WHY YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS A DEDICATED OFFICE/WORK SPACE (II)

The second reason why your business needs its own dedicated office/work space is because

YOUR BUSINESS IS INDEPENDENT OF YOU AND MUST BE "LOCATIONALLY" SO

There is a story I want to share with you, it’s a story you already know but I want you to read my version like you’ve never heard of the story before.

This story is about a lion cub that was lost by his mother on the day of conception. A herd of sheep toured his path and he found succor in the breast milk of one of the mother sheep. Since the mother sheep and her family were this cub’s first contact and maternal care in the animal kingdom. The cubs naturally assumed he was a sheep and the herds were his family. As he grew older, he moved together with the herds, ate herbs and grass just like them, cried just like them and every time lions came out to attack the herds, he joined them in the race for his life.

However one day, his discovery happened. He had always followed the rest of the herd to the river side to drink water and every time he looked into the mirror of himself in the water; he sees something different from the rest of the sheep. On this particular day, a lion came out from the thick forest at the other end of the river bank not able to cross to, the lion stood there just staring from afar. Since there was a wide and deep river separating the lion from the herds, there was no cause for alarm. The herds were safe and they kept drinking. But for this lion cub, it was a time of discovery, as he took a gaze at the mirror of himself from the river; he could see that the image he sees is exactly the image of the lion on the other end of the river. But as you know discoveries come with life threatening challenges.  He could be wrong and be the next victim of this dreadful creature if he refuses to run for his dear life. He would also be hated by his sheepfold and lose them for life, if he dares say anything of such insanity. He is used to his life of being a sheep, he likes it there. As a local champion, other sheep in the herd see him as a celeb with unique and godlike abilities when in comparison to their own abilities and stature. He was like the herds king, heavily celebrated. The female sheep would faint out of love and exasperation for this celeb of a guy cub. So he thinks, how could he possibly leave all that for the unknown? Though he doesn’t see a future with the herds, he also thinks of the risk of plunging into the world of the unknown.

But that day, the lion in him came alive. He summoned courage and took the risk. He was ready to go down as a victim or enter into a world of adventure with the privileged few whom he found a connection with, kings of the jungle. The day of his change of level or condemnation to death finally came and the lions came out for a hunt. Announcing their arrival with thunders of roar, the herds took off for their lives but this lion cub stood still facing the adversary. His courage was the proof of his distinction from the other herds. Lo, the lions slowed down, walked towards him, roared and triggered him to his first roar, they cuddled him and that was it. He got a hand shake of fellowship from the Kings of the Jungle, followed them back to their den and to the world of adventure.

Why is this story relevant in the discus of business and acquiring an office space for your business? I’ll tell you were I’m headed. There are two major world of income generation. In the first world, you have active income earners and in the second world you have passive income earners. The active income earners are 90% of the world’s population but earn just 10% of the world’s wealth while the passive income earners are 10% of the world’s population controlling a whopping 90% of the world’s wealth, these are the real kings of the financial jungle. In recent times some researchers argue these passive income earners have shrunk to as little as 5% of the world’s population. Why is no one noticing? It’s simple, because they are not active on social media, neither do they have the need or taste to be known. Whether or not you know them, they’re making money from you passively. To crown the ignorance of the remaining 90% further, those in our face acting as the celebrities at the top of the financial or social cadre are unfortunately just part of the 90% populations competing for the 10% income also. They just happen to be popular because they are getting a better share of the 10% the other 90% are contending for. If we were to compare them with their calibers in history, they would be equivalent to the territorial lords favored by the kings to rule others in their territories.

Robert Kiyosaki breaks these two worlds further down into four quadrants with to quadrants in each world. In the active income earners world are employees and the self employed while in the passive income earners world are the business owners and the Investors. Study the diagram above

In Kiyosoki’s words, "In the business world there are Es and E stands for employees. And the employees, you can always tell who they are by their core values. An employee with the president, the generator of the company, will always say the same words. The words are, "I'm looking for a safe, secure job with benefits." That's what makes them employees because their core value is security."

The other one of the four is the S for the small business owner or the self-employed and again their core values will cause them to use the same words which are, "If you want it done right, do it by yourself." S means they are also solo. Generally one person act, they operate by themselves.

On the right side of the Cash Flow Quadrant are the Bs. And my rich dad said, "The B stood for big business, or like Bill Gates. For Bs define big business as 500 employees or more. And their words are different. They'll say, "I'm looking for good system, good network, and the smartest people I know to help run my business." Unlike the S, they don't want to run the company by themselves. They want smart people run the company for them."

And then, the fourth of the Cash Flow Quadrant is the I. And the I stands for the investor. These are people who have money work hard for them. These people in the B Quadrant have people work hard for them. And these people in the E & S Quadrant are the people who work hard for the rich here in the right side of the Cash Flow Quadrant, for the Bs and Is.

 Now this is the crux of this episode on the issue of getting your business its own space. Most of your celebrities and Influencers are self employed meaning if they don’t do the work by themselves they don’t make money and they are part of the 90% population earning just 10% of the world’s wealth. By celebrities, I do not means just musicians or actors alone but all the popular people and professionals in every sphere of endeavors that are in your face and active on social media (yeah on social media partly because it’s cheap and partly because it can be self managed). I said “most” because, there are celebrities and there are CELEBRITRIES, there are influencers and there are INFLUENCERS. There are some “CELEBRITIES” and “INFLUENCERS” who are passive income earner. Even if they go hiding from your face, they’ll still be earning passively from the financial jungle. You know why? Because they are not just self employed, they are also dealing in the third quadrant as business owners or in the forth quadrants as investors. Investing the money they earned from their self employment in real estates, commodities, projects, bonds and other wealth generating assets that can keep generating money while they are asleep.  

Now this is the catch, no matter our capabilities as human being, there is wisdom to get wealth and that wisdom lies in everyone taking advantage of financial intelligence to invest in assets that can generate income passively. That was why the master in Jesus’ parable was angry with the servant with the smallest talent who decided to bury his talent maybe out of self pity as he compared his talent with those with bigger talents. The master queried him saying, “The least you could have done is to “save” it in the bank so that I can have interest on my money when I return”. He considered the servant’s deed as wickedness. It is possible that most of us don’t just have that capacity, courage, liver, strength, resourcefulness to build companies and systems in the third quadrant but through discipline and financial education, we can partake even if it’s in little proportion, the financial freedom that the forth quadrant offers.

However my problem is with those few individuals wired and destined for bigger risk and bigger reward, possessing that innate ability to become great business owners and industrial kings but have unfortunately been lost like the grazing lion cub in the midst of the herds of sheep wasting their capabilities acting like the self employed.  Can I please wake you up? It’s recession, we need you to unleash and save us. We need you to create systems and businesses that can create employment and generate tremendous wealth.

There is a difference between owning a job and owning a business. That you registered a brand name different from your real name as a sole proprietorship doesn’t make you a business owner. The brand name is still you; there is no difference between you and the new brand name legally. It’s not a business even if the registration agents tell you it is a business name registration. It is just a name that you have registered for fancy sake to get and own a job without being an employee. Whether the brand name is in your real name or in another name, it is still a personal brand and you are still considered self employed. I sometimes wonder what people are doing when they register a limited liability incorporated company and run it like a self employed in their houses. That’s a waste of resource and time because it takes a whole lot to maintain a limited liability with statutory bodies. If you’ve not been found wanting without fulfilling your obligations, it is because the efforts to pursue you isn’t worthwhile yet. You get a little bit more successful and watch them coming to knock at your door. You own a business when by law; you have successfully created another legal entity that is totally independent of you. In practical terms a legal entity has the same rights a citizen has in any country and if properly exploited, even more because it can wave off some taxes that become criminal for a human to wave off. Your business is so independent that if truly practiced by the books has the power to fire you from being an employee if all else shows that’s the only way it can progress. Americans practice the concept of incorporation to the letter, that’s why it was possible for Apple Inc to fire its owner, Steve Jobs as the CEO. Jobs still owned Apple, he was still the major beneficiary but if it meant he had to step aside for the company to thrive, then so be it.

When you run a business truly separate from you, you begin to see the need to give it and its employee or employees their separate space. Now you’re beginning to see the correlation. Just as a child is not fully independent except it is released to own a space of his own and raise a family of its own, a business is also not truly independent except it is given a space of its own for it and its employee to pursue its potential to the fullest capacity with or without you.

The concept of a business as a mean of passive income lies in the fact that it can be independent of you whether you are involved in it or not and if you must create that kind of company you must give it its space and let it run without you but with a minimum of one employee. This is why your business needs its own work/office space. Free the thing and free yourself.

The bird is just coming out of the pocket. Expect the third part

Olufemi Shield

Head, House of Shield