The fate of the gig economy will be decided soon by Proposition 22. It will determine if Doordash drivers and other similar type gig workers will be classified as independent contractors or employees. You can read more about that here, but the other day I was thinking to myself about the many Doordash drivers that I have ran into throughout the years and some of the things that they have said to me. Most of the time, I would let them do 80 percent of the talking to see where they were coming from, and trust me when I tell you that you sure learn a lot more by listening to people instead of doing all the talking.
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| Some people's minds think like an employee and others think like a business owner. |
Are you a Doordash driver that thinks like an employee or a business owner?
There's something that I've really noticed with some dashers, but if we really think about it, it's people in general. There's some people that think like employees, and then there are those that think like business owners. No big deal, and there is nothing wrong with either one.
That's just the way it is. That's what makes this world turn. Different strokes for different folks. We are all different. Some individuals brain are wired to be an employee while others are wired to be a business owner. Again, just giving a fact here as there is nothing wrong with either mind.
Example of a person that is made to be an employee
I once had a very close relative of mine assist me in running one of my Ecommerce businesses. Whenever the money came in, he thought that it was mine just to party with. If there was a $5000 cash flow coming in every single week, this relative of mine thought that I was making $20,000 per month.
His thinking was that of an employee. His whole life he was trained to get a job, earn a paycheck and pay his bills. Not that there's anything wrong with that. During his life, on Fridays he would get his pay check, pay his few bills that needed to be paid and then see what fun money was left over.
In his mind, the amount of money on that paycheck was his to do as he pleased. Yes, he had a few bills to pay, but there were times when he would skip a bill or two so he could have more money to party with. The point here is that his mindset was that what ever amount was on that paycheck was his to do as he pleased.
As far as the Ecommerce business was concerned, a business owner would of course know that the $5000 per week was not their earnings. After expenses and overhead cost their earnings are probably 20 to 30 percent of that 5K. Sometimes it can even be only 10 percent. In that case, the weekly earnings would be $500 instead of $5000.
What does a business mind have to do with dashing?
A business mind has a lot to do with dashing. I have spoken to so many dashers that preach that they are independent contractors, but they treat their Doordash driving gig as a regular job. I don't say this because they working full time. I have actually had spurts in my life when I put full time hours in to Doordash. It has to do more with their perspective and outlook on things.
If you calculate your earnings by the hour, you have an employee mind
It's true. Business owners don't calculate their earnings by the hour. If you think of how much you're earning per hour, you are showing signs that your brain works more like an hourly employee than a business owner. Uh-oh, I hope I did not agitate some nerves there, but it is the honest truth.
Do you think Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos or any other successful business men calculate their earnings by the hour? Do you think that in their brain they think about trading time for money? That's exactly what the employee mind does. It trades time for money.
When I just mentioned one of the founders of Microsoft and the owner of Amazon, I'm sure some people may be thinking how in the hell I'm comparing Doordash drivers to these very successful entrepreneurs. It's entirely two different ballgames. Well, you have to remember that these guys didn't start at the top. They worked there way there.
Jeff Bezos started Amazon out by selling books. Yes, he started a small online book store called Amazon, and his business mind made it grow it to what it is today. If he sat around calculating how much he was earning per hour he would have failed.
Personally, I run several businesses, and when I think about my earnings, I never think about how much I'm earning per hour. If I wanted to, I could add up my earnings for the day from all my business ventures and calculate that by 24 hours I guess and see what it averages out to. That would tell me how much I am earning per hour. I don't ever do that though.
You have to understand that many of my business ventures earn me money throughout the day so it is kind of hard to calculate by the hours. When is work really work? Do I calculate for the whole 24 hours as my business ventures are constantly at work for me? You see where the problem is in trying to calculate by the hour when you are a business owner?
I do calculate my daily earnings. Not by the hour, but I do want to know how much I earned for the day. I want to know if I earned $300 for the day. Was it $1000 for the day? Maybe it was $5000 for the day. Whatever it is, I do want to know. Honestly though, most figures comes from monthly calculations when I can figure out what the true net of my earnings were.
What if the only business I have is being a Doordash driver though?
First off, don't sell yourself short or think down about yourself because all you're currently doing right now is dashing. Have you ever talked to minimum wage employees at restaurants that think that they make more money than dashers? It's funny because they think dashers are the bottom of the barrel. They know so little!
I've had phases before when I put in full hours doing Doordash, Uber Eats and Postmates and would bring in $1,500 per week. That's $6000 per month while the full time minimum wage restaurant worker was taking home $1500 to $2000 per month and begging their bosses for overtime because they needed more money.
Doordash driver has to treat their dashing as a business
A dasher goes out and makes $100 per day. He works 6 days a week and takes home $600 per week. That is $2400 per month. Now, as a business owner the true earnings will need to be calculated. He will need to calculate all of his expenses while out dashing. The major expense of course is gasoline. How much did this dasher spend on gas for the month? Let's say it was $400. That would bring this dashers earnings down to an even $2000 for the month.
After that other expenses will need to be factored in. Car maintenance, car depreciation, cell phone use and so much more. Cell phone use? Yep! If you are paying an extra $20 per month for unlimited Internet use for your phone because you need that for your gig jobs, it is an expense. Don't worry though because it is a write off during tax time. All of your business expenses are.
Taxes need to be accounted for. We all know that these gig companies do not take out any taxes when they pay you. The reason for that is that you are an independent contractor. You are a business owner. It is your responsibility to pay your own taxes. Don't want to pay them? Okay then, you'll soon be having a conversation with the I.R.S.
Lesson to Doordash drivers - Not all business owners are wealthy
Keep in mind that not all business owners are rich and wealthy. Being a business owner just means that you own a business and work for yourself. You are not an employee with a boss to answer to. Heck, many business owners lose money. That is why you see so many businesses go out of business.
As a Doordash driver, you are a business owner. Your earning capacity is sort of limited though. If you want to break through that limit you can start another business with a bigger cap. How about starting your own food delivery app? You get the idea. Think big. If you were to earn $1 profit for every delivery and had drivers delivering 1000 orders a day for you, that would be $1000 you've earned every single day. I'm not going to get into that though, just some thought there for you.
As I've said though, I have earned around the 6K mark for the month doing these gig driving jobs. Taking out all my expenses I was most likely closer to 5K. There is good money there for a person that is willing to put the time in and hustle.
Business owners do not work 8 hours per day
As a Doordash driver, I can assign overtime to myself whenever I want. Sure, there is no time and a half pay, but a good hustle out in the field dashing is so much more valuable than a time and half pay. Sure, to earn that 6K per month I had to put in some crazy hours. It was no 8 hours a day and go home. I couldn't make that amount of money dashing 40 hours per week. I had to put in some major work and that meant working 16 hours per day.
Truth be told, any successful business owner will tell you that they
spend at least 16 hours a day working. As a business owner, there is no
work 8 hours and go home. No! They are constantly working on their
business as they come up with new ideas to improve business
relationships and cash flow. It can at times become exhausting being a
business owner, but that all comes with the territory.
Some people are happier being an employee
If you scoff at the thought of working 16 hours per day, you're not alone. A lot of people would rather work 8 hours per day, 5 days per week, go home after work and enjoy their life. They would rather receive that paycheck at the end of the week.
These people need time to hang out with family and friends, they need time to play their video games, they need time to party, or to do whatever other hobbies they have. That is their choice and that is what makes our country great. You have the choice to do whatever you want. I would never criticize anybody.
These people do have the mind of an employee. They want to be an employee. When they clock out, they don't want to worry or think about work anymore. For a business owner, that's not the way life works. Even at home, his mind will be thinking about his business.
The employee minded Doordash bashers
On several occasions, mostly on social media sites, I have seen where a dasher has displayed their weekly earnings for others to see. It is usually a pretty good amount of money. They're bragging, but in my opinion, there's nothing wrong with bragging about hard work.
I'll then look at the comments and see other dashers on there giving praise, thumbs up and congratulating the dasher on a job well done. But then you will always have that person that says:
"Yeah, but how many hours did it take you to earn that money?"
This is definitely an individual that has an employees mind and thinks by the hour. He is calculating the dashers earnings by the amount of time it took the dasher to earn the money. If the dasher earned $1000 for the week and it took 100 hours to do so. The basher would say something like "You only made $10 per hour - Not worth it!"
To the dasher it's worth it. He now has $1000 for the week in his bank account that he hustled for. He is not looking at it on a per hour basis. He is looking at it as 1K earned for the week.
If he wasn't out hustling making his money, he probably would be wasting his hours doing what the basher is most likely doing. That would be sleeping 10 hours a day, playing video games all day or just hanging out in front of his apartment talking to friends all day. That kind of life would drive an entrepreneur crazy. Again though, for employee minded people it may work just fine as they would proudly say something idiotic like "That hard worker has no life."
Employees are just as important as entrepreneurs
If you get anything form this article, please know that I truly understand the importance of employee minded individuals. My mother was an employee at a factory her whole life. Without her and her co-worker's wit and excellent work ethic, that company would have never been so successful.
My mother never had an ambition to be a business owner. She was happy just as she was. She enjoyed doing her work for 8 hours, and then coming home and relaxing. She did not want to think about work when she was at home. Her paycheck took care of the necessities in life and she was fine with that.
She never had a goal of getting rich. Unless it was about winning the lottery. She never gave it any thought. Some people are just happier being an employee and entrepreneurs have to sometimes envy that. The thought of working 8 hours and forgetting about anything work related is like a pleasant dream to business owners.
This is what makes our world work though, employees and business owners need each other. Doordash drivers are independent contractors, A.K.A. business owners. Doordash drivers are not employees, and they should not think about their earnings on an hourly basis. If they do, they would probably be better off working for a company that is hiring employees. A Doordash drivers earnings are based on the decisions that they make; just like any other business owner. Happy dashing!
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