Ewe.. Snot!

Julie my wife has been ill, really ill. It started with a violent chesty chough then a headache caused by heavy congestion and then sneezing fits, aching limbs and a sore throat for good measure. Its all really rather nasty. The doctor said that she had a chest infection and then a virus on top, just for that little something extra. But the surprise was that Julie, who thinks that ‘time off’ is a place in china, somewhere between Hong Kong and Shanghai, actually had to take 4 days off in a row. Which is unheard of. She loves work and I think that she is addicted to it which is a shame because there are far more fun and exiting things to be addicted too.

But to tell you the truth, I don’t care about Julie for this week, and I have no sympathy whatsoever. None. This is simply because I sneezed, one of my eyes went watery and I also coughed. This means I have man-flue and that is far worse than anything Julie could ever have. Man-flue is by far the worst affliction in the known world and I for one have lost many a good friend to it. This means all my sympathy has to be saved for me and I have none to share.

Did I have time off work? No I didn’t, I like to think that I can work my way through anything. I thought this was a brave and selfless act and that as a boss my staff would look at me for an example to follow when they are struck down with the terrible illness that is man-flue.

Can’t imagine Spartacus staying in bed with the sniffles the day he fights the roman armies, or William Wallace on the battle fields of bannock burn with his box of Kleanex and a Lemsip can you? no good leadership wouldn’t allow it.

But that was wasted, they didn’t care either. That is until this morning when 2 of my managers came in with sore throats and sneezing…

Which I guess means they caught the deadly virus from me. Opps. This actually got me thinking as to why I turned up to work in the first place. Did I really need to be here? Am I so important that the business cannot survive without me for a couple of days?

My ego would automatically shout that if I was not at work the walls would fall down, there would be a fire and all my customers would leave me because I wasn’t there to help them. But in reality, I know I could have time off.

This brings me to the reason for this post. The difference between being self employed and a business owner.

Business ownership is different from being self employed. Self employment is just that. You still have a job to do (the ‘employment’ bit), but you decide what job you will do and how and when to do it (the ‘self’ bit) but self employment is dangerous. Its dangerous because it relies on you to generate income. If you don’t work, you don’t get paid.

A business owner is a person who has set a chain of events into motion that will eventually lead to a constant supply of money. If he is ill one day, his money will still come in. if he decides to go on holiday, his money still comes in. If he has an accident, his money still comes in. this is because he works on his business not in his business.

The good news for us is that window cleaning is such an easy business to develop from self employment style owner operated format to a business owner format, in other words, others go out and work your vehicles for you. That leaves you time to build your business. you become a business owner and not self employed.

If you’ve not got yourself into the window cleaning industry yet, what on earth are you waiting for? a written invitation from the queen? If you are fortunate enough to be a Concept 2O™ owner, congratulations, you can be a business owner, whenever you choose.

Carl Phillips
Director
Clear View Plus Ltd