Small Business Ideas – How Can You Make Your Small Business Enhance Your Life Instead of Running You
Most small business owners find themselves working more hours for less money than they thought they would when they started their business. What they had hoped for was to have more free time and to be able to sign their own paychecks. The key of course was to have larger paychecks.It doesn’t always work out that way because the average small business startup starts without a plan. Not only do most owners start without proper funding, they often start without proper thinking. Most owners think that because they are good at the technical part of the job they’re doing now, they can easily run their own business. That is often faulty thinking.They get excited about being their own boss and calling the shots and completely overlook the important part of planning. A small business plan should certainly include market research and financing, but should also include how you want the business to interact with your life. Do you want the business to run your life? How many hours do you want to work?What do you do if you find that your business is running your life? Is it too late to change it or should you just close it down or sell it? The answer lies in some tough honesty about where you are today. It means doing an honest assessment of your business first. Is it a business that is or can make money? Is it a business with a future? What are the strengths and weaknesses or the business?Next you want to look at your life. What kind of life do you want to have? How do you want to live? Do you want to travel, have more free time for the family or do you see yourself being committed to your business? What does your family want? I’ve seen many business owners lose their family because of their business. How do you want your business to interact with your life.Once you have looked at those areas, you need to decide what it would take to get your business to the point it needs to be so that you can have your business and a life too. This will mean building systems so that you get the same results all the time. It means having systems that take the guess work out of the business so that your employees can produce the results you want. It means getting the business to the point that it doesn’t require your constant supervision.If you’re thinking of starting a small business, do your homework first. It will save you a lot of heartache in the long run. If you already have a small business that isn’t enhancing your life, you may want to get some advice.
The Best Job In The World?
1999 was probably the worst year of my professional life. Unsatisfying office jobs followed by long periods of unemployment and claiming benefits. I’d also missed out on an opportunity to train as a Microsoft certified programmer because I was unable to find a placement. The dream of making my way into the world of employment had turned into an absolute nightmare, at times I felt like a total failure.
Towards the end of 1999 an opportunity arose for me to work in a casino. I’d always loved card games after seeing the glitz and glamour of casinos in James Bond movies. Dissatisfied with life in Northern Ireland, at the age of just 20, I packed a couple of suitcases and ended up going to the Isle of Man to train as a croupier (casino dealer) in January 2000. 18 months later I was working on my first cruise ship, and 18 months after that I was boarding the QE2 (the most famous ship of them all) to do a world cruise.
For a young man from a housing estate in Antrim, Northern Ireland this was beyond even my wildest dreams. On a ferry from Belfast to Liverpool in 1997, I’d once seen a pontoon table and croupier and dreamt what it may be to work as a casino dealer on the high seas.
Everything aboard the QE2 was as you would expect, starting with Captain Ron Warwick, who looked exactly what the captain of the QE2 should look like (Google the name if you don’t believe me). Passenger facing crew were immaculate in their appearance. I could probably have shaved with the crease on my pressed tuxedo shirts, and on a number of occassions when I had been sunburnt in port, I could feel the creases cutting into my tender skin as I dealt the cards that evening in the casino.
The great thing for croupiers on cruise ships is that they only work when the ship is in international waters, in port, the casino must close, and casino staff are free to do pretty much whatever they want. Casino staff have a cabin steward who cleans their cabin and takes away their dirty laundry and brings it back fresh each day. We did a 103 day world cruise which included stops in places like Hong Kong, Sydney, Cape Town, Hawaii, Mauritius, Nagasaki, Tahiti and Singapore to name a few. I managed to do some amazing excursions like diving in the great barrier reef, quad biking in the Namibian desert, and dining in all sorts of fine restaurants, trying delicacies like Springbok, Kangaroo, Crocodile and Kobe beef. We made stops in 5 continents, crossed the equator and even experienced living a Tuesday in consequetive days when we crossed the world timeline. Imagine that, you go to bed on Tuesday night, wake up the following morning and its Tuesday again, but this was far from groundhog day.
The role in the casino was not about taking passengers’ money like in a land-based casino, it was about providing them with fun and entertainment. The passengers were friendly and pleasant, many of them being extremely successful people (I understand the lowest cabin cost for a world cruise on the QE2 was about $50,000 in 2003). A lot of the passengers had never played in a casino and were fascinated to learn and experience the one onboard. Just getting to know some of these people was an experience in itself, and a large part of the role in the casino was simply to entertain them whilst they were in the casino.
There were also celebrity passengers. We would finish work and go to the crew/members bar where we would have guest entertainers like the late Des O’Connor and the magician, the late Paul Daniels down to have a drink. God bless them both.
Was my job the best job in the world? Maybe not for everyone, but it was beyond even my wildest dreams and the 6 month experience, as well as the amazing people I met will be something I treasure forever. I was very lucky to have lived this experience and will always be incredibly grateful for it.
Many years have passed since then and I’ve always missed the buzz of casinos which is how Fun 21 Casino Hire was created in 2021. My celebrities now are anyone who hires the No Money Fun Casino that I provide for parties and celebrations, and I aim to give the same experience that you would expect onboard the QE2.