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Busting the ‘Myth’ of the Entrepreneur
by Lynne Meredith Schreiber
Working long days. Grumbling over administrative and financial chores. Delaying or ignoring the life plan that was carefully laid out as the primary, essential focus of all this labor. But you’re an entrepreneur. What happened?
The same thing that happens all too often with startups and even established entrepreneurial ventures: You’re working for a crazy boss: You.
Even when you run your own business, work can become the same old life-sapping treadmill if you lose sight of what you’re working toward. StartupNation founders and head coaches Jeff and Rich Sloan have based all of their entrepreneurial successes on the principle that to truly be “in the driver’s seat,” to sustain passion in your work, you have to decide exactly what you want – first in life, then in business.
The notion that your startup itself is the goal is what Michael Gerber calls the “myth” of entrepreneurship. “An entrepreneur needs to have an end-game and it needs to be more than just work,” says Gerber, who’s been “fixing” companies for three decades and teaching entrepreneurs how to create something bigger than just another place to work.
How? Stop working for “the man,” even if the man is you, and start building equity in a business that will thrive when you step away.
It Takes a Village
“The first myth is that one person can do everything,” says James Ontra, CEO of New York-based business software provider Ontra Presentations, and a serial entrepreneur. “The reason entrepreneurship works is because there are key support people that help them jump hurdles. Build something that can answer questions without you.”
Two of the most common mistakes people make when starting their own business are trying to go it alone, and assuming that all they need is a good idea. Every entrepreneur needs to build a team to fill in where his skills leave off. Ontra’s business partner, his sister, is great at listening to clients and keeping them happy. Ontra isn’t.
“I needed the other half of myself,” he says. “My partner is very good at account management and helps follow through with it, so the client is wanting to do more.”
Your good idea, your light bulb, will quickly burn out if you don’t electrify it with fortitude, financial and moral backing, the right timing, organization and a bit of luck. So says Steve Densley, president of the Provo, Utah Chamber of Commerce, whose own menu of “common mistakes” made by entrepreneurs is available at the Brigham Young University Marriott Center for Entrepreneurship Web site.
Build a Meaningful Relationship
It’s easy to startup. What’s hard is enduring, growing beyond the idea.
“Ninety-nine percent of tiny businesses in the world are started by a technician suffering from an entrepreneurial seizure,” Gerber says. “They want to be their own boss. Sixty-seven percent of all businesses in the United States are sole proprietorships. Think about that. You don’t own a business; you own a job.”
To change that, say the Sloan brothers, first figure out the meaning behind the work, then use it as the basis for your all-important life plan. What’s your vision? It has to be more than making money or you’ll never prosper, Gerber says. “Understand the difference between a stupid mission statement – which staff creates – and your mission, which your heart creates.”
Once accomplished, Robert Hoffer advises moving forward with a two-point equity proposition. “There are two things you should build to have ongoing equity,” says Hoffer, managing director of business consultancy Newforth Partners in San Mateo, Calif. “Protectable intellectual property and your audience. You have to build something that you can patent or protect, and a value proposition for a very large audience.
“If you fail to build either of those, you end up with a nice little company.”
Nothing wrong with that – except when you’re worked to the bone. You can’t step back. You can’t slow down. Your company won’t run without you. When that happens, you’ve built nothing.
“It’s very tricky to build equity in your firm and also be the guy who starts it,” Hoffer says. “It’s rare to find the founder as the CEO 10 years later.”
Make It Meaningful
Like the Sloans, Gerber insists you have to make your entrepreneurial endeavor meaningful or it will never survive. “If the company doesn’t have meaning, there’s no point in doing it,” he says. “And the meaning has nothing to do with money.” He’ll lead the latest in a series of seminars on the subject Dec. 8-10 in Sonoma, Calif.
Jeff and Rich Sloan spent three years perfecting their first entrepreneurial hit, the Battery Buddy, before striking gold. The driving forces were to create something of value and an unwavering belief in themselves.
“That raw desire to want to achieve something mixed with that belief in yourself that you can get it done” is what it takes to succeed, Jeff Sloan says. “You need to have a passion for what you’re doing.”
It’s in the American soul to embark on individualistic missions. It drives the fact that more than a half-million new businesses are created every month across the country. But for any of them to become more than a myth, the boss has to get real.
Kathy/simikathy.com
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