The reason why we do it

Ever thought about the reason why we do it? After all, when you’re self-employed you’ll often work longer hours for less money than if you had a job.

And that’s where your ‘reason’ (or reasons) comes into play. This is your key motivation to tolerate the long hours, the occasional lack of money, the stress of running a business.

This short video will help:

TRANSCRIPT

I’m going to be looking at something really fundamental to self-employment.

And that thing is “the reason why we do it.”

You see, on Saturday, we took our youngest daughter to a rugby match, the Leicester Tigers, who we support. On Sunday night, we took our oldest daughter to watch Iron Maiden. Fantastic gig, bit of a late night, but it was very good indeed. And then on Monday night, the missus and I went to Stratford, the Royal Shakespeare Company, to watch Anthony and Cleopatra.

Now, the reason I told you all of that is not necessarily to show off or say, look at how great we are and all the wonderful things that we do

It’s to illustrate that when you’re self employed, it does give you certain choices. And a lot of people in business who are successful have said that when you run a business or you’re self employed, your business should support the lifestyle that you want.

The reason why we do it. Make sure you understand your reasons for being self-employed.

But what I see amongst many people who are self employed is that they really don’t know what lifestyle they want. They just want to have some more money, they just want to be able to pay off some bills. And that’s brilliant. A lot of people are self employed just to make a living.

But ultimately, one of the great things about being in business is that it does enable you the flexibility to grow your business and grow your income to the point where it does afford you some choices.

But it always comes back to knowing what it is you want and why you’re doing it.

I’m self employed for a number of reasons, and one of them is so that we can go and do stuff as a family. Stuff that a lot of folks may not necessarily get to do or even want to do.

And that’s fine. We decided a while ago that we don’t want the huge house and the massive great status symbols, the £2,000 watch and stuff like that. That’s not for us. We want to go and do stuff.

So, what is it that you want from your self employment?

What do you want from your time as running yourself as a business?

And hopefully that will go on for some time and bring you a measure of success.

But what does it really look like for you? Have you set some target that you want to work towards and that could be a big house, it could be a Rolex watch. It could be a massive great Rolls Royce, that’s entirely up to you.

And that’s fine. But what I found is if you don’t understand the reason why you’re doing it, when times get tough, you start to waiver.

We all get through times when you’re self employed and sometimes you’d earn more if you have a job.

But ultimately we do things for a reason. Nothing ever happens without a reason.

And being self employed always has to come back to what’s your reason when things do get tough, it’s your reason why you’re doing it.

That could be time with family. That could be the financial freedom. That could be a big house. This reason why will sustain you.

So the key thing to understand when you’re self employed is the reason why you’re doing it.

Simply because when things do get difficult (and they will at some point), you’ll have a solid reason for not giving up. You won’t waver. You will continue on the track. If it’s something you’re lacking, you will learn it.

Your why will be the thing that sustains you going forward.

So my message is this:

Understand, know and embody the reason why you’re doing what you do. Without it, when things get tough, you’ll struggle.

It’d be great to hear your comments and get your feedback on this. Please please write below if you want to say something.

Want more inspiration? Check out:

How to focus on what you want and not what you don’t (article)

How an accountability group can help you and your business (YouTube video)

Prefer to listen on a podcast? Find the episode on Spotify here:

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