BECOME YOUR OWN BOSS
Don t get trapped in an employee mentality
LORAL Langemeier says one of the major stumbling blocks in creating a culture of entrepreneurship in South Africa is workers signing full-time contracts.
Langemeier, 48, a US-based entrepreneur who runs business seminars titled Live Out
Loud, believes the local economy could thrive if professionals could operate as company service providers instead of full-time employees.
She said being a service provider exposed people to more economic opportunities than being an employee.
She boasted that her seminars had created at least 3 000 entrepreneurs since they started 17 years ago.
She has also authored The Millionaire Maker, The Millionaire Maker’s Guide to Wealth Cycle Investing and The Millionaire Maker’s Guide to Creating a Cash Machine for Life.
When she was 17, Langemeier started a health training company. At the age of 19, she started another company. This business resulted in her employing 17 people when she was still a teenager.
Two years later when she was in college, she ventured into a business focusing on corporate wellness and human performance.
Though she also runs a glass recycling business, the business of education generates most of the revenue for her group of businesses.
She revealed when she delivered her seminars in May that she had discovered that many delegates seriously lacked business education and that many were still trapped in an employee mentality and did not know how to go about getting or starting a business.
“Some of the delegates don’t know how to negotiate business, and there were signs that they needed to be more educated.
“In America from a very young age, the discourse would be about the type of businessperson you want to become instead of the kind of an employee you want to be.”
She said though being an entrepreneur gave an individual total freedom, it was crucial for an entrepreneur to know how to get business.
She also suggested that entrepreneurs should spend most of their time with other entrepreneurs if they wanted to be more successful.
“Entrepreneurs hire employees, and I don’t see a reason why we should hang out a lot with people we employ, ” she said.
She said the SA education system should include subjects in school and tertiary institutions that would teach people how to own their businesses.
Langemeier returns to SA from November 22 to 24 to host a three-day workshop at the Sandton Convention Centre. –