Positioning your business to be self-sufficient

Whether you're a sole practitioner or a very small employer, many home business owners are personally involved in almost all aspects of their business, and find that almost every spare minute is spent thinking about work, even on vacations or while doing errands.

Here's a challenge to all of you home business owners: Take a moment to stop and evaluate your business to determine if you could possibly sell it. Does your business have value to others without you physically being there to work every day? If not, adding that extra value to make your company more sellable in the future is a wise business decision.

This is especially true if you sell your services exclusively by the hour or by the project -- if you're not working, you're not making any money. Some of us can't take two weeks off for a vacation, because nothing happens when we're not there. Wouldn't it be great if this weren't such a concern? Planning for the long term, what if you were to get sick or decide to retire? Your ability to sell what you've worked so hard to create is an important facet of growing your small business.

My challenge to you is to brainstorm ways you can earn money without being physically involved in every transaction. Here are some ideas that can bring in money while you're on the beach in Hawaii:

--Turn the service you already provide into a product. For example, if you are a masseuse, you could write a book or pamphlet teaching couples how to massage each other, or put together a promotion on massage techniques for the office place. Transform your expertise into something tangible, such as a videotape or book, that you can market online or sell in retail outlets.

--Sell audiotapes of seminars you conduct. This can be an item you add to your online portfolio, or you can sell these in a package with other products you develop. Either way, they are a way to add income to your revenue stream without you having to put time into selling each and every one.

--Make an outline of the steps you go through with clients when starting a project and market it as such. This may be in the form of a booklet or pamphlet, or even a book. Many prospects may not have the money to purchase your services outright. Others may simply not have confidence in you to spend a high dollar amount. Selling what you do in smaller pieces can be a great way for prospects to try you out, gain trust in you, and then work their way up to higher priced, more complicated services you work on individually with them. It's also a smart way to add revenue to your bottom line, without straying far from your core business.

--Build your client list/marketing database. This is valuable if you are in a niche market. If you have successfully targeted a particular market, a company may buy your company simply to break into that market. It's often easier to buy a successful company that already exists than to build one from scratch.

--Position your business to be sold to a large company. Does it fix a problem or fill a whole in their services? Often it's easier and faster for big companies to buy the technology outright than to hire the experts needed to re-create the wheel. The key is to specialize in an area others don't, find something tangible to sell, and then offer to sell it.

The object of this exercise is to get you to evaluate the very basics of how you do business. Look towards the future. While you may be enjoying the work you're doing currently, that may change. And wouldn't you like a well-deserved -- and paid -- break from time to time know and you're still making money? Prepare yourself and your business by ensuring it can survive independently of you.