Getting Started In Self Sufficiency

I'm the sole proprietor of a small publishing business that I've been running since 2000, and I'm a strict believer in self sufficiency. Yet, I don't make my own paper, brew my own ink, or bind my own books. All of that is outsourced to companies that do these things on a massive scale I could never approach. I sell ebooks as well as paper books, yet I use PayPal to process the payments and E-Junkie to handle the downloads. I carry advertising on my website, yet I've never called on a potential advertiser, Google Adsense does it for me. My business is a virtual company, one where I create the products and pay industry leaders to handle the manufacturing and distribution.

So how can I claim to be self sufficient? Self sufficiency isn't about the tools we use to carry out our work, it's about decision making and control. My printer, retailers and order processors are tools that I use to minimize the time I have to spend in repetitive tasks while maximizing the profits. They don't participate in managing my business and the agreements we have can be terminated by either party at any time. Risky? If you're used to working for the government or a large corporation you might think so, but I haven't drawn a pay check in over fifteen years, and I've never been more financially secure. And while some would argue that freedom is a state of mind, in a regulated world where everything has its price, freedom is no longer another word for nothing left to lose.

One of the reasons I remain a sole proprietor despite the obvious tax advantages of incorporation for a well established business is my addiction to self sufficiency. While I could incorporate without a lawyer or an accountant and meet all of the filing requirements on schedule, it's more complicated than filing taxes as a sole proprietor. And therin lies the secret to self sufficiency, you have to keep it simple. If you spend your time chasing best practices for your business activities rather than doing what comes natural, you'll find yourself trapped in a debate over how to best use your time. Most intelligent entrepreneurs end up concluding that they should focus on their core competencies, and hire expert help to make those specialist tweaks to their business, such as a CPA for corporate (or even regular) tax filings, a graphic designer for business cards and websites, an attorney for skating on thin ice. Unfortunately, all of these one-off hirings will weigh you down both financially and spiritually, until you become dependent on others for your core business functions. If you can pay their bills and make a living, you are successful in business, but you've lost some control over your destiny, You've sacrificed a large measure of self sufficiency.

There is always a tension between freedom and self sufficiency, since the two conflict when the sole proprietor doesn't have the desire or ability to perform some task that freedom recommends as the optimal outcome. Incorporation is once example of this tension that I've already mentioned, the same could be said for any specialized skill or knowledge that I'd like to utilize without acquiring it myself. My personal value system is weighted more to being self sufficient than to absolute freedom, so my business activities are largely conscribed to those that I'm willing and able to carry out by myself.

When I advise aspiring entrepreneurs starting their first business, I advise them to follow in my footsteps, not being competent to suggest they do something I haven't done. It's so tempting for people getting started in business for the first time to throw around a little cash or credit simply for the sake of feeling like the business has launched. After all, they've seen that other people in business spend money on stuff, rent offices space, buy desks and chairs and postal machines, and it's clearly all a tax deduction. Well, other people have destroyed their chances of ever making a living by running up debt by playing business, and the tax expense is useless unless you have business income to offset it. None of the sole proprietors I've known failed in business because they didn't buy enough toys when they opened shop. The leading reason that small businesses fail is that they never generate enough business activity to survive. The higher your expenses, the higher that self sustaining level of business activity (sales) needs to be.

In a Utopian business world, we would all order up the specialized knowledge we needed for the day to be impressed on our brains as we sleep. In the real world, the best thing you can do to increase your chances of attaining an independent livelihood is to stubbornly resist the urge to create a support network of professionals. Besides, you'll be surprised just how much time and effort is required to manage that support network, not to mention the increased multi-tasking load on your brain that comes from accommodating their schedules and leaving tasks open for ridiculous periods of time.