I’ve been building The Department of Motivated Vehicles for 6 months now. Whenever you’re just starting out as an entrepreneur, you really want to be conscious of your costs or burn rate. This awareness is called cost consciousness. Since I’m the only only employee right now, my burn rate was essentially my monthly expenses which are under $2,000 with student loans.

But there comes a point when every entrepreneur has to make a leap from cost consciousness to cash flow consciousness. It’s easy to get caught up always thinking about your burn rate and forgetting that sometimes you need to inject the business with cash by investing other things besides your time in order to grow.

I’ve come to a point where I’m ready to bring on my first part-time employee for 10-20 hours a week. My cash flow consciousness tells me that as long as an employee creates more value than they take in given period of time then they are a good investment. Of course I have to find the right person first. This means building a team to build the business. It’s an opportunity to bring in other people’s gifts and talents to the vision. And I’m certain that I’ll work harder knowing that someone else is depending on me ever week—even in the hours that they aren’t around.

This is definitely a sign of growth for me. In the past I’ve had difficulty asking for help from people, but I’m trying to grow something that is bigger than me and outlives me so I have to rely on other people. The DMV’s growth is dependent on my growth until I get many others to adopt/shape it as their own vision. I definitely believe in employee ownership emotionally and financially. No more small thinking. Dream BIG!