward becoming self-sufficient as an entrepreneur online?
Let’s find out together.
The Foundation
You are the number one building block of your business, we’re not denying that. This means that everything starts with you:
- your idea
- your vision
- your principles
- your goals
At the very beginning, you’ll be working around the clock to develop and shape all the above-enlisted notions and have a clear picture of what your business is about. This vision of yours will be passed on to anyone working with or for you and is absolutely crucial as a step toward self-sufficiency. Once you have all of that wrapped around your mind, you are officially ready to take the next step.
The Team
In order to make a smoothly running machinery that is your business, you need to surround yourself with the right kind of people. Building a strong, independent and trustworthy team is the best thing you can invest in. Also, it’s inevitable when you’re striving for self-sufficiency. What are the steps in building a team which will become your gateway to self-sufficiency? Take a look:
- Recruiting
Hiring the right kind of people can be tricky, but it doesn’t have to be hard. Look for people who:
- understand your vision
- share your passion
- have the basic knowledge and the eagerness to learn
- Training
Invest your time, money and energy in training your team members to become the best possible versions of themselves. Ensure they have the proper:
- guidance
- mentoring
- tools and equipment
- individual projects
- opportunities to develop
By investing in this, you’re bringing yourself one step closer to becoming a self-sufficient entrepreneur online.
- Trust
The final employee-related step is being able to trust the people in your team.
By trust we imply:
- being confident they can make the right calls
- allowing them to make decisions
- not checking every step they make
- trusting them with major projects and tasks
If you manage to build a strong team which is based on your own principles but is allowed to expand, improve and develop according to the latest occurrences, you can rest assured your self-sufficiency is just around the corner.
The System
The final step in your road to self-sufficiency is making sure you have established a system which is going to keep your business up and running no matter what happens. Before you decide to step back from actively running the business, you need to be certain you have achieved the following:
- quality service/product
Whatever it is that you offer your customers, it needs to be polished and perfected. In addition, there needs to be a tendency for future development and modernization, meaning your team needs to be working toward it.
- customers base
You need to have a steady and firm customer base which implies a steady money income. That will only make room for improvement and building more layers on top of the base.
- not a one-man show
If you do make a brilliant team of people, you’ll be able to cross to self-sufficiency and leave it up to them. However, you cannot allow that your business becomes a one-man show once again by making it dependent on your crucial employee or those in charge of your departments.
The system needs to function even if your number one employee quits and you need a week to find a substitute. Once you achieve that, you’ve achieved self-sufficiency.
Where Are You Now?
Does this mean you can pack your bags, move to a tropical island and forget all about your business? Of course not. You still need to be around but you’ll be able to focus on things you’ll enjoy such as:
- coming up with ideas for improvement
Being creative, innovative and keeping your product up-to-date is a great job.
- making new plans and strategies
Thinking about different ways of doing things or new strategies for better efficiency could be one of your new tasks.
- partnering up with the right people and other companies
You could focus on making partnerships and being more involved in your industry.
- exploring new markets
Identifying new spaces for your business is important and you can work on translating your website or reaching out to foreign markets. In case you need help with the translation, check out The Word Point. In addition, you’ll be around for when your project managers or team-leaders need you to read a report, give them your opinion or suggestion and discuss your business’s future.
Conclusion
Being a self-sufficient entrepreneur online doesn’t mean you don’t have to work a day in your life and you’ll be rich and prosperous. It actually means you don’t have to work as hard, you’ll be feeling much more relaxed and you’ll have the time to focus on the things you truly love about your entrepreneurship.
If you feel that this is what you want to achieve, start taking the right steps toward becoming self-sufficient. Make sure there’s a system of values, a vision and a shared passion between you and your team. Once you’ve got that covered, you can step back and let your business run without you pulling all the strings.
