How to Start a Business

This part 2 of 2 in the role of a business owner.  Read part 1 if you have not had a chance.

Objections:

First, it takes a mentality shift.  You might say:  “This all sounds great but right now, it is just me.” That’s okay.  You have to shift your mentality.  Right now, you may be scrubbing toilets, but if you are managing your business to specific goals and objectives – in a foreseeable time frame, you will never have to scrub another toilet. If we view our lives with purpose, we don’t view it as a struggle.  Scrubbing toilets is much more enjoyable as an “owner of the business” who is fulfilling this role temporarily.

Another objection is the fact that you may really enjoy being the doer in parts of the business.  One reason we become entrepreneurs is to do something we enjoy.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with this, but the business cannot be dependent on you. If your business is completely dependent on you, it is not a business – it’s a job.  If you enjoy sales, continue doing sales but don’t center  business performance around your ability to hit the sales goals.  Slowly work yourself out of that dependency.  Maybe you set a goal to only handle sales above a certain volume after a specific period of time, or only handle a fixed number of clients.

Ironically, one of the ways in which we build equity value in our businesses is by making ourselves useless to the business. In a different blog I’ll talk about equity value of a business and how those values are impacted when the owner is so critical to the business.  We go into more detail on this subject at The Entrepreneurship School and even talk about it in our module 1 videos (sign up on the blog or on the website for module 1), which are being offered for free right now.

So to sum up, your role as an entrepreneur is to function as the owner of the business – not the doer – by instilling inspiration, vision, and management.

Related posts:

1. I am a Business Owner “What is my job?” Part 1 of 2
2. Understand Your Entrepreneurial Baseball
3. How to be a Freelancer