Buying a job or a building a passive business?

Don't give up 9 to 5 so you can buy yourself a job!

I talk to soo many entrepreneurs who want to be in retail or service base industries, but the repeating pattern is they all talk about working in their business. Which is a bit alarming. There are millions of entrepreneurs who call themselves entrepreneurs but they merely work in their business as an employee. Their business cannot run without them. If they leave things fall apart and they cannot take long vacations or one day if they don't feel like working they cannot do that.

Lets talk about few real life examples of people I know. 

Example # 1: 

I talked to an accountant recently. He runs a successful accounting firm in western Canada doing over 3 million in annual sales. Although he makes healthy 15 to 20% bottomline, but he cannot take a vacation of more then 2 weeks. His business is dependent on him. His staff needs him there. In this case his systems and processes are not that good which can make sure he doesn't have to be there all the time. 


Example # 2:

This is a family friend of ours who owns 5 subway restaurants. Combined all 5 restaurants do over 2.5 mill in sales. But due to high labor and rent costs business only has a 5% bottomline. Also, he works in the business 60 hours a week. Sometimes he had to work 18 hours because they cannot get staff for breakfast and it was mandotory from the franchise. 

These 2 examples are classic examples of entrepreneurs making a decent living, but they are mere employees in their own business. Business predominately dictates their life. 

Example # 3:

This entrepreneur runs a bookkeeping firm doing just little over 500,000 in annual revenue. His business makes 20% bottomline and he doesn't work in his business. It consistently pays him 100,000 a year. He travels and also volunteers in Africa 3 to 4 months a year. 

This is an example of building a business rather then getting a job. First 2 examples, both the entrepreneurs were doing over 7 figuers in sales, but their business cannot run without them. 

Alot of people who can relate to example 1 and 2 ask themselves these questions: Am I satisfied with my work? Does it meet my needs and fulfill my desires?

Example 3 is where more fulfilling because your finances are taken care off and you can now focus on what you love doing. Which can be volunteering full time, taking time off to spend with kids or even travelling. At that time you are not working in your business you are working on it and at the same time pursing your passions.