The last test of entrepreneurship is for an entrepreneur to separate their business from their presence. To pass this final test, an entrepreneur must ensure that their business can still operate profitably without them. An entrepreneur who passes this final test is awarded the rank of ‘investor‘.
Entrepreneurship starts with entrepreneurs even though self employed, implementing a business idea and turning it into a profitable business. At this stage the entrepreneur is an underdog employee and must behave and think like so to be able to attain success in that business. That’s why most entrepreneurs sleep less, work overtime, miss lunch, work in poor conditions, get a poor salary, no benefits, no bonuses, no promotions, no vacations, etc.
The only difference between a typical underdog employee working for some company and a starting entrepreneur is that in the end the hard work, poor working conditions, missed lunch, no bonuses, overtimes, etc. pays off. The entrepreneur ends up gaining a lot of profit from their business. Some entrepreneurs become millionaires at their 3rd or 4th or 5th year of doing business.
Most entrepreneurs get it wrong from the start. They start off thinking they are bosses. No they are not. They start off thinking they are rich. No they are not. They start off thinking, they are different from a typical employee. No they are not. They start off behaving successful, no they should not. I’ll tell you why:
In your small business, everything depends on you to remain operational. You make the important phones calls, you sign the important contracts, you pay your employees, you oversee the filing and paying of taxes. You attend all important meetings your company is invited to. You speak for the company, represent the company and think for the company. This high level of ‘business dependence on the entrepreneur’ is what makes you an underdog employee.
It’s not like one morning you can decide to take a 2 month vacation. Your business would close the next day. If you fall sick, your business falls sick with you. If you feel depressed your business becomes depressed with you. If you become less productive your business becomes dull with you. If you become stressed, your business becomes stressed with you. If you run out of new ideas, your business becomes slow and stuck with you. In other words, your business imitates you because you are the business.
The hilarious part is that many entrepreneurs like it that way. They love to be the business. They feel proud when giving orders every day, every year. Their ego is served when everything in their business rotates around them. They are boss! Hooray! This is silly. Yea’ heard me right. It is stupid! You will never be able to generate large sums of profit until your business has grown to the level of behaving like a big corporation and until you the entrepreneur has graduated to behaving, thinking and acting like an investor.
Big corporations operate in systems, procedures and processes. They break down tasks and assign each task to an individual employee or a team. They have fast reporting mechanisms in place and that’s how they manage to keep all departments in a smooth coordination state. Within such efficient work systems, procedures and processes, success does not depend on any individual, not even the CEO at the top.
It rather depends on the continuation of those efficient systems, procedures and processes. When an employee becomes inactive, it becomes easier to replace them. Because everything they know about the tasks they were responsible to execute somebody else knows or can learn and takeover fast.
Investors tend to own corporations through shares, stock, etc. The amazing part is that most of the times other than through monthly, yearly reports they don’t really know what’s going on the ground. The businesses they invest in operate without their presence, sometimes without their active awareness. They don’t work! They invest in businesses that work for them. They make their money while sleeping. Even when they are on a vacation, bank alerts of new deposits keep ringing! This is the level a starting entrepreneur must arrive at to be called successful.
An entrepreneur must start their business with an ultimate vision to one day cut off its dependence on their presence and turn it into a self automated machine that makes money while they sleep. To achieve this level of business independence, the entrepreneur must develop along the way, efficient business systems, procedures and processes through which everything, anything at all will be initiated, executed, managed, monitored, evaluated and made effective without dependence on any single employee.
You have to develop various departments within your company responsible for the success of specific tasks. Your business needs the following strong departments;
#1 sales department
#2 public relations
#3 marketing department
#4 production department
#5 customer service department
#6 Human resources department
#7 logistics department
#8 finance department
#9 Administration office: CEO, receptionist, secretary, etc.
#10 Legal department
Some companies might choose to combine 2 or 3 departments into 1. Then create teams charged with specific tasks. What is more important is that each department is responsible for coming up with specific efficient and effective work systems, procedures and processes with regard to their responsibilities and goals.
Point to ponder: Make sure your business can operate without your presence until then, what you have is a job not a business.
Editorial/ Yewe Yewe
email: yeweyewecommunity@yeweyewe.com
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