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Down with OPB

one-person business

There are many paths people take to make their way to one-person business (OPB) ownership. And there are as many reasons as there are paths for starting a one-person business.

There are four main reasons I started a one-person business.

  • I saw a need. One of the main reasons I started a one-person business is because I saw a niche that needed to be filled and I felt I could fill it. In the early 2000s nonprofit organizations had few options when it came to fundraising data service providers. Most organizations were getting these services directly from the maker of their fundraising CRM while others were working with larger IT management firms. There was a need for higher touch, expert fundraising data services provided by professionals with nonprofit experience. That was me.
  • I'm a builder. I enjoy the process of watching something I make come into being. When I was 8 years old, I got a red toolbox for Christmas. It wasn't a toy toolbox with plastic tools. It was a real metal toolbox with real, grown-up tools. I took that toolbox everywhere with me, tinkering and building anywhere I could. My love of building started with that red toolbox.
  • I'm a hard worker. If I was going to work as hard as I work, I wanted my efforts to go toward something I was building. Born and raised in the land of agriculture and autos - Michigan - working hard is part of my DNA. I've lived all over the southern U.S. as an adult, but my Midwestern work ethic follows me wherever I go.
  • I wanted to call the shots and have control over my time. This one gets tricky. It may sound like I wanted to control my time because I wanted more free time. This is a trap those just starting an OPB fall into. You will not have more down time. It was important for me to control my time so I was better able, for example, to ramp up or down cash flow as I needed, to control my own career trajectory, and to be my own boss. For better or for worse (I happen to feel it's for better) as an OPB your mind will always be on your business. The challenge becomes making your work do-able wherever you happen to be.

When I'm feeling stuck or frustrated in my business, wondering why I ever started down this OPB road in the first place, I come back to the reasons I struck out on my own. It always recenters me.

If you were to start your own OPB, what would be your reasons? 

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