Here’s a different way to look at what kind of business do you have as the owner of your company. We’re looking at it under two dimensions:

1. Going vertically, is it making dollars for others or is it also returning dollars for you?

2. Going horizontal, is it a job or is it a real company that you have?

It can be a particularly good question to ask for people in professional service businesses, such as a consulting practice where you might be billing out for your time and may or may not have others billing out too.

Let’s look at the four different boxes on the grid:

1. Bottom left, it’s really a job and making money for others. In this situation, you’re really more like an employee than a business owner. The money you made is going out to others, could be the bank, could be to other subcontractors, can be for other suppliers, but not much is really coming back in the bottom line to you. And on the job dimension, it’s really more of a job than necessarily a sustainable company that would exist beyond you. Clearly, the lower left quadrant is not the spot to be in.

2. Upper left, you’re making money for yourself, as defined by what’s coming to you either in compensation, retirement funding or other benefits. In this box, you clearly have money coming to you over and beyond what’s going out to banks, subcontractors, suppliers and others. However, on the horizontal grid, it’s still more of a job. It might be that you’re the only provider of the bulk of the company. Maybe, it hasn’t been rolled out to other people and really turned into an ongoing, sustainable company that might have more value to others. Now, this is not necessarily a bad spot to be in. You have a nice high paying job ‘cause it is bringing money to you and for some people that’s the right spot to be. But, if you want to have more of a business than you need to take some further steps and move yourself towards the right on the grid.

3. Bottom right, you’ve established a real company. There’s multiple people involved, multiple service offerings. It’s a company that can have really ongoing, sustainable value beyond the work that you put into it yourself. However, the challenge here is that not much of the money is going towards yourself. Employees, bankers, suppliers and others are getting the main fruits of your efforts. The challenge will be how to grow or define the business to move to the upper right-hand quadrant where more money is coming to yourself in your return to you as the owner.

4. Upper right, the ideal situation. You have a real company with ongoing value to others and the company is returning significant dollars to you as the owner. This company can be generating the highest return to yourself, but as well as taking care of other people nicely too, perhaps your banker, shareholders, employees, suppliers and others. This could be the most attractive situation for a company to be sold should that be your objective at some point in time. Most likely, we’ll all face that sooner or later as we head towards retirement age.

So, when thinking strategically about your business and deciding if you have a real company and what you’re objective is, ask yourself two questions. First, is it really just a job or have I built a sustainable company? Second, am I returning dollars for myself as well as for others?