Want To Become a Business Owner?

Eight out of ten hairdressing salons in the US go out of business within 18 months.

Why do you suppose that is?

Well there are many specific reasons, but they all result from one basic fact: the owner is probably excellent at their chosen skill, being a hairdresser, but is lacking when it comes to running their own business.

But, what does this have to do with our industry you might ask?

Well, it is not only hairdressers who fall into this trap. Many other competent professionals do, and that undoubtedly includes some in our industry. If you are trying to make the transition from employee bookkeeper to business owner, there are three major differences you need to focus on.

Mindset

Although the most difficult to describe, the mindset shift may be the most important change you have to make if your bookkeeping business is to be successful. When you are an employee, for the most part all you need to care about is doing your job well. All the other aspects of the business are someone else’s concern. In fact, as an employee you are probably not even aware of everything else that must be taken care of in the business.

When you are running your own bookkeeping practice, though, it’s all your business — the overheads, the staff, the processes, the physical assets, everything. You are responsible for everything that happens in the business, good or bad. The buck stops with you and as a result you will stand or fall by your own decisions.

If that thought scares you, just think back to the times you were frustrated in your old job because you couldn’t get your great idea accepted, or it took so long for things to drag through levels of decision making. That’s all gone now — now, you make your own decisions and live with the consequences!

The other side of this responsibility, of course, is the reward. As you grow in your business, you’ll learn to make the right choices more often, and the benefits of those decisions are also all yours.

Education

Even as an employee, you couldn’t rely on just the knowledge you had when you first became a bookkeeper — not if you wanted to keep your job! Even then, you had to keep up with the changes in technology that helped you do your job more efficiently and effectively.

But education becomes an even bigger factor in your business success. Keeping up with changes in the bookkeeping profession, as well as the ever-changing world of technology and business itself, requires you to become a lifelong learner. Just when you think you have it nailed, something else comes along that changes everything — yet again.

It would be very easy to spend your every waking hour looking for educational information and materials on the Internet. It’s all there, but gathering what you need is challenging and time-consuming, to say the least.

Perseverance (sometimes known as stubbornness)

Remember all those hairdressers who went out of business in 18 months? How many of those do you think might have succeeded if they had just hung in a bit longer? What difference might it have made if they had only shifted their mindset to that of salon owner? How about if they had invested their time and money in educating themselves about business?

We don’t want you to make their mistake. In future posts on this blog, we’ll be looking more closely at specific business challenges and methods of running and growing your business. We urge you to persevere, and we’ll be right there with you, marching along towards your business success!

And remember – Always Be Learning!

This blog is for you and we hope you will enjoy the content.

We will be providing you with more information to help you Learn, Build and Manage your Practice in future posts, so stay tuned.

Please let us know if there are any specific topics you would like us to address in the future.

Image – Copyright: bolina / 123RF Stock Photo