Today is my birthday.
(That really isn’t relevant, but it seemed like a good way to open today’s blog post.)
The other day I ran across an article in the current issue of Inc. Magazine (thanks to Ryan Healy for mentioning the article so I would take a look at it). Last night I finally got around to pulling up the article online and to reading it through this morning.
The article caught my eye because it is by Jason Fried of highly successful 37signals, but it kept my attention because he starts off early on in the article by stating a principle I’ve long held (in fact I based the founding of the IT Consulting Success Strategies community upon it). Jason states it like this:
You can be the most creative software designer in the world. But if you don’t know how to make money, you’re never going to have much of a business or a whole lot of autonomy.
Readers who signed up to be on my e-mail list in the past year or so may recognize the parallels that statement has with the premise for the e-mail list described on the page you signed up on.
Jason’s credo is “It’s simple until you make it complicated.” He has built a very successful business, seemingly wrapped around that philosophy. Thankfully, he is also great at communicating his thinking and approaches and, fortunately for us, seems to enjoy sharing his insights in order to help others.
Here’s a more extensive quote from Jason Fried from the first part of the article (though I suggest you go read the full article entitled “How to Make Money in 6 Easy Steps: Entrepreneur Jason Fried offers the most fundamental of all small-business advice: how to get good at making money.“)
One thing I do know is that making money is not the same as starting a business. For entrepreneurs, this is an important thing to understand. Most of us identify with the products we create or services we provide. I make software. He is a headhunter. She builds computer networks. But the fact is, all of us must master one skill that supersedes the others: making money. You can be the most creative software designer in the world. But if you don’t know how to make money, you’re never going to have much of a business or a whole lot of autonomy.
This is not about getting rich (though there’s certainly nothing wrong with that). Instead, for me, making money is about freedom. When you owe people money, they own you—or, at least, they own your schedule. As long as you remain profitable, the timeline is yours to create.
It took me a long time to figure out how to make money. Here’s how the lessons unfolded.
If the above intrigues and/or resonates with you, go read the full article here. It includes six specific lessons that are both highly relevant to technical consultants and highly actionable.
Hope you enjoy it as much as I did,
-jr
Josh Richards 