How Starting a Small Business can Provide Financial Freedom
When I get a chance to talk to my blog readers, subscribers or book buyers, I’m often asked why I am so passionate about the potential of starting a small business.
I’d guess if you boil it down to a very simple concept, it is all about freedom: financial freedom, yes; but more importantly, lifestyle freedom. Lifestyle freedom is:
1. the ability to go and do the things you want to do,
2. having the financial resources to do them;
3. and if you so desire, having an income stream that continues while you take time off.
Certainly, in the beginning of building up my various businesses, I stayed VERY busy. Economic freedom is NOT winning the lottery (the odds are certainly against you!), but it can be created by choosing the right business, and putting systems in place to make that business work for you.
Once you choose a business that you want to develop and grow, you’ll work at reaching a certain level of revenue being generated. The amount needed may vary, and you may choose to work your business either on a part-time or full-time basis until you reach the level of income needed. Most people have a goal in mind: it may be to pay off some bills, put kids through college, begin saving for retirement, etc.
But, once they’ve nailed down that income to where they began to experience some financial freedom, then the fun begins! You see, once you are not living hand to mouth, paycheck to paycheck; you begin to realize there’s a whole world of opportunity waiting for you. By choosing to grow your business you will begin to have more of an impact in the world around you. Usually, it is simply that you are providing your service to more and more customers and they are rewarding you with a higher level of income!
How people use that higher income to obtain lifestyle freedom is a matter of choice.
There are people in the lawn care business who work 9 or 10 months of the year, then close up shop and go on extended vacations.
There are people in the window cleaning business who work only three or four days a week and enjoy the long weekends. Others work only three weeks a month; financial freedom gives you those opportunities.
My wife and I made a point of scheduling our contract cleaning services on Tuesday through Friday evenings, and always enjoyed Saturday through Monday off, a three day weekend – every week!
I could go on and on with examples, but the point is this: lifestyle freedom doesn’t come from working a 40 hour workweek, waiting for a raise, or hoping for a promotion. I’ve developed a number of resources to help individuals consider starting a part-time or full-time business.
Many of these can be started with just a few dollars; you can literally bootstrap your business and grow as you generate income – no need to get a small business loan!
Think about it, check out the possibilities, the future is up to you!
