Small Business Today Magazine JUN 2014 MASTERWORD SERVICES INC | Page 27
EDITORIALFEATURE
Do You Sometimes Feel Like a
SLAVE to Your Business?
By Howard Partridge
D
o you remember why you went
into business for yourself? Was it to
make a lot of money? Or was it to
“be your own boss”... to “chart your
own course”...to have a little more “free”
time? Yeah right! The brutal reality of most
small business owners’ lives is that you feel
like a slave to the business.There’s very little family time; there’s major stress; there’s
no real freedom, the business consumes
your mind 24/7; and you feel like you have
a job rather than a business. Your day is
consumed “putting out brush fires”! Can
you relate to that? I sure can.
I’m originally from L.A. (Lower Alabama!).
I grew up on welfare in Mobile, Alabama
and there were 7 kids crammed in a little
600 square foot shack. The roof on that
house was so bad that every time it rained,
we had to get out all the pots and pans to
catch the leaks. My mama somehow fed
us on one hundred dollars a month she
received from the welfare department.
At eighteen, I became a rebellious teenager with hair down to my shoulders. I got
kicked out of the house and climbed on a
Greyhound Bus to Houston with 25 cents
in my pocket. After a few odd jobs, I became a professional waiter wearing a tuxedo and working in high end restaurants
where I did tableside cooking. During my
years as a waiter, I learned a great deal
about the customer service experience
but I always wanted to own my own business. I’ve always been an entrepreneur at
heart, but as a waiter, I made just enough
to pay the rent.
Then I got married to Denise who is an
Italian American from New Jersey. When
you marry into an Italian family, you don’t
get wedding presents like dishes, toast-
ers, and blenders. Instead, you get CASH!
We received $3,000 in wedding money
and there was a friend of the family at
the wedding who was my age (23 at the
time) tooling around in a little red Mercedes convertible. I said to myself, “I want
to know what THAT guy does and I want
to know if it’s LEGAL!”
It was at that point
I began studying
everything I could in
finding ways to unchain
myself from my business.
In doing so, the
knowledge I garnered
from small business guru
Michael Gerber, leadership
master John Maxwell,
and legendary sales
trainer Zig Ziglar provided
me with two big secrets
that changed my life
forever.
It turned out that he owned a carpet
cleaning business. So as soon as I got back
to Houston, I spent all of our wedding
money to start my first business working
out of the trunk of my car. My wife was
really thrilled about that, let me tell you!
Fast forward - After being in business for
13 years, I felt like a slave to it. Wherever
I went, I took my appointment book and
cell phone with me and whenever I traveled (something I love to do), most of my
vacation was spent talking to customers
and employees back home.
Two Secrets that Changed My Life Forever
It was at that point I began studying everything I could in finding ways to unchain
myself from my business. In doing so, the
knowledge I garnered from small business
guru Michael Gerber, leadership master
John Maxwell, and legendary sales trainer
Zig Ziglar provided me with two big secrets that changed my life forever.
The first secret I learned was that you
have to have systems in your business.
“You must work on the business, not just
in it”, says Michael Gerber, author of the
E-Myth books. So I set out to build systems in my business. As a result of those
systems, I have gone from working out of
the trunk of my car to living the “American
Dream” by transforming my business into
a predictable, profitable, and turnkey operation. This also set the platform for me to
begin helping other small business owners
improve their own businesses.
The Greatest Business Lesson that
I Have Ever Learned
Next month, I’ll share the second secret I
learned. I call it “the greatest business lesson that I have ever learned” and I suspect
it will be the greatest business lesson you
will ever learn, too. Most business owners
never learn it, but you can…You just have
to wait until next month to find out what
it is!
Howard Partridg K