The Mindset of a Startup Small Business Owner

We all want to be the masters of our own destinies. So what better way than to start up your own small business? So what does it take? What kind of person do you have to be? What are some of the personal challenges that you can you expect to face?

You will have wear multiple hats, many at the same time. You will have to do the selling, the marketing, handle the customers, take care of the finances, perhaps produce the products and a variety of other tasks. This would be ok if they were each going on in separate time frames, but for the small business owner they need attention almost at the same time.  

The demands placed on a small business owner are very much like those of a CEO of a large corporation. You have the final responsibility for everything. The exception to the CEO, is that he is not expected to perform the majority of these tasks, but as a small startup, you will have very little choice but to carry out many of them yourself.   You will need to be able to think tactically and strategically almost at the same time. Our large Corporate CEO spends most of his time planning for the future and determining the overall direction for the corporation. He provides the strategic vision for his corporation. He spends very little time thinking about how the operation should run on a day to day basis, down in the trenches. Again this is where the small business owner differs. He must be able to perform at both levels, tactically day to day, hour by hour as well as strategically defining where he would like the business to be next year and the year beyond that.  

The small business owner must also be able to adapt to change as fast as possible. The product mix may be wrong, suppliers may let him down, customers may not have paid on time for goods and services rendered. The end result of any of a number of issues and crises is that the small business owner must be able to adapt to changing circumstances constantly. The idea of going to work and performing the same tasks day after day with very little variation would be a foreign concept to the small business owner.  

Taking this one step further, the small business owner must be able to be very flexible and be able to deal with uncertainty. As an employee one thinks that just by showing up and doing whatever your job description is, you will get your pay check. You expect lunch at noon or whatever the company rules state. You expect to work from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, from Monday to Friday. You expect to have so many sick days and vacation days. These are not the expectations of a small business owner. He can only expect an ever changing environment.  

So far this seems like I have painted a tough picture. The new small business owner must be resilient, flexible, have the mind of a computer, the skills of a CEO, and be able to work very long, stress filled and tiring days. This is true on all counts! The difference is the independence, being the captain of your own ship and being able to build something potentially huge up from nothing. The financial rewards can be gigantic for you and your family. Furthermore, this has been done tens of thousands of times before. So it’s not just an impossible dream, but something that is achievable.