How Do I Know If I’ve Got What It Takes To Be The Boss?

Dirty Secrets of Small Business

In This Episode

A client of ours recently attended a presentation focused on business transition. One of the things that stuck in his head was a quote from a speaker who had recently taken over the business after working for the company for the better part of two decades. He said, “I went from being involved in everything to being responsible for everything.” Gulp!

This is something we address with nearly every business transition we get involved with, especially when it includes family. This is one of the hardest things to prepare someone for when it comes to answering the question of whether you want to own the business or not. Newt Gingrich can certainly speak to this experience as he reflected on the differences between being part of the House of Representatives vs. being Speaker of the House. Newt talked about how it’s easier to throw fire bombs from the back row vs. being the one up in front.

There tends to be a lot of romance around the topic of business ownership. Just Google the phrase “top reasons to own/start your own business” and you’ll find lots of romantic reasons for owning your own business (all of which are positive). Like any pursuit (or relationship), that romance comes with a lot of hard work as well. And not just hard work, but work you may not want to do. But as the owner there is often no one else who is willing to do that work either so guess where it falls? Squarely on your shoulders. This “hard work” can vary depending on your perspective. For some people it’s getting out there to market the business to grow sales. For others it’s dealing with all the people issues or making sense of the numbers or collecting money from customers.

So you have to ask yourself if you truly want to be responsible for everything vs. simply being involved in everything when thinking about this topic of business ownership. Too many business owners don’t come to this realization until they’re already in that ownership seat. We’ve identified a handful of key attributes for success for a business owner which we discuss in today’s show. These include things like not having a job mentality, humility, and a willingness to try things. Listen to today’s show to find out more about these characteristics and others.

People, Companies and Resources We Mentioned in the Show

• Inc. Magazine (https://www.inc.com/guides/201101/top-10-reasons-to-run-your-own-business.html)
• Entrepreneur Magazine (https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/243145)

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