To be or not to be an independent entrepreneur – that is the question?
To be really effective as an entrepreneur – you need the will and drive to have many real customers and products to drive and diversify your business revenue and income..When you first begin your entrepreneurial career-whether as a business owner, distributor, inventor, writer, photographer, web designer, graphic artist or whatever challenges, motivates and inspires your personal interest -you have to face the ultimate challenge of getting clients or users of your products and services. This is your ultimate and primary golden hurdle!
So you scour all the Internet articles and marketing books, and you prudently and diligently do your home work, talk with others who have gone before you, to see if they have a secret to make your dream opportunity and desire for financial independence a successful reality. You build up your knowledge, resources and the courage to take the “less safety and security” risk jump.
Then, one day, you take the leap. You begin to market your entrepreneurial business. You soon come to realize that if you don't aggressively market your products and services, you are going to get nowhere fast. That's not why you became a driven self directed independent entrepreneur or is it? You became a entrepreneur because you wanted to call your own shots, make a difference and you believed that you could make more money working for yourself than for someone else-right!
If you are diligent, focused and determined, your marketing efforts will soon begin to pay off. You land a couple of clients. One of them, in fact, may be a big one. It's a well respected, credible large company with lots of work for you to do and plenty of money to give you in return for your effort and performance. Excellent and bravo, you’ve cleared a major hurdle, you've managed to impress and wow them .Your new clients have given you the .opportunity to strut and show case your talent, energy and capability.
Welcome to the gravy train! Welcome to the world of the chosen- those who get paid for their creative effort and talent at some else’s expense.
Can this pleasant dream turn into a nightmare? What are the pitfalls, and other considerations that you should consider and be aware of? Is it just too good to be true?
A pragmatic reality check
Too many entrepreneurs make the mistake of allowing a large percentage of their income to come from one source. If one client supplies more than 20 percent of your revenue on a consistent basis, you need to find more clients and other sources of revenue...as soon as possible. Client diversification is a prudent and survival must!
Everyone knows people who worked full-time and then decided to do entrepreneurial work as an independent consultant, almost exclusively, for their former employer. This is a simple mistake. Don't let familiarity doom your bottom line. Always be on the lookout for new clients or “opportunities”. The more golden eggs in your diversified talent portfolio or nest, the better and stronger you truly are.
It is reasonable in the very beginning of your entrepreneurial career, to have only one or two clients to start, so they will, naturally, contribute a large percentage of your income.. Drive yourself to get more clients. Set a realistic target –after about six months, you really need to have multiple clients and many baskets full of all those golden eggs. Client diversification is a prudent, important common survival sense that you must instinctively follow.
Complacency, the lack of discipline and your negative time wasting self indulgences are all critical and common business mistakes of Independent entrepreneurs. These mistakes often turn self-employment into an excuse for self-indulgence, procrastination and ineffectiveness. Remember your time is your money and real sweat capital-spend it wisely to succeed.. Having one big, lucrative, timeless client is a surefire way to fall into the trap of self-indulgent complacency. Self-indulgence leads to all kinds of excuses for not working or working effectively. The sad reality and fact is -that when you're a non-working independent entrepreneur, you are destined to be a broke independent entrepreneur.
While it is okay - and quite rewarding - to have a big, lucrative client, don't let that client dominate your time or make you financially dependent on him or her for your livelihood. Be disciplined enough, self-motivated enough to always diversify your client and business customer base. The alternative is to remember your past before the entrepreneurial plunge- motivate yourself to get new clients, or quit being a self employed entrepreneur. Do you really want to go back to a dismal or less appealing work environment in that restrictive company box or cubicle with its many restrictions, constant pressure, few if any fast track chances, a reduced and different destiny, with little prospect for advancing in your field of endeavor, lower freedom to make your difference or mark in the world and no chance to make more money-no matter how hard you work.
About the author
Siegfried Holle, BS, M.B.A , is a seasoned business consultant and entrepreneur , who gives enterprising people the confidence, support knowledge and action plans they need to start, run and grow their own lucrative independent entrepreneurial businesses - much sooner and more easily than they could by themselves. For information, resources, more business survival tip articles and a complimentary new business recommendation, contact the author at
siegholle@gmail.com or visit his
latest opportunity siteA professional business leader registered in the National Registers Who's Who in the executives and professionals' classification, Holle holds an M.B.A. in marketing and logistics from Indiana University and a B.S. in business with honors. He is a serial business and social entrepreneur, with extensive experience in real life client challenges,
