If The Sky Is Falling, Be Careful Where You Stand

Oh, cried Chicken Little, the sky is falling. I must go tell the king. I saw it with my eyes, I heard it with my ears, and a bit of it fell on my head, said Chicken Little.

That old fable is being resurrected daily in this day of bail-outs and corporate chop busting. As a result, many of the down-sized may consider entrepreneurship. I urge caution in any rush to open your own stand.

Here are some roadblocks that you may want to noodle on before betting what is left of the 401K on a business for or by yourself:

Technicians in all fields need to be especially careful. Do not make what could be a fatal assumption that, because you are technically skilled in a certain area, you can make a successful business out of your skill. No doubt you can create a job for yourself, but a going business? Not so much.

Far too many technicians end up spending their time working IN their business(job)rather than ON their business. There are only so many billable hours in a day and technicians often run out of day before all of the expenses are covered and they have some left over for themselves(profit).

Just because you are now working for or have worked for someone who, in your opinion, does not or did not know how to run a business, do not assume you can do better. Maybe you can. Chances are pretty good you cannot.

Steering any type of small business ship through the shark-infested waters today requires marketing and other skills that you may not possess or you may be weak in.

Before you or your bank account gets eaten alive, you need to clearly understand what you do not know and undertake a systematic approach to fill in your personal voids.

Be cautious about setting up an enterprise that runs well only when you run, but sputters when you are off doing other things. The mark of a truly successful small business is one that runs well with or without your presence.

Getting to that point is a tough slog. Most never make it. Oftentimes an entrepreneur will start a company, grow it and then tire of running it. That is normal.

The challenge has always been to understand that your business model must include creating a team and not just hiring helpers. Huge difference.

Helpers cannot run your business . . . at least not well . . . certainly not for long! Team members can . . . IF you apply what I will call the H.I.T. factor: Help them. Incentivize them. Teach them.

This H.I.T. factor is missing in so many business models. Not to say you cannot run a business without it, but when H.I.T. is missing, YOU are going to wear down and your dream business may well morph into a nightmare.

You can work overtime applying your personal technical expertise to your enterprise but the fact is there is only one of you and only a finite amount of time.

The real juice of a small biz is in finding ways to build your business outside of yourself . . . a business that can not only be run by others but can also be replicated by others.

Meeting that kind of challenge is very, very difficult. In some specialized fields, it is impossible; i.e., brain surgeon. Most successful entrepreneurs need to be visionaries and not just technicians.

The visionary is open about learning what they do not know and willing to invest their time and effort to learn. The visionary is excited by putting together a team. The visionary is always expanding their reach.
Their sky rarely falls. Visionaries are moving too fast . . . always reaching for the next rung of the ladder!

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