What’s the purpose of owning a business?

The answer might not be what you expect.

The purpose of owning a business is to add value to the world and create an asset that works for you.

It’s not to do everything yourself.

You know that.

It’s not to prove how smart, important, or hardworking you are.

You know that, too.

But when you own a business it feels deeply personal because you birthed it.

Routine business decisions feel like a matter of life and death.

It’s hard to think objectively when you believe your survival is at stake.

Yes, it’s your business, but its successes and failures are not directly connected to your worth as a person.

If you make it mean that, then how you feel about yourself will swing wildly depending on how your business is doing in the moment.

You will try to exert control. Over everyone and everything.

You’ll think you must double-check everyone’s work, personally handle all the sales, and make every decision.

This makes your business dependent on you.

Which means it can’t stand alone. It’s not an asset that someone else could run for you.

Without meaning to, many of us build ourselves a glorified job with a thousand-item task list.

Instead, we want to build a company that can run without us.

Because then we have options.

When you’re in the thick of it, it’s easy to lose sight of the difference.

Make the criteria for each decision whether it will increase the value of your business.

You become an investor and your business becomes an asset when you do these things:

1. Narrow your niche. You can’t be everything to everyone. Be unique and the best in your niche so that you never have to compete on price.

2. Productize your services. Convert services into solutions and market them like products. Stop trading time for money. Streamline and systematize.

3. Rethink your relationship with money and numbers. Focus on generating recurring revenue and creating positive cashflow by getting paid in advance.

4. Organize your business to maximize your personal freedom. You need space for your mind to create the future. Replace yourself, reduce dependencies, and hire a sales team.

Instead of working for your business, decide to make it work for you.