The Myth of the Hard-Working Small Business Owner Part 1

posted on Apr 27 by Tim Conley in the Entrepreneurship category

Heretic Is My Middle Name

Call me a heretic.  But there is a truth that has been lying just under the surface for decades.  Some business gurus and pundits have mentioned it, but were too afraid to bring it completely into the open.

Not I.  I can stand by no longer while my fellow entrepreneurs suffer from this unknown illness.

It’s called laziness.

What!!?  How dare I call small business owners lazy?

I am aware of the tens of thousands of small business owners who work 16 hour days 7 days a week.  And I am calling them lazy.  It is actually worse than just being lazy, it also contains a lot of fear of change.  I will explain my heresy in a minute.

For over a decade, I have worked with over 200 small businesses from local hardware stores to fledgling software companies and everyone of them suffered from this malaise to some degree.  The laziness comes from not wanting to work on the parts of their business that will release them from their long hours.  The whole working in their business and not on their business mentality.

The Courage To Deal With The Unkown Is Key To Success

The greatest strength an entrepreneur has is the ability to cope with ambiguity.  That’s why we are able to start businesses and others don’t.  Most people think it’s the ability to handle risk, but most entrepreneurs don’t do something to be risky or that seems risky.  We have a vision of a better future and then work to create that future.

We all start out wearing most or all the hats and handle the ambiguity of not knowing the ‘right’ answer to how things should be done.  We just get it done.

The problem of conservatism (maintaining the status quo) kicks in for nearly all entrepreneurs.  Some recognize it and then step out of their comfort zone and back into ambiguity.  These are the entrepreneurs who go on to build bigger businesses–ones that can run without them.  They relinquish control over jobs (hats) and create processes to guide people when they aren’t around.

The trap I see happen with most small business owners is they become conservative, which is based on a fear of the unknown.  “If I hire an employee, will she do it as well as me?” Or “What if I can’t afford to pay my bills when I hire an employee.”

The reason I call this laziness is that from all the consulting I have done over the years and from meeting hundreds of other small business owners is they say they don’t have time and/or the energy to work on their business.

Working 80+ Hours A Week Isn’t Hard-Work, It’s Stupid

Yet they have the time and energy to work 16 hours a day 7 days a week.  And mostly on tasks that they could pay someone minimum wage to do.  The crucial parts of a business that can’t be hired out are the vision and the leadership.  When building a business those to elements are crucial to success.  The job of an entrepreneur is to guide the business not do the jobs of the business.

I always ask my potential clients if they can find just one hour each week to work on their business.  Those who say they can’t, I won’t hire as a client.  Once I show them how they can replace themselves with someone else, cost effectively, and what they should do with the new-found time, they become more successful.  They are able to work less and achieve more.

In part two of this article, I will discuss how to replace yourself and what jobs should be replaced first and what to do with the time gained to become more successful.

Tim

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