Entrepreneurship is not necessarily business ownership, and business owners are not necessarily entrepreneurs.
Last week, a fellow small business owner said to me that we, meaning small business owners, are all entrepreneurs.
This struck me as very interesting, because I don’t see this person as an entrepreneur, and I don’t believe most small business owners are entrepreneurs.
My ideas on business ownership and entrepreneurship were conceived several years ago while reading Michael Gerber’s book The E-Myth Revisited (which happens to be one of my favorite business books of all time, and is probably the book I recommend most).
In The E-Myth (the myth of the entrepreneur), Gerber argues that most small businesses are started when people who are “technicians”, those of us who make money from our technical abilities, have a fit of entrepreneurship. As Gerber explains, these are people who spend the vast majority of their time working as a skilled technician, then one day they suddenly decide to start their own business to make money for themselves.
Gerber gives the example of Sarah, a pie baker who one day decides to open up her own pie shop called All About Pies. The trouble is that while Sarah really loves to bake pies, she now finds herself doing everything but that—ordering, accounting, hiring, bill paying, etc.
These typical “entrepreneurs” are really only entrepreneurial for a very short amount of time—just long enough to start their own business, but not long enough to nurture and grow that business.
I believe an entrepreneur is someone who recognizes an opportunity and acts on it by putting systems in place and overseeing its execution, all while starting to look for the next opportunity.
Business owners who are not entrepreneurs are generally skilled technicians or simply untrained business people. These business owners are rarely able to remove themselves from their business, and they frequently struggle to see any signs of growth. This is the category I am currently trying to leave, because I see brighter pastures as an entrepreneurial business owner.
Entrepreneurial business owners are constantly coming up with new ways to expand their business beyond their own ideas, trusting others to execute plans and use judgment to achieve common goals. These are the business owners who grow their companies in any economic climate, sometimes at an astounding pace.
So, is it possible to be a business owner and not an entrepreneur? Yes, and this is typically the case, especially with small businesses.
Is it possible to be an entrepreneur and not a business owner? Absolutely, when a company is entrepreneurial itself and the management allows its employees to be entrepreneurial in working toward common goals.
Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google recently said, “Ultimately, people stay in companies because they can achieve something.” This is truly an entrepreneurial mindset, and I believe this statement is as true for business owners as it is for employees.
It should be the goal of everyone, business owners, employees, and managers, to embody the entrepreneurial mindset. When people are collaborating on goals they are passionate about, we all benefit.
And for business owners, operating with an entrepreneurial mindset is the most rewarding, most inspiring, and ultimately the most practical way to operate and grow any business.
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