Welcome! About Us About Our Job Boards Info For Employers Diversity Job Candidates Improve Your Bottom Line Advantages of Niche Job Boards Benefits of Using Our MultiChannel Approach for Your Job Exposure OFCCP / Compliance Solutions Sponsorship Contact Job Search AW Career Center – Diversity Jobs All Top Tech Talent – Tech Jobs Careers Self Describing Skills – Key Strengths Effective Communications Key To Accomplishing Goals The Six C’s Of Effective Communication Exude Power & Purpose – Broadcast Your Value Career _Index Referrals Make A Difference In Getting The RIght Job Getting Fit To Lead – Habits Of Successful Leaders Career Strategies Which Career Is Right For Me? Pick A Career That Counts America’s Skills Gap Top Secrets To Make Recruiters Find You Meet The Robots Reading Your Resume Time Management Mastering The Art Of the Career Fair Career Fairs – On-site Career News Blog How To Become A Computer Programmer Closing The Gender Gap For Women In Science Time Management Entrepreneurship Entrepreneur – Start Your Own Web Business Why Start Your Own Business? Rorschach Test For Entrepreneurs – If You See Opportunity, Start A Company The History of Opportunity Money Info Establish Your Niche – Learn How To Differentiate Brand “You” Outrageously Simple Visual Guide To Goal Setting Workplace AWL Journal – Women in Leadership Studies Sponsorship Contact

Entrepreneurs, Are You Hauling Buckets?

Once upon a time, there was a village on the banks of a fine, clear river. The villagers all drew their water from the river, and used it to cook, and bathe and water their gardens. Life was good.

During one particular rainy season, the river flooded. When the water went down, the river had cut itself a new channel, far from the village.

The wise village elders conferred and decided to hire someone to supply the village with water. Two villagers stepped forward and asked for the water contract. The village elders decided that a little competition might be a good thing, and issued both villagers a contract.

The first villager, John the Wise, took the new water contract and left the village, saying he would return to the village with great amounts of clear water. It would be many weeks before the villagers again saw John the Wise.

The other villager, Eli the Strong, seeing that he was the only one with a water contract, bought two shiny new buckets and set to work. Every day, Eli would take a bucket in each hand, walk to the river, fill his buckets, and walk back to the village. The villagers would all come and take some of Eli's water and pay him for it. Eli the Strong was happy.

Soon, however, the villagers wanted more water than Eli could carry in his two buckets. So Eli started making two trips a day, and doubled the amount of money coming in. Eli's wife was happy.

Again, the villagers soon demanded more water. So, being Eli the Strong after all, Eli fashioned a yoke for his back and bought two additional buckets. Eli could now carry four buckets of water on each round trip, and again the money coming into the Strong household doubled.

Each time the villagers demanded more water, Eli would come up with a way to make more trips to the river, and carry more buckets on each trip. Eventually, Eli could do no more and spent every waking moment on the road between the village and the river.

About this time, John the Wise returned. He surveyed the land around the village and made arrangements to cross some of the villagers' fields. He started laying down strange tubes, making one long tube from the river all the way to the village.

John would stand on the river bank with his bucket, and scoop water from the river into the tube. The water would run down the tube, and into a tank John built at the edge of the village.

Soon the village became accustomed to getting their water from John's tank when they wanted it, and stopped waiting for Eli the Strong. Soon Eli the Strong had to fold up his business, for there were no customers for his water.

John the Wise then hired Eli the Strong, giving him the money from every tenth bucket. Once John trusted Eli to continue pouring water into the tube, he disappeared again.

This time, when John the Wise returned, he constructed a strange wheel-like machine that turned in the river's current. With each turn of the wheel, water poured from the scoops on the wheel into the tube, so no one need stand and labor. The villagers had clear water whenever they desired, and in any quantity.

John then went to other villages and obtained contracts to supply water. Once the contract was in hand, he would build a pipeline and a water wheel, and move on again.

Soon most of the villages had their own pipelines, and John the Wise had enough money coming in that he no longer had to work to feed himself.

People came from far and wide to consult with John about the miracle of the abundant, clear water. Being John the Wise, he offered them all the same proposition. John would teach them how to construct pipelines and water wheels, and they would pay John the money from every one hundredth bucket. They paid someone like Eli the Strong from every tenth bucket, and kept the money for 89 of 100 for themselves. John further allowed them to teach the secrets themselves, as long as John was paid the money for every hundredth bucket produced.

Pipelines multiplied throughout the land, and John the Wise became John the Wealthy, and lived happily ever after...

What can we learn from this story?

When Eli the Strong received his water contract, he went from being an employee to being self-employed. In reality, Eli simply changed employers. His income was still limited by the number of trips he could make to the river, and the amount of water he could carry. And if he didn't carry water every day, he didn't get paid.

When John the Wise set up his pipeline, he was like an affiliate in today's Internet global village. He had a better way to do the work, yet his income still depended on his own efforts. His water wheel automated his business, like an automated web site. Yet he was still limited to that village and that river.

When John started building water wheels for others, it was like having his own affiliate program. Other villagers (affiliates) used his technology to profit themselves, and John made money from their efforts. John the Wise was also John the Business Owner.

When John started allowing those to whom he licensed his water wheel to in turn license it to others, John the Wise became John the Entrepreneur. John made money from the efforts of those he licensed the water wheel to, and from the efforts of wheel licensers he never even met.

And if you look back at the end of the story, John the Wise became John the Wealthy, and lived happily ever after.

My question to you, then, is this:

Are you hauling buckets, or are you building pipelines?

(c)Copyright 2003 by John McCabe

Here's what you get with John McCabe's Success Letter: Original articles that accelerate your business growth... Proven tools and resources to explode your success... Special offers that make your life and work More and Better... Part of John McCabe's Web Guides.

RELATED ARTICLES Raising Capital for Your Business ? How Long Does it Take? Most companies vastly underestimate the time commitment necessary to successfully complete a financing. In actuality, a company seeking financing needs to budget between 500 to 1000 work-hours to the capital-raising process, spread out over a 6-9 month time period. PTO; Justification of the Means and the Ends Some would say about certain issues that the means do not justify the ends. Well more often the ends do not justify the means. For instance if you are trying to accomplish something and know that if you do use the most approved PC methods then you cannot get to the desired results, but use those methods anyway as to not appear to offend anyone, then in the end you offend everyone by wasting their time and by failure of the project. Motivation and Commitment Why do people start small businesses? The most frequently cited motivation for business start-ups is to allow the entrepreneur to achieve independence; money is secondary. Is this surprising? The other reasons named most often are that an opportunity presented itself, a person took over the family business, or the person simply wanted to be an entrepreneur. Identify your motivation. Enterprising Route is to Go Your Own Way DON'T talk to me about education for entrepreneurs. They're pouring far too much public money into it already - not counting the millions some well-known Scottish entrepreneurs are prepared to waste on it. A Secret To Extraordinary Accomplishments I sat watching a documentary on U.S. Navy SEAL Team Training on the local exercise channel. It showed young men, mostly in their early 20's, enduring grueling ocean swims in near-freezing water. It showed these same young men forced to swim underwater (holding their breaths) until a major percentage of them passed out and had to be rescued by their instructors. It showed weeks of grueling training in which ordinary men are transformed into incredible machines with wills of steel and unshakable discipline. Two Types of Business Plan Executive Summaries Companies seeking capital often ask how long the Executive Summary of their business plan should be. The answer depends upon the use of the summary, mainly determining if 1) it precedes the full business plan, or 2) it will be used as a stand-alone document. How To Grow Your Micro-Business If you want to grow your micro-business (defined as a business with fewer than five employees), you might consider some of the findings of a survey by Statistics Canada. How to Start a Franchise Franchising Information For Business SUCCESS... Listen To The Voices of Experience Discover the pitfalls of owning your own business BEFORE... [you make a BAD choice!] Increasing Business BIGTIME with a Successful Referral System What I've discovered from most of my small business clients is that most would prefer to build their business through referrals rather than through direct mail, advertising in newspapers, radio, TV. However, most leave the referrals to a somewhat chaotic, unplanned approach. When they have a repeatable system of going after referrals their business growth suddenly explodes. Find Me the Expert on This! Many people who set up as consultants never make more than a minimal living. They get some clients who like them, but are so dependent on these few businesses that the resignation of a key contact can destroy their business for months ahead. Pre-Money vs. Post-Money Valuation When a company decides that it must raise capital, a key question that must be answered is how much the company is worth. For example, if the business needs $500,000 to get started and/or grow, how much of the equity in that company should $500,000 command? Once this question is answered, the company will go out and try to find investors. When doing so, a key question often arises as to whether the valuation is "pre-money" or "post-money." The Desire For Money, Do You Have Business Sense? For those of us who grew up with parents who worked for businesses rather than owned them, the world of business can be quite a mystery. Even more so if we've dared to try to start one of our own. There is the factor of what type of business to start - a product or service business. There are the issues of doing a good market analysis, licensing the business, understanding the codes of law governing businesses, and determining just what type of business structure to choose - especially if the business will have employees. For example, should we start a sole proprietorship or a corporate business? It's a lot to work on, and it's not an overnight process to the road of success. But, the most crucial challenge to whether a business succeeds or fails lies deep within the realm of emotional versus financial intelligence. Build Your Own Board Of Experts The most successful entrepreneurs rely on their advisory boards to help spot new opportunities and potential pitfalls. Differentiation ? Smart Marketing Strategies for the Solo Entrepreneur Are you ever frustrated or hesitant when you talk to prospective customers because you can't readily explain why they should come to you rather than go to your competitors? Sure, you might have your 30-second elevator speech, but then they ask you that dreaded question, "So what makes you different?" Then, all those self-doubts creep in, and you just aren't sure what to say. Differentiation can boost confidence--yours in yourself and that prospective customer's confidence in you! Franchising Companies Need New Franchisee Checklists When franchise companies are moving fast in the market place they must pay attention to the details. If a franchisor fails to give the required items as outlined in the franchise agreement to the franchisees on the prescribed timeline they risk legal issues and regulatory issues. In addition even if they do provide the items on time, there is a chance later that a franchisee may claim that something was not provided and they will use this to break the franchise agreement, sue or file a complaint with regulatory bodies at the state level or even the FTC, Federal Trade Commission. But if you keep proper records and have checklists and monitor dates and deliveries you can win a law suit or force a regulatory agency to backtrack. Entrepreneurial Excerpt from a Speech to Small Business Having built a business from a bucket of water and sponge, which started over 25 years ago in a National Franchise chain in 23 states, I feel comfortable discussing entrepreneurship. New Rules Last week I was working with one of my small business clients, a bright and dynamic woman who's passionate about positioning her artisan business for growth. We were talking about her financial picture and forecasting robust sales over the next three years. Entrepreneurial Emotions or It Seemed Like a Great Idea at the Time It's your first business or the next Great Idea in your ongoing business, online or offline, it doesn't matter. The roller coaster ride is a theme and variations on the same experiences. First the exhilaration -- THIS idea, or THIS business is THE one. It'll put you on the map with lots of money in your bank account. It can't fail. It's just too good. Have you said this? More than once? I have, and several times during my life, with numerous businesses and varying levels of success. Six Steps to Guarantee Your Business Success Many of us slave away for years for one uninspiring company after another and dream of the day when we can sack the boss and go it alone.

Home |Site Map

Copyright © Advancing Women (TM), 1996- AdvancingWomen.com