“Small business isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s for the brave, the patient and the persistent. It’s for the overcomer.” — Unknown
Small business has a high failure rate.
It helps to know what gets in the way of launching and running a successful small business.
One of the key ways an individual staring a small business can fail is if they don’t balance The Enterpreneur, The Manager, and The Technician inside them.
In The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It, Michael E. Gerber, writes about how an individual starting a small business can fail and how they need to balance their inner Entrepreneur, Manager, and Technician.
The Business Fails When the Balance is Wrong
The business fails when the balance of power is wrong between The Entrepreneur, The Manager, and The Technician.
Gerber writes:
“The fact of the matter is that we all have an Entrepreneur, Manager, and Technician inside us.
And if they were equally balanced, we’d be describing an incredibly competent individual.
The Entrepreneur would be free to forge ahead into new areas of interest; The Manager would be solidifying the base of operations; and
The Technician would be doing the technical work.
Each would derive satisfaction from the work he does best, serving the whole in the most productive way.
Unfortunately, our experience shows that few people who go into business are blessed with such a balance.
Instead, the typical small business owner is only 10 percent Entrepreneur, 20 percent Manager, and 70 percent Technician.”
The Business Fails When the Technician is at the Helm
As much as the Technician would love to run the business, it’s a disaster for the business.
It puts the wrong person at the helm.
Gerber writes:
“The Entrepreneur wakes up with a vision.
The Manager screams ‘Oh, no!’
And while the two of them are battling it out, The Technician seizes the opportunity to go into business for himself.
Not to pursue the entrepreneurial dream, however, but to finally wrest control of his work from the other two.
To The Technician it’s a dream come true.
The Boss is dead. But to the business it’s a disaster, because the wrong person is at the helm.
The Technician is in charge!”
When you can better balance across the board of personalities, that’s how you learn to use the right persona for the right job.
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The Entrepreneur, The Manager, and The Technician