One of the things people in our generation are doing differently now, more than ever before, is getting a work model that fits with their life rather than molding their life to fit their work model.  Let’s look at the way things have been done for the last fifty years or so in the U.S.  Companies are open for business Monday through Friday from8 am until 5 pm.  That means if you are an employee of one of those companies you are required/expected to be there during those hours.  You receive a paycheck based on the hours you work and some measure of your value to the company. 

I work in the legal field which is still very "archaic" in how things are done.  Most law firms bill clients by the hour.  So immediately the only way to become more profitable is to bill more hours.  While the hourly rates can reach into the $300-400 dollar range there is never a threshold that says, "okay you are billing enough."  That high hourly rate basically acts as a set of golden handcuffs that keep you at work.  While the hourly rates may change depending on jobs and industries the principle is the same: simply exchanging your time for a paycheck is not how people in our generation want to earn a living…in fact it is simply unacceptable to most of us. 

A new form of income generation is emerging – value billing.  Actually it is, more correctly, re-emerging because this is how things were done prior to the hourly work model.  Value billing is where you are paid based on the value that you provide the client, company or customer, not based on the amount of time that you spend.  So rather than bill by the hour you bill by the project.  This allows you to leverage your time because you know what you are going to earn for the completion of the project if it takes you one hour to complete or if it takes you 40 hours to complete. 

So how does this help the disenfranchised young adult wanting more time for their family?  It totally provides you with time freedom.  The way I like to look at it is like this: it is going to take a lot of your time to create a successful business or to generate your desired income; however, those hours do not have to necessarily be from 8 to 5.  What if you work better at night, or really early in the morning.  What if your son has a baseball tournament or you have other more important family matters than just sitting at a desk?  When you control the work rather than the time for the work you allow yourself to be much more productive and leverage your time and your business.

In the book "The Four Hour Work Week" Timothy Ferriss discusses a principle known as "Parkinson’s Law."  Parkinson’s Law says that work will expand to fill up the time allotted for its completion.  What?  Basically, if you set aside two weeks to complete a project, the project is going to take you two weeks to complete.  If you only set aside three days, you will probably complete the project in three days.  From a job perspective – if you are required to sit at your desk from 8 to 5 your work is going to expand to fill that entire time.  But, if you are free to do what you want after you complete your work, just think how fast you can get everything finished up.  Consider this, do you ever notice how efficient you are the day before you leave for vacation?  You always get more done on that one day than you have in the month before. 

Maybe he thought he was diving into bigger, deeper waters.  Maybe he thought there would be something better on the outside.  Who knows?!?  But we all know that what awaited him on the floor below was not a better life, but suffering. 

I meet with a lot of clients who are suffering.  They are really going through a hard time.  Whether it is because of choices they made in business, or at home, they are suffering.  A lot of times, it is extremely hard to ask for help in these situations because you got yourself into a mess and you can get yourself out of it.  Plus, you don’t want to go around telling everyone about your bad decision or daily struggles. 

My problem seems to be I have these urges to do something different.  Something "better."  You know, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.  And I see that in a lot of my client’s lives.  They decided they can do their job better than anyone around so they go out and start a business doing it on their own.  Many times they are blessed/cursed with extreme and immediate success.  But then their lack of planning and poor business choices lead to their struggles.  Many people are extremely good at what they do, but they are terrible businesspeople.  That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be in business for themselves, however.  I would suggest that you do what you are good at and have someone help you with the things that you aren’t good at.  That way, it relieves you of the stresses you face when you try to handle something you don’t like to do and you know you have competent people helping you in your business.  (As an aside, this is not necessarily a call to have employees, but to properly hire independent contractors to handle certain business tasks). 

While the grass may look greener, I would encourage you to thoroughly do your research.  Get your plan together up front.  This is something that cannot wait!  If the plan doesn’t look good, then maybe you need to answer some more questions, or back up and change your plan. 

If you are ready to get started making some money on your own, where you are your own boss, then you need to start doing something and not waiting on the perfect situation.  There is no perfect situation!  The stars will never be in perfect alignment where all conditions are just perfect!  You are going to have to step out on faith at some point and not be afraid of failure.

One of the things that causes me the biggest problems is getting bogged down in the details of planning.  It is usually when I am “planning” that something inside me says, “you know, this is really a bad idea, and it just won’t work.”  I try to bat those ideas away fiercely!

A lot of people are like me and they get analysis paralysis in the name of “good planning.”  There is no question that having a good, detailed plan is essential for your business’ success.  There is nothing worse than going into business “flying blind” with no direction.  Except maybe, not going into business because you got bogged down in the details of your plan and talked yourself out of it.  I’m not saying that you should  go into business when the numbers just won’t work; but you should definitely not get turned off from a business just because your plan is stalling you out.

So, what’s my advice.  Just do something.  Take small steps and do something for your business every day.  It may take you some time to get through the business plan, but you will at least be going somewhere and not sitting still at the starting gate!