Career

Building Our Own Personal Services Business

I haven’t read Steve Pavlina in a while because his posts used to stretch well beyond my blogreading attention span. However, if his latest work is any indicator, he’s no longer writing small tomes disguised as blogposts. So now he’s back in my Google Reader, which is good because I’ve always liked his perspective on learning and personal growth.

A few weeks ago, Steve reminded us that we are all truly self-employed. I was self-employed for a little while and I can say that being employed by a company is a far different proposition. The most notable differences are drawing regular paychecks and receiving benefits. The problem is that such stability can easily foster a sense of complacency and often undeserved submission to the company. All too often, we give up too much of what we are in order to hold tight to financial and professional stability.

Imagine a business saying to its biggest customer, “We’re going to drop all our other customers and serve only you.  Just tell us what you want done, and we’ll do it.  Pay us whatever you think is a fair price.  Invest in our growth however you see fit.  Tell us when we can go on vacation.  You command; we obey.”  While it wouldn’t be impossible to run a business this way, it would certainly be very risky and unstable compared to the alternatives.  Yet this is how many people choose to run their personal services businesses.  If I were an investor, I’d think twice about investing in such a business — I’d be more likely to invest in their competitors.

Instead, Steve asks us to try a different perspective. It calls up an entrepreneurial notion of professional independence. For those of us who may sometimes feel trapped, undervalued, underutilized, [fill in the blank] within our present organization, this perspective can be liberating. He calls this perspective our own personal services business and offers some reflective questions to help us understand the health of our business:

What investments are you making to improve your business?  Are you investing in training?  Morale improvements?  Productivity upgrades?

Are you charging a fair price for a quality product or service, or are you bilking your customers and hoping they won’t notice?

Are you doing a good job of marketing your business?  Do new potential customers seek you out, eager to do business with you?  Are you getting plenty of referrals and enjoying viral marketing?  Or does your business wallow in relative obscurity?

If your own personal services business has been languishing and suffering from a singular focus on one customer (think your present employer), ask what it might take to open your business to a wider customer base. It might just be the spark you need to reignite your professional fire.

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