The Entrepreneurial Savant

A lot of us don’t understand the concept of profit, in spite of growing up in a capitalist economy. We earn our wages based on an hourly or yearly figure and hope for raises or bonuses. When you go into business for yourself and that paycheck stops coming in like clockwork, the profit concept becomes a lot more important. When you price something, basing your price on your overhead and paying yourself a reasonable wage, always add in a figure above and beyond for profit. As obvious as it sounds, many of my self-employed friends fail to mark up their services. Profit is the future of your business. It pays for the bigger projects, it pays back loans, it creates equity and it provides an incentive. The profit motive has turned out to be a very effective motivator. Remember the USSR?

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Consultant’s consultant Hubert Bermont found that one of the most frustrating things about starting a consulting business was the realization that even when clients paid for expensive advice they often didn’t follow it. He relates the story of being at lunch with a psychiatrist friend who told him that he knew four words that would cure 90% of his patients’ problems. Those words were:

Don’t take it personally.

Think about it. The majority of cruel, careless, idiotic or just plain stupid things that appear to be done to us by others are really the result of their own problems. If we could develop the thick skin to not take things personally, we wouldn’t waste valuable energy agonizing over the actions of others.
Note: Bermont’s book, How To Succeed as a Consultant in Your Own Field (Prima), is one of the best books ever written on the subject of starting your own business, even if you are not a consultant. It is particularly valuable for people starting second careers after working for others. Highly Recommended reading.

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