In today’s Blog, we’re going to focus on those of you who are “business owners” or want to switch from being self-employed to being a “business owner.”

When I talk about being a business owner, I am talking about a business that has intrinsic value. It has a team in place. It has processes and procedures. It is a business that works without the owner always being there.

Building a business like this is a skill set. In fact, it is four different skill sets. And therein lies the problem with most people’s businesses.

The challenge I see in a lot of small to medium-sized businesses is the owner. More specifically, it’s the owner’s ego that gets in the way. In most cases, it’s the owner who doesn’t understand who they are, or more importantly, who they’re not in their own company.

Most people who start a business, think they’re an entrepreneur. The fact is, most are not. “But wait,” I can hear you say, “I thought anybody who starts a business as an entrepreneur,” and my answer to that is no. I do not believe that is the case. And in fact, I think that misconception is what holds a lot of people back.

If you are going to build a successful business that can survive without you, you’re going to need a team. That team will generally be made up of four different types of personalities.

Number one is the entrepreneur. Every business needs an entrepreneur. Number two is the manager, you’re gonna need a manager.

Number three is the salesperson. A lot of times an entrepreneur can be a salesperson because they know how to sell a vision.

And number four, you’re going to have to have somebody who’s a technician or a specialist, the person that’s out there actually doing the work.

So we have these four personalities. Now, I would say that most people who start businesses are technicians or specialists. Unfortunately, that is why they either fail or end up staying self-employed.

So let’s break down these four.

The Entrepreneur – An entrepreneur is not a skill set. An entrepreneur is a mindset. Entrepreneurs are dreamers. They have the right kind of personal filter, something we talked about in a previous blog. Entrepreneurs tend to think at 30,000 feet. They see the future, (their own) They’re very conceptual in nature. Entrepreneurs tend to think in bullet points. They think fast. They tend not to get bogged down in the details…they have, or need people for that. They tend to operate very comfortably in chaos. I will tell you that they are the most important and the least important person in a growing organization.