In Over Your Head: The Joys and Trials of the Entrepreneur
By: Anthony Signorelli
Small business erupts from the head of the entrepreneur much the same way that Athene comes from the head of Zeus in the old Greek myth. You start with an idea. The idea forms, takes shape, and pretty soon you have a whole new being where nothing before existed. Taking its genesis from you, the entrepreneur, the business immediately reflects you. You are the reason it exists, its inspiration, its greatest strength, and its worst weakness. These truths will persist throughout its life, until you step aside.
Most new businesses begin with a new product, store idea, or service-something customers are believed to want or need, and for which you, the entrepreneur, believe you have an answer. You excel at some aspect of the product or service. You are an exquisite artist of the product-a great pie baker, bookseller, software developer, or mousetrap builder. If it is a product, your idea may depend on a unique innovation. If a retail store, it may depend on a specific location. If a consultant, it may depend on unique expertise. Whatever the nature of the business, everything changes the minute you open the doors for business.
The confrontation with the unknown defines your entrepreneurial story. Be prepared. When customers, suppliers, and employees are added, the demands upon you are quite different from those of your artistry or expertise. Legal, finance, marketing, human resources, sales, technology systems-all these become part of your central concern, and in most cases, you will have no expertise in any of them. The software developer suddenly must address financial realities. The consultant needs to assess and hire staff. The great product or service must be marketed and sold-areas where the entrepreneur may be completely uneducated. The successful business must address these challenges, but you will find yourself unprepared to deal with them. Why? Because you've never done this before.
Michael Gerber, author The E-Myth, addresses these questions by raising them to the systems level. He challenges entrepreneurs to work "on" the business rather than "in" the business. He insists that the entrepreneur ask different questions, thereby converting the product artist into a systems engineer specializing in their particular business. For those so inclined, this can be a very effective approach.
Another approach comes from Ernesto Sirolli of the Sirolli Institute, a non-profit focused on facilitating enterprises and entrepreneurship as a social and public strategy to improve economic development, especially in depressed urban and rural areas. Sirolli talks about the Trinity of Management, and prescribes the notion that you need three key people in a small organization who a) share the vision and mission of the business, and b) each have different key specialties and passions which can help to serve the business. The three specialties are product/service, sales/marketing, and finance. You, the original entrepreneur, are usually the product/service person. You need to find and add the other two. First, add a specialist in sales/marketing who's passion is sales and marketing (not the product or service). Second, add a specialist in finance who's passion is finance. Sirolli joked with me years ago about how to know a true finance person: He wakes up in the morning and looks forward to his spreadsheets and lunch with the banker-not because he has to meet with the banker, but because he wants to meet with the banker.
Both Sirolli and Gerber provide possible responses to the situation entrepreneurs find themselves in. Either might work for a given entrepreneur. But either way, the real point is that the entrepreneurial experience centers on the ongoing confrontation with the unknown, the unfamiliar, and therefore, the limits of one's own competence.
The net result of this confrontation is usually a mix of increasing confidence as you meet the challenges you face, or the sowing and development of doubt. All your preconceived notions of the business are likely to be challenged, including your wishes, images, dreams, and fears. Whether you follow Gerber into the development of systems, or Sirolli into reliance on individuals, or decide to go it alone and live within the limitations of your own capabilities, consciousness of these choices is paramount to the sustainability of your enterprise.
The importance of such consciousness cannot be overstated. Let me provide one example. Many entrepreneurs start their business and carry a deep and abiding passion for their product. As a necessity of the business, they sell the product to customers. We have all seen this. For example, in a kids' sports facility that specialized in gymnastics, who was by far the best instructor? The owner of the place. When you go to an independent bookstore, who provides the truly outstanding experience and service? Usually, it is the owner. Can you not tell in a small coffee shop whether or not the owner is working at the time you are there? Of course you can. It is in the energy, commitment, and passion of the person. It is the same reason my own consulting business is and always has been best sold by me-I'm the one with the passion.
These owners really do sell their business and serve their customers better than anyone else in the business. But too often, they make a critical mistake: Selling successfully from the passion within themselves, many interpret this to mean that they are great sales people. Yes, they successfully sell their product or service, but not because of general sales expertise. They are successful because of their unique passion. Great sales people can sell anything because sales is what they are good at-the product is irrelevant. When people make the mistake of thinking they are great sales people, but the real source is a specific passion, they are prone to hubris-and colossally bad decisions. Egregious examples include:
adding a line or service that is related but not part of your passion;
successfully selling books, and therefore thinking you understand and can sell groceries; or
excelling at a B2B service business and thinking you can therefore succeed at a B2C business like restaurants.
I have seen entrepreneurs make all these mistakes, and all of them stem from misunderstanding oneself, one's strengths, one's passionate energies. Reflect carefully, and you can avoid these mistakes.
The need for deep awareness penetrates all aspects of the business. If you have success and failure, what is the real cause? Skill at selling? Or an underlying passion? Outstanding creative marketing? Or a good list? As the business progresses, what is enjoyable to you and what is not? Can you resist the siren call of money as the only measure of success? Can you balance it with your other goals and values? Are you aware enough to ask these questions, which again, go straight to the heart of the business's sustainability?
This kind of centering is critical to long term success and sustainability because things change, and sometimes quickly and radically. Markets change-think of what Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble did to the book business. New opportunities arise-think of the rise of organics in farming and the grocery business. How do you know if you want to tackle a new opportunity or alter the nature of your business? There are a million books on how to evaluate these opportunities in business. They will help you make a rational decision. But at the end of the day, it's ability to succeed won't depend on the rational. It will depend on you, who you are, what you want, and what you can sustain.
Small business can be a great and rewarding adventure, but when you start, you will be in over your head. Most of what you need to do will be new. How much you practice your strengths, balanced with how well you confront the unknown, will determine your success. If you can tolerate being in over your head and thrive in the newness of it all, you can have a great ride. Enjoy it!
About the Author:
Anthony Signorelli is an energetic consultant who is absolutely committed to client success. He consults with organizations to improve sales force effectiveness. As a speaker, he works with private and public client events, speaking on methods of improving sales force effectiveness. As an author, he contributes articles to magazines and is working on a book on complex solutions sales. He is an engaging and dynamic facilitator who draws out the best insights through mapping sessions, interactive learning, and cross-functional facilitation. http://www.signorelli.biz/
Member comments together with Member Names may be used by
SmallBusinessCEOMagazine.com for promotional or other media efforts.
Comments that include profanity, or personal attacks, or antisocial behavior
such as "spamming" or "trolling," or other inappropriate comments or
material will be removed from the site. We will take steps to block users
who violate any of our terms of use. You are fully responsible for the
content that you post.
Comments (0)
We invite you to be the first to post a comment regarding this article.
Small business erupts from the head of the entrepreneur much the same way that Athene comes from the head of Zeus in the old Greek myth. You start with an idea. The idea forms, takes shape, and pretty soon you have a whole new being where nothing before existed. Taking its genesis from you, the entrepreneur, the business immediately reflects you. You are the reason it exists, its inspiration, its greatest strength, and its worst weakness. These truths will persist throughout its life, until you step aside. 
