My Epiphany about being Self Employed

For the past two weeks, I've been taking the pre-licensing courses for becoming a real estate agent. Not surprisingly, the instructors emphasized early on that real estate is a sales job, requiring 85% of the effort being spent on finding and cultivating leads. OK, no big revelation about being a real estate agent.

However, as the course continued, I realized their point also applied to any person that was self employed. Being a successful business owner is 85% about acquiring customer leads for the business. That's why marketing, networking, customer development and closing the sale are important for those that are self employed. Of course, the other 15% of the effort on excellent products and great customer service is important also, but primarily for keeping customers.

Prior to taking the real estate course, I would have done exactly the reverse, 85% of my time on product and customer service, and 15% of my effort on sales. So much for my dream job of doing outstanding work with excellent customer service and having prospective clients beat a path to my door:-) Now, I realize the need to spend the majority of effort on sales if I want to be successful in running my own business.

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Photo Credit: morgueFile.com, sebastiano

This is not financial, self employment or business advice. Please consult a professional advisor.
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