One of the points that many entrepreneurs get confused about is whether they're running a business, or if they're just self-employed. I'm not talking about what's in the IRS code here, but the actual realities of running a small business.

The first question you should ask if you want to determine if what you have is a business is whether you could take a year off and come back and you're business is still functioning. This is an important goal to set, if you're not already there. Your business should be able to keep itself running without you being present.

Another measure is how much you could get if you were to sell your business. If nobody would be interested in buying, then what does that tell you? Talk to a business broker about it. You don't have to sell, but you might find it interesting what you'd learn in talking to one.

Another mark of a successful business is when you're able to hire people to work for you and maintain an acceptible profit-margin. When you get to the point where you value your time more than you can pay someone else to do the job for you, you know you're on the right track. I've never heard of a successful business that didn't have at least one employee, most have more.

Do you run a business?



PS: MLM can never be a business, unless you're the one who founded it.

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Peter T Davis
Frixer, Inc.
Helping people make profitible businesses on the web.

Semantics aside, this is a great post about business milestones and the kinds of goals that some business owners often don't take time to think about.

Paying others to run your business frees yourself up to start new ventures, although this isn't really practical or possible in the early stages of many businesses.

A fictional character, Lazurus Long, I think once said he didn't consider himself a success in his job until he was able to make that job obsolete.

I am self employed and definitely not a management type of person. I am more of an independent craftsman. I my line of work, the quality of workmanship is definitely a part of the person doing the work. It is very difficult to find highly qualified people to do the work in a timely manner and sufficient quality to satisfy customers. This makes expansion difficult, but not impossible. For me though, I prefer not having to deal with a lot of people.