How to Escape the Self-Employment Cycle

Growing up, my parents were always around. My mom was a grade-school teacher and my dad was a general contractor. My brothers and I were extremely fortunate to have such loving parents who wanted nothing more than to spend time with us.

We knew that our mom was around so much because she was on the same school schedule. Our dad never missed a single game, party, or event. We knew he “worked for himself” but weren’t exactly sure what that meant. To us, it looked like he had all the time and freedom in the world.

Later, I realized this freedom of time was only granted to him because he worked his absolute a** off when we were at school, or when we were asleep. This is very admirable. It was clear what my parents’ priorities were.

After college, I decided to join my dad and my brother to build and remodel homes. I started to see the behind-the-scenes look into my dad’s business. It was clear he was the best of the best. When it comes to building or remodeling a structure of any kind, he would figure out the best way to do it. He always talks about “building it in his head” first.

Being the craftsman he is, he didn’t have aspirations to grow his business. Like many people in the trades, he started working in construction young for other people, and eventually broke off and started his own company. He didn’t think much about “scaling” or “systems” or “growth hacking” like we do at nauseam today. Like many boomers, he went to work, and he worked hard to make a living for himself and his family, and I couldn’t thank him more for that.

As I got into the business and started seeing all the moving parts in the background, I saw that most self-employed people fly by the seat of their pants. I’m not just talking about my dad, my brother and me, I’m talking about our subcontractors, our accountants, our landscapers, and everyone in-between. Most of them were running a mile a minute and seemed like they were trying to come up for a breath of air.

My brother and I had aspirations to grow our company. As we landed more jobs, the hats we were wearing only got bigger and heavier. Since our dad is a master builder and an action-taker, he ended up taking on more work and stress than he ever had before. We were teetering on the line between a one-man show like our dad was in the past, and hiring employees to take on larger jobs and scale-up. We weren’t able to play to our strengths, and we were piecing it all together however we could.

This is a pit many self-employed people fall into. As they try to grow, they begin to spread themselves too thin. They take on more jobs and work more hours of the day. They start feeling burnt out, so they take on fewer jobs and make less money. This again puts their feet to the fire to take on more jobs. As you can see the vicious cycle continues.

The problem is that it is all dependent on you, the business owner. You are the bottleneck.

In the name of escaping the “rat race”, you have created your OWN mouse wheel.

You started your own business to have the freedom to choose what you do, and you love that part, no matter how much you work. But, there is a better way to do it. That freedom doesn’t have to cost your time. The entire system does not have to depend solely on you!

If you look at Robert Kiyosaki’s Cash Flow Quadrant, self-employed people are on the left. The entire goal is to move to the right side of the quadrants, into “business-owner” and “investor”.

“Aren’t I a business owner if I’m self-employed?” you ask.

No. Well, yes on paper, but I define a business owner as someone who has escaped the SE Cycle.

So no. Final answer.

Kiyosaki defines a business owner as someone who has employees. But today, there are automation tools, contracting and freelancing platforms, and virtual assistant companies that could help you run your business like a well-oiled machine without traditional employees.

I believe you shift over to the business owner/investor side once their business’s income flows independent of the time you put in.

You may be thinking, “that’s a stretch… so you’re saying if I choose to put zero hours in, the business will continue to run by itself?” And my answer is yes, in theory. But, there are two reasons you continue putting hours in. (1) Perfect systems are hard to create. Unless your system is perfect, you will have to pick up slack somewhere. (2) Since you are passionate about what you do, you probably worked your own labor into the system somewhere. Whether that is a lead role or the craftsman, you enjoy working. It gives you purpose.

How do you maximize your systems? Remove bottlenecks.

A bottleneck is your business’s limiting factor. Every business constantly experiences bottlenecks. It’s the nature of the game. Even Amazon experiences bottlenecks. Unless every single person in the world spends every single resource they have on your never-ending supply of a product, you have a bottleneck. Then you will have another. And another…

To find these bottlenecks, you must have systems. You can’t fly by the seat of your pants. Start by writing out all of your business’s processes. Write out your sales process, your distribution process, your financial process, and so on. Fill in gaps and expand on details. Write everything that happens in your business

Once there is nothing else you can think of, map it out. If you are an “in-person” person, sticky note the heck out of a wall. If you are okay with digital tools, use Miro, LucidChart, or ClickUp Whiteboard.

These steps are incredibly important because they force you to be cognizant of how your business works. Every business has systems, even if they are haphazard. Now that you recognize patterns, and you understand your workflows, you can easily recognize which parts are ineffective or inefficient. Those are most likely the bottlenecks.

The point of this is not to build a billion-dollar company

The point is to remove you from the SE Cycle. The constant yoyo of of “more clients > more money > less time > less clients > less money > more time”. If you work like this and love it, by all means, continue. But I know most of you would like a larger, more consistent income without needing to work harder and longer hours.

Maybe you want to spend more time with your family. Or, you want to learn how to play the guitar. Or you want to volunteer in church more often. We all have a reason to escape the SE cycle. Improve your systems and remove your bottlenecks. Take some time to work on your business, not just in it.

If you love all this, but don’t know where to start, DM me and I’d be happy to help!

Want more?

If this helped you at all, check out my free resources below, share with a fellow entrepreneur!

• My LinkedIn for daily tips on scaling and marketing
• My Twitter for daily tweets about the same
• Market Radically to learn the formulas driving the differentiation strategies of the top up-and-coming-brands
• Braden’s Brain Bank for all my knowledge consolidated onto a page