Being an Online Entrepreneur Vs. A Traditional Business Owner
Let’s Look at…
Traditional Business with and without Bricks and Mortar including B2B
Before I start please understand I am not bagging Bricks and Mortar or Traditional Businesses, they are just not for me, and I will explain why.
Fact is I am basically lazy and I want more time for me…
and not have my time dictated by a client.
Now I do acknowledge that our society cannot perform effectively if we didn’t have traditional businesses.
We need the mechanics, plumbers, road workers, nurses, doctors, taxi drivers, train drivers, police officers, coffee shops & restaurant workers. You get the drift…
And all the businesses that rely on and are linked to those trades and professions.
Why be an Online Entrepreneur… rather than a Traditional Entrepreneur with or without the Bricks and Mortar?
- Prohibitive Start Up Costs and huge learning curve.
- Cost of Overheads to have and maintain business premises.
- There are typically fixed times that you need to be at work serving customers, which is normally a hell of a lot more than 40 hours a week (that’s what the full-time staff work here in Oz). If you’re in hospitality, then you’re probably working longer and when everyone is letting their hair down, enjoying themselves.
- How do you have time off
What happens to the business and profits?
Your Income normally Drops Off or Stops BUT Your Overheads Stay the Same or increases if you have staff paying leave loading!
Now that Sucks
- Do You Have Staff?
a/ Cost to have staff at work (superannuation, sick leave, insurance, etc.
b/ The cost to have staff NOT at work (sick leave, family emergencies, holidays, trying to get done what they would have done, if they were at work, etc.)
c/ They (staff) are mostly a pain in the Butt…
I know you are not a pain in the butt. However I know, because we have all done it… laid in bed and thought seriously, do I really have to get up and go to work!
And of course you and I did get up and rock into work. However many don’t care about the disruption their absentee causes others.
d/ STUFF UPS… (staff ups) by staff, on and on and on….
The official equation is, Staff = Headaches X Many - In a traditional business of any type.
To make more money…. what do you need to do?
– Work more hours?
– Open longer?
– Employ more staff?
Thus, having more headaches… - What happens if, just say, you’re a printer, and you usually charge $250 for 1,000 business cards. When Vista Print can do the same cards for $59.
Or maybe you’re the local fresh bread shop and a loaf of bread sold next door in the supermarket is more than half the cost of your loaf… How do you justify or compete with that situation?
And what about the stupid hours you need to put in from cooking to close. - How do you get more customers?
Advertise a lower price, get into a price war and cut your throat? - How soon after you buy the business, franchise, etc do you get to that break-even point, 2 years, 5 years? Or are you cash drained first, then, go under?
- What does your family and social life look like?
- What happens if you get sick, I mean really sick.
An example in 2009, I was in the hospital for 7 weeks the first time and then in and out of the hospital for 8 years and 5 major surgeries.
How would your business survive, what would the cash flow look like?
How would it operate, without you? - How hard and what cost is it to replace yourself if something happens like extended holidays, family dramas, an extended period of sickness or off because of an injury or accident?
- How do you stay up to date with new technology? Have you got support and extra help on call (more overheads)
- Is your market shrinking or business (income) at jeopardy due to automation and AI (Artificial Intelligence) example would be Taxi and Uber Drivers with Autonomous Cars summing soon. DVD Hire, Contact and Call Centre with Messenger Bots. If you have such a business what is the outlay to stay competitive?
- Say your own a Bricks and Mortar Business or Franchise. Who’s in control? Do you or can you own the property. If not you are venerable. Yes even if you have paid $2 Million for a Macca’s Franchise you can never buy the property. You’re just a tenant operating a business that is ultimately controlled by McDonalds Corp.
- What happens if you rely on vehicles or machinery?
What happens when they are being serviced or you have breakdowns? What’s the cost to business?
Or maybe you rely on contractors or deliveries and they rely on the vehicles and equipment? - Now the Sales Rep or Party Plan model – you are standing around at a shopping centre with sore feet. Or driving all over the countryside. Hoping and praying that you have a receptive audience.
How do you scale up sales? Stand on you feet longer or drive faster or discount more?
- Now Online B2B Businesses they usually have the flexibility of working hours.
However, there can be many issues including;
– Keeping up with technology
– Finding people to bounce ideas off, mentors. The issue is normally the people that know the answers, have the market edge and don’t want to share it.
– If you are selling a product or service. The same or similar is probably cheaper and that much less expensive that you just can’t compete on price alone. An example is I don’t work for 5 Bucks an hour. To do website design, however, thousands in other countries do!
– Support normally requires you to resolve an issue after hours and typically when one customer has a problem so do many others all at the same time.
– You still only have 168 hours in a week, some of which you need sleep…
– So even if you have templates set up. You can only do so many jobs in a time frame. Unless you can clone yourself and have your clone work while you are sleeping! Ha! Ha! Ha!
By using the information in our book – Get How to Pick the Best Online Business, we can help you with these issues to gain the most benefits for you and your family.
19. Or Do You Take Your Online B2B to the Next Level and have a large office, staff, etc. Your headaches (staff) and ongoing costs (overheads) multiply…. Big time…
Of course, if you need some help, that’s what we’ve here for. Just Private Message Us at our Facebook Messenger link.
Come on, you didn’t think we’d leave you hanging, did you?
Talk Soon,
Dave Cane