Comments on: Is Your Business Just a Job?

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 18:43:17 +0000

Thanks Jane. I’d like to read the blog post you are talking about if you can still find it

By: Jane

Jane — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:15:52 +0000

Great timing on this post. Just heard on another blog about the business vs. job. And loved hearing your point of view on the subject – you’re so right. Thanks.

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:23:35 +0000

@Mike
Interesting. I figured that he must have read that somewhere. So is the book worth reading?

@Andrea
The reader’s definition of a business seems way too stringent in that it completely leaves out all of the consultants and solopreneurs out there.

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:21:25 +0000

@Evan
Yep. My thoughts exactly. The only definition that matters is the one that you give yourself. I was kind of hoping that this reader would respond to some of the comments here but I guess he has chosen to remain quiet.

@Keith
I guess we share the same feelings. Passion is the key.

@Jared
Could have said it better myself. One of my last ventures started becoming a chore so I just closed up shop. I dreaded running it so much that it really did feel like a job.

@Jon
Good points. A business does have some amount of intrinsic value and in theory can be sold to the right buyer.

By: Andrea Hess|Empowered Soul

Andrea Hess|Empowered Soul — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 14:26:45 +0000

I’ve heard it said, too, that if you can’t step away from your business, you don’t own a business. You own a job.

I disagree. I love my work, and I decide how much of it I do, when I do it, and from what location (i.e. anywhere I choose to be). Doesn’t sound like any job I’ve ever had!!!

Great article.

Blessings,
Andrea

By: Mike King

Mike King — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:16:07 +0000

Steve, that reader must have just finished the “E-myth” by Gerber. He puts the business on a pedistal of J.O.B. unless you make it a franchisable, repeatable business without your being there. In lots of ways I do agree with this, but as you said, there are various stages of any business and so it must start with a higher dependency of the owner. I know my graphics business is not franchised, never will be, but I don’t answer to anyone and pick the work I do in my business very carefully. The choice in this is what makes it a business, not a job to me. Sounds like you feel the same!

By: Evan

Evan — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 03:33:20 +0000

Thanks Jon, I hadn’t thought of that. This does make them different.

By: Jon Kepler

Jon Kepler — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 03:27:07 +0000

People can be fired when they’re employees. With your business, it’s unlikely that your revenue will go to zero. Even if you temporarily LOSE money, your business still has intrinsic value. Jobs aren’t really comparable.

By: Jared O'Toole

Jared O'Toole — Sun, 31 May 2009 14:30:47 +0000

I think your business can become a job if you don’t love it anymore. Like you said a job is something your routine and obliged to do. But the point of starting a business is not necessarily to walk away and let it run or to make millions of dollars. Its to set up something that you love. It where you make the decisions have the control and simply feel at home.

Everybody has a different goal in life and a lot of people don’t want to be able to walk away form their business because they love to work everyday! A business is simply something you love, if you stop loving it then it becomes a job.

By: Keith Larrett

Keith Larrett — Sun, 31 May 2009 00:56:06 +0000

If you wake in the morning excited about what you are going to do that day then it is not a job. Not many working Americans feel that way. A lot of it is about the passion you feel for what you are doing.