The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur

Entrepreneurs / business owners are often referred to as “Swiss Army Knives” because of the versatility required to run a business.

When you start a business, as well as being the visionary CEO, you also need to be the:

• Number-crunching FD
• HR Department
• Marketing Agency
• Delivery Manager
• IT Support
• Project Manager
• Tax Specialist (the list goes on)

Of course, it’s IMPOSSIBLE for anyone to have all these hard skills. You can learn the ‘how’, but realistically you need to let go and leave those functional tasks to the experts – whether it be outsourced externally or delegated to a member of your team.

And to do this, it’s essential you document each process as early as possible in your business journey, so that it’s not all stuck in your head, it’s consistent, and it can be handed over to someone else so that you can focus ON the business, and on those skills that make the biggest impact for your business.

But it’s a lot more than just the Functional Skills.

A few months back, we asked our business community on what makes up an entrepreneur. This was the result…

It was fascinating (but not surprising) to see all the soft skills (i.e., skills like collaboration, empathy, leadership, time management) they came up with.

Running a business is an emotional rollercoaster, and this quote I recently read summed it up:

“You gotta train your mind to be stronger than your emotions or else you’ll lose yourself every time.”

So, how do you do this in business?

• Surround yourself with positive like-minded people and avoid negative thinking.
• Get clarity on your purpose, your why, and (constantly) make sure everyone around you knows and understands this.
• Create a collaborative culture and listen before reacting.
• Set up a dashboard of alerts and alarms so the business can tell you of a potential problem before it arises.
• Learn every single day what your business is telling you so that you can base decisions on hard facts, not emotions.

And finally remember that EVERYONE needs something to believe in, someone to believe in, and someone to believe in them.

Would love to hear if you think we’ve missed anything off the Anatomy…

BW,

Martin

PS – no jokes please about “Hair for pulling out” 

Martin Norbury

Investor | Business Mentor at Advocate | Author of I don’t work Fridays