Don’t be an entrepreneurial poser. Yes, poser. (Thank you to my very cool son Josh for the edgy word.) Not really the words you might expect from a grown man but boy does it fit. When you go out as a teenager and buy a whole lot of skate board clothes but can’t stand on a board, they call you a poser. When you dress like a surfer, but don’t actually surf or even boogie board on your family vacation, you are a poser. Don’t be something you’re not. Be true to yourself. And by George, skate or surf a little bit, or try at least! This is coming from the Outside-In® Guy who had surfing on his bucket list. When I went surfing, the guide said, “Dude if the 400 pound Samoans could surf than, well, I guess you can too.”  Ouch! I’ll show him! All morning in the ocean, and a total of three seconds in an upright position and enough board rash and bruised ego to skip the next lesson!

So what exactly is an entrepreneurial poser? Lately, I meet many people who want to be entrepreneurs. I read about how hard it is today to start a business. That conditions are not ideal. That if money were easier to secure, or space was available, or “If I didn’t have all this college debt, I would definitely be starting my own business”. 

Starting a business is always hard. Starting a business is never easy. It is not supposed to be easy! You have to have a passion for what you’re trying to accomplish and you better believe in your big vision and in yourself. Because some days and weeks running a company hurts. But starting one? Bootstrapping was the hardest single thing I ever tried.

Today, there are so many resources to start a company. There are books, counselors, college courses, start-up weekends, angel networks, chambers, beehives, incubators, even junior high and high school programs with wonderful institutions like Junior Achievement. Some days I think this is the problem. You have too much information. Too many “so called” experts. Too many road maps that describe others’ path to “success”.

So, to all you entrepreneurial posers: Start a business because you have passion and believe in an idea. Because you see a gap in a market. Because you think you can do something better. But don’t you dare do it for the fame or the money. Without passion there are rarely profits in the long term!

Furthermore, please don’t tell me why you can’t start your business. It just gets old. A downturn is the best time to start a business by the way, less competition and labor is available. These are pretty good times too. There have always been barriers. There have always been funding issues. You’re not unique to think that living on savings and not drawing a salary for a year or two is too much to bare. Yes, I know, working 20 hours a day with no days off is hard, and you won’t get any days off (including weekends) in the early days. This is simply the price of admission. If you lack the money than you have sweat equity to give.

A business exists as long as the owner says it does. There is always a way. Trust me. I know. Floods, theft, fire, and collapsed roofs make competition seem like nothing! For all you posers, you have a choice, work for an entrepreneurial company, or get up on the entrepreneurial board and go for it!

I am a fourth generation entrepreneur.  My family has worked for themselves for so long that it is all I can even remember.  My father always taught that it is best to control ones own destiny, to have your problems and opportunities be your own.  It sure makes sense to me.  The last thing I want is to have someone else make decisions that determine my fate.  By “being my own boss” I at least get to determine my own path.

When I started my company over ten years ago, I wanted my employees to get a taste of being an entrepreneur and set out to make entrepreneurial traits and qualities a part of the culture. In fact, we set out to select our values by trying to figure out what our customers needed us to be in order to serve them best.  This is the very nature of what Outside-In® is all about.  Do what is best for the customer all of the time.  Even when choosing values.  After all, values are the true personality of the company.  And this represents what I hoped would be the ongoing actions and behaviors of my people!

One of our values became Intrapreneurship.  I certainly didn’t invent the term; however,  the word seems to represent what I wanted from employees.  Be an entrepreneur.  Act like an entrepreneur.  Experience what it is like to be one.  Sell, Lead, Serve. Exist as an entrepreneur.  I felt then (and still believe) that if all employees embrace this then they can have a better day-to-day job.

You see, being an intrapreneur is about working day-to-day like you own the place.  To care like your name is on the door, and to have the kind of work experience and day-to-day role where anything is possible.  If you see a problem, prioritize and fix it.  If you want to more responsibility, go get more knowledge.  Perhaps you want and need more financial reward, well, find away to create equal or greater value for the organization.  Intrapreneurs look to create value.  They look for new market opportunities.  They figure out how and when to innovate new products and services that make our customer’s world a better place.

Without intrapreneurs we would not be in the contingent staffing business, which represents so much of our growth in customers, revenues, and of course opportunities for future intrapreneurs. Without intrapreneurs we would not be in the search business.  We would still be politely saying no to prospect and customer alike. Without intrapreneurs we could not help our relationships with services that support their job search with resume work, career coaching, and outplacement.

All of these seem big to me.  And they are.  Intrapreneurs help us change and evolve during turbulent and changing times.  But I promise you that the best thing about being intrapreneur is the growth and learning that one receives in exchange for their ideas, innovation and hard work. At CBI Group, our real challenge is that we are a flat, matrixed organization.  We don’t think much about titles, unless they make it more clear for our customers to deal with us.  We will always be adding talent to the business.  Everyone here is equal; we just play different roles!

Where else can someone do so much without taking on the financial risk themselves?  Sure, some alumni have left to do their own thing.  But, if you ask me, there is no greater compliment!

How will you apply your own intrapreneurialism to your company?

Many of us start companies because we are unhappy working for someone else. You don’t like the way customers are handled. You might think chasing profits is shallow as a sole pursuit. Or perhaps you think the products are crap. Or my favorite — it’s hard to identify with leadership, and get a sense of where and how the company is managing what can only be described as challenging but opportunity-rich times.

Yet, I meet just as many unhappy small business risk-takers. Newly minted entrepreneurs who are very, very unhappy. Why is that? Oftentimes, this new business owner leaves a job they were good at, to accept one they are a novice at.  Starting and running a new business is harder than you can even imagine. There are few blueprints and road-maps. Yes, there are lots of resources. Yes, there are chambers, coaches, counselors, incubators, universities, that all want you to succeed. YOU is the key part of this. This is all on you (or you and your partner) – but it is still on you.

There is little time to delegate. Even less to procrastinate.  You must make it all happen in the beginning. And YOU will not be good at all of the things that are necessary to survive to get to profits… But you must do them. Make the sales call. Design the website. Take out the trash. These tasks, duties and functions fall on you. Until you get to the point in your plan, that critical milestone where someone else can be hired to take that thing you started and make it better.

The Path to Happiness? Well, it took me forever to learn it.  Longer to teach it.  During the recession I had to learn to do it all again.  It was on ME to do everything. During that time I learned to enjoy it a little more. When I rebuilt my company, the hand off was much, much sweeter. And of course, the Happiness comes from doing what you are good at all of the time.  That is the holy grail for entrepreneurs.

Ever thought about how entrepreneurial-minded your company was? Being entrepreneurial has nothing to do with the size of the organization or the industry you work in.  There are easy ways to know if your company is supportive of an entrepreneurial way of operating.  Does having an entrepreneurial mindset even matter? Oh, it does. We all like to work differently and have a comfort zone. Think about it. What is your entrepreneurial comfort zone? The following ten descriptions identify the components of an entrepreneurial-minded organization, do any of them sound familiar to you?

10.  You do not have a job description for your role.  Your job allows you the freedom to explore and and help others with business challenges.  Many entrepreneurial companies like Google allow one day a week to work on big or new ideas!  At my company, employees have the freedom to think and join projects of interest – no matter what their job “title” is.

9.  Your company allows you to give back in the community through volunteerism of your choice.  Entrepreneurial companies live, work, play, even worship in the markets they serve and they find a way to give back! Whether its participating in 5Ks, attending charity benefits, or holding donation drives, entrepreneurial-minded companies make sure that they play a part in community service.

8.  Your company has a supportive organizational structure and tries to cut the “red tape”.  Heavy structure and elaborate policies are designed to create order, however, they can really stifle entrepreneurial activity!

7. You have access to resources.  Sounds like an odd one for an entrepreneurial culture where boot-strapping reigns supreme, right?  But the right companies know that the proper access to the right tools, resources, and materials can inspire the spark of The Next Big Thing.  Or many, many little wins that make the company stronger!

6.  You are encouraged to take risks.  You feel like you won’t lose your job or be screamed at if you fail.  I like to say, Make all of the $9 dollar mistakes you can, limit the $999 ones.  But maybe I am wrong in the end.  Great entrepreneurial companies have leadership that tolerates failure and learns to thrive on change.

5.  Your ideas matter. Your company knows that you might be a little closer to the customer.  And that the issues and challenges you face might be hassles in your job, but, if solved might be the key to retaining customers or growing new ones! When it comes to new ideas, your opinion matters.

4.  Your company avoids the creation of individual department silos.  When business people work together across department, at all levels, and skills sets great things can happen.  “No Silos” means one general company goal.  Think Steve Jobs and Apple.  One measure, one report, one P and L for the whole business!

3.  Your company balances risk-taking and innovation with established routines,  specialization, and structure and systems that create perceived stability.  This is not easy.  Too much routine and structure stifles the entrepreneur.  Too much entrepreneurial influence ?  Well, in my opinion never a bad thing.  But, at some point all products and services start to peak in their relevance.  New ideas and companies that listen to their customers generate new revenue streams. (Shameless plug, frankly, as they need to be Outside-In®.)

2.  You are asked for your opinion.  An entrepreneurial company stays this way if it monitors itself.  The best way to monitor oneself is to ask employees how they are doing on creating an environment that encourages risk-taking and team work on to improve the business.

1.  Senior management is committed to innovation and change.  New ideas are encouraged.  Risk-taking is often rewarded, even if it bombs.  Most importantly, delegation and appropriate authority to pursue entrepreneurial ideas that better the business are handed out liberally!

Sound like your company? If so, leave a comment about your experiences. Is there anything – as an intrapreneur – that you would like to see happen at your company? I’d be interested to hear your thoughts!

Every person wants to be one.  Every school, business group, and investor wants to find and develop them. Big business wants to find them to buy their products.  Entrepreneurs are today’s royalty.  But that is not why we do what we do.  I thought you might like to see my Top 10 Misnomers of The Entrepreneur:

1.  ”Entrepreneurs love big risk.” Actually, entrepreneurs hate risk – I swear it is true! The world thinks we live for “the big gamble”, and that we like to take chances.  But we do not.  In fact, most of us will mitigate a risk the second we get the opportunity.

2.  “Entrepreneurs are all visionaries.” We are not all visionaries. In fact, we simply work harder at gathering information about a market or customer segment.  We have better information!

3.  ”Entrepreneurs hate authority.” This is a common misconception about entrepreneurs.  Trust me, we don’t hate authority or direct supervision or even the concept of outside input. The reality is that we do want teams and opinions. We thrive on the input and insights that a team can provide.

4.  “Entrepreneurs can’t secure a job!” We can get a job – really, we can! I have heard it said that most entrepreneurs are not-for-hire and are incorrigible. I am not sure this is entirely true. Entrepreneurs see and work differently, because the work of an entrepreneur is different than most jobs. Entrepreneurs try to do it all, because they have too. As business evolves so does the entrepreneurial job. What we all want is to feel important, to be heard, to be apart of the process of improvement. To feel valued.

5.  “Entrepreneurs dislike structure and routine.” No, we like structure. We do. Sure, we may evolve away from the rigors of corporate America.  We feel “free” from the weight for a little while.  Yet, as our business ideas grow and achieve some size and scale we again become comfortable with the ideas of structure and routine.  We may say we hate it; but really we just need to evolve through the steps of organically achieving each step and level of business success.

6.  “Entrepreneurs love to work 100 hour weeks.” We do not like to work 100 hour weeks. Really we don’t.  Okay, some of us do.  However, more of us prefer to see our business operate without our involvement each and every step of the way.

7.  “The advantages and disadvantages of competitors don’t apply to entrepreneurs.”  Believe me when I say, we do have the same advantages and disadvantages of our competitors – big and small. Smaller businesses have speed and limited rules while big companies have money infrastructure, resources, and big budgets. All are advantages, all are barriers.  It is up the leadership to maximize the possibilities with whatever your resources might be.

8.  “Entrepreneurial businesses have too many limitations.”  Popular opinion suggests that small business has limits.  Not true! Small business has advantages. We are smaller, faster, have less limitations, less history, and baggage to get in the way.  New and big ideas come when there are not the barriers of what previously existed!

9.  “Entrepreneurs value vision over execution.” Some of us have learned that vision is not the same as an idea well executed.  Not all of us are dreamers.  We evolve through our experiences too.  Execution is where it is at!  Yes, you need vision, the troops want to know where we are headed.  But getting things done well make all of the real differences.

10.  “Entrepreneurs are always content.”  Don’t worry, entrepreneurs can be unhappy too. Life is not perfect for anyone. Our lives seem easy, our cars new, our houses nice to visit.  But, we have sacrificed to get where we are.  And those sacrifices will not be evident at first glance.  But we are unhappy when we compare our goals to something perfect!  Perfection comes when we learn to celebrate what we do achieve!

So those are the common misconceptions I typically encounter as an entrepreneur. Do you agree? Disagree?  Send me yours and we can post them all!

Guest blog by Chris Barton MBA SPHR, President at Barton Career Advisors

Over the last three years I have learned a lot about being an entrepreneur.  I would say that 50% of what I have learned has come from actually “doing” my job as a leader of a business that is innovating in the outplacement industry.  The other half of my learning has come from a combination of sources: reading (I’ll share my list shortly), networking with other leaders of high-growth organizations, business development wins/failures, insight and collaboration of partners, and a confidential entrepreneurial mentoring relationship.  If I was put on the spot, it would not be easy for me to assign a percentage to each of these channels of information.  I’ll say this though, with 100% certainty, you are going to need all of it.

Being an entrepreneur can be lonely – particularly if you have experienced rejection from others who do not share your passion for changing the world.  So, finding and defining trusted channels of information is critical.  There is a statistic that is widely quoted from a study done by Inc.com and the National Business Incubation Association.  Simply stated, 80% of new entrepreneurial businesses fail within the first five years of operations.  That’s a mind-blowing number for most people and more than enough to convince many not to take the chance.

If you are considering launching a new venture or interested in joining one as a leader, you should take some time to reflect on your resolve.  It goes without saying that your “risk tolerance” should be high.  But that is not enough. If you are going to make your “roll” on the big craps table of entrepreneurship, I’d like to share just a few diamonds of information distilled from my learning over the past three years since launching our outplacement business.

Define Your Values Early On

When you get started with any new venture, it always seems as if the mere momentum and passion for your new idea are going to be enough.  Trust me, it will not be.  Becoming an entrepreneur is a whole lot like getting married.  If you want the relationship between you and your company to last the test of time, then you better get clear on values right from the beginning.  I am not talking about personal values.  I am referring to the values you want your organization to live, breath, and display every day.

Defining and knowing business values early on can give you some solace when the monthly revenue numbers are not going your way.  We have a set of ten values that we live in the outplacement business.  One of the most prominent is “Investing in People. Investing in the Future.”  I ask myself each and every day, ”Are we true to our values? Did we make a difference for this client?” I know if we get the values right that the P&L will take care of itself (for the most part).  Further, one can go back to their values regularly (particularly when you are feeling stale) to regain energy and passion for the long fight ahead.

Measure Your Performance

Many start-up ventures, including mine, do not hit their initial, overly optimistic financial projections.  This does not however excuse the fact that a line in the sand has to be established somewhere.  You have got to figure out the key performance indicators for your business and attend to them like a hawk!  If the numbers don’t say what you like against the plan, resist the temptation to lower your goals.  It might make you feel good today, but you will pay for it down the road when it is time to ask for funding and other outside assistance.

There is yet another reason to measure performance.  Celebrations!  There is nothing more important than planning a reasonable reward for yourself and your team when the business exceeds its projections.  Celebrations and rewards are an affirmation of your hard work, diligence, and intelligence when it comes to “making it happen” on a weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly basis.  You are going to need this because there will be many times when you have to say, “No celebration this quarter. We missed our numbers by 9%.”

Know Yourself

I am still amazed at how some professionals will strike out on an endeavor without having some knowledge of their individual attributes as a person.  Specifically, if you want to be an entrepreneur, you better know yourself.  Let me say it again.  You better know yourself.  Why is this so important?  Well, there are some things that you are just not going to be good at in business and you will need to find others to help.  Further, it is important you understand your skills, personality attributes, desired work, risk tolerance, and working methods.

An example from my own personal background might be worth the effort here.  My Myers Briggs personality type is ENTP.  In the assessment we use in our outplacement business, I am described at a high level as a “Classic Entrepreneur and Inventor”. Sounds great doesn’t it? My personality seems almost perfect for someone in my line of work!  My “dark side” comes out when I recognize the opportunities for growth in my personality.  Specifically, I like to design things and then move on to the next thing.  This is not always a good thing.  I have learned to surround myself with great project managers and structured people who can bring necessary order and rhythm to the business.  Where would I get this insight from had I not invested the time to get to know myself?

Pick Great Partners

I am fortunate to have had picked some great partners as I began my quest to change the outplacement world.  Specifically, I get to work every day surrounded by a great bunch of entrepreneurial minds at CBI Group and Placers.  These are people that understand what it is like to structure a business, build a business plan, develop a culture, and be the driving force behind a dream. More importantly we share a set of common values that allows the combined group of entities to share resources and key market insights.  Even more powerful is our ability to scale and capture business opportunities only available due to our combined competitive advantage.

As do most start-ups, Barton Career Advisors needed to establish both formal and informal partnerships to grow the business. While CBI Group and Placers represent our formal partnerships we also have developed informal linkages to complimentary referral sources, executive search firms, business leaders, consultants, clients, and friends who share our vision for the future.  These informal partners have become an invaluable part of our support network and a community of believers that perpetuate the story of a new paradigm in outplacement and career transition.  Great partners, both formal and informal make the odds of success in entrepreneurship just a little less daunting.  If you want to win as an entrepreneur you need to create a fellowship of believers and supporters. Pick your partners wisely!

My Entrepreneurial Reading List- As Promised!

Here are a few titles that are on my reading list.  All great reads for those of us with entrepreneurial ravings!

• Mastering the Rockefeller Habits – Verne Harnish
• Delivering Happiness – Tony Hsieh
• Steve Jobs – Walter Isaacson
• Losing My Virginity – Richard Branson
• When the Little Things Count…And They Always Count - Barbara Pachter
• The One Minute Manager - Ken Blanchard, Ph.D. & Spencer Johnson, M.D.
• Born to Win – Lewis Timberlake with Marietta Reed
• Business Relationships That Last – Ed Wallace

So, I am sitting with my family watching the opening ceremonies Friday evening (I think I am the only one I know that liked it…must be that strange, British wit!) and I kept thinking about all of the human interest stories about the athletes.  I thought about their struggles…family sacrifices…the long hours training…the obstacles overcome…and the incredible courage it takes to truly be the best in the world.  I find that is truly the best part of the Olympic experience.

All of us can identify with the moms sitting on the edge of their seats wringing their hands in agony as they watch their sons and daughters compete! Or the sense of pride that wells up inside us when our country earns a medal.  There is an emotional connection to the athlete.  All of us seem to identify at some level to the people…badminton or air rifles? Not so much.

This got me thinking about business and the world that entrepreneurs enter every day.  There aren’t any “Entrepreneurial Olympics”, but, there should be.  Yes, there are growth awards, there are special lists for your company in your industry, and you can even become Entrepreneur of the Year. In 2010, I was the Entrepreneur of the Year, and the hardest part of the whole thing was to bring the story of my success to life. My journey up to that moment  had been embroiled in so much risk.  My first office was a coat closet. My first desk, a card table. No customers. Little kids at home. A wife counting on me. Long, arduous days. Shifts in the marketplace. The emotional toll of the terrorism on 9/11. Not to mention the unexpected challenges of IT failure, theft, and flooding on the new furniture – and this was just during my first month!

I can just imagine what would happen if Bob Costas were to interview me or another entrepreneur.  Bob would ask, “How did you continue to train 14 to 16 hours a day while knowing you had put a second mortgage on your home?  What was it like to grow a business from an idea and attract that first, second or third employee to your vision?”, or maybe, “What is it like on Sunday nights when you need to meet payroll?  Does that feeling ever go away and how do you manage that anxiety when you lead and direct?” 

Would the interviews be as riveting?  Would you well up with emotion the way we do for Olympians? If you think, “Eh, maybe not”, I have some zingers for you. Like when our office caught fire and flooded on Super Bowl Sunday a few years back. How I almost lost everything, AGAIN! Video footage would help but, frankly, I am not sure if folks would get it or like it! Pop culture does not quite understand the life of an entrepreneur (unless your family has or is one!) but we all should try.

There are so many parallels, so many comparisons, so much in common between athletes and entrepreneurs.  The odds are steep. The time commitment is exhaustive.  The accolades and medals?  For professional athletes, there is a wide range of possibilities even outside of Olympic medals. For entrepreneurs? Well, they are earned only by a few.

The Olympic metaphors are so much an entrepreneur’s life story:

• Like athletes, most entrepreneurs do not make the “games”.  So few make it to one year, five, or ten!

• Athletes and entrepreneurs must train to win,  the athletes that don’t medal seem to lose their focus and routine.  Same for entrepreneurs.  Focus, priorities, and routine are critical to maximizing energy and using limited resources to get the result you want!

• Playing the sport is all that matters. The lessons learned about yourself, about competition, self esteem and confidence, being a part of a team all apply to small business.  Without them no one earns a spot on the medals stand.

Now imagine your own interview with Bob. Or better yet, put yourself on the podium with flowers in hand, a gold medal around your neck and your company’s logo flying high above you as its raised above your head in flag-form. What would that be like as an entrepreneur?

“I would like to thank my mom…“

Entrepreneurs are quite popular today (especially good ones). Politicians want to know how to make more of them. Government and other associations want to encourage more small business. Students of all ages are being exposed to entrepreneurial curriculum at all levels. Famous entrepreneurs, Trump, Jobs, Gates, and Branson to name a few, appear larger than life to most and are constantly featured in the media.
 
This is an interesting phenomenon considering that most of us grow up in family units where we are told to get good grades, pick a good school, study hard, choose a profession and work hard to get the best job in the best company in our chosen field. This is the way it has been for the last 50 years. Unless you grow up in entrepreneurial family like I did. Sure, I was tempted by the “ideal” path expected of my generation but being a part of an entrepreneurial family means so much more to me.
 
I am a 4th generation entrepreneur. My great grandmother owned a corner grocery store in Wilmington, DE in an era when few women worked, let alone owned a business. My grandfather was very handy and was always repairing things like radios and appliances. His handy work soon grew to become Burkhard Hardware. My father, as a young boy, used to sweep the floors and stock the store shelves. He went on to work traditional jobs in banking and finance before starting a staffing firm, Placers. If you follow my story I have brought that brand back and Placers exists again! Today, my father is truly a serial entrepreneur with success and of course failure in many industries. (Hear Alan speak on Executive Leaders Radio, fast-forward to 13:26)
 
Growing up in an entrepreneurial family, I was taught at a very young age that being an entrepreneur is one of the only ways to be in complete control of your own destiny. As young adults, so many of us study and work hard as students. We get good grades, are active in our community, we choose the right school and then we decide what we want to be and we do our best to pick a good company. But then we stop doing things for ourselves. We put the responsibility for our futures in the hands of the company. The company is well-intended but as an employee, you are at the whim of the business. Business plans change; businesses are bought and sold, headquarters relocate and leadership changes. All of it happens to you. You are not in control.
 
As an entrepreneur, however, you can manage your own career and have the ultimate control — to be your own boss. When you are in charge, through the good and bad, at least you’re working for yourself. It does not make the act of running a company easier but you control your own destiny.
 
For now, take control of your own destiny. Trust a fourth generation entrepreneur, my family has controlled our destiny for more than 100 years and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
 

Chris, the Outside-In Guy: I often talk about what it’s like to be an entrepreneur or offer my advice on entrepreneurial endeavors, but today I’d like to offer another view. Let me introduce Kelly Hocutt, an employee of mine who has always had an interest in entrepreneurship and came to CBI Group because our culture encourages everyone to be entrepreneurial.

I have had the unique opportunity of not only working for Chris at CBI Group, but also working for his father, Alan Burkhard, a serial entrepreneur. Alan has long been a mentor for me and I thank him for fueling my interest in entrepreneurship. At a young age I would bounce my business ideas off him and as I got older, I started to ask questions and request more stories about his work and philosophy. Then one day in 2009, Alan asked if I would be interested in shadowing him for a week to see what the life of an entrepreneur is like.
 
I was honored, grateful, excited, and most of all, unsure how the experience would unfold. Well, that was a year and a half ago and now I work for Alan’s son Chris. During the time I spent with Alan, I did everything he typically does in a week: went to management meetings at his companies, met with his lawyers, looked at P&L’s, attended lunch meetings, was introduced to his friends and colleagues, volunteered at the hospital, had dinner with his wife… you get the idea.
 
What I learned that week answered a lot of questions and offered me a clearer path forward, but also “ruined me,” as Chris says. The Burkhard men frequently say that “you can only control your own career when you are your own boss“. So, while what I learned from Alan “ruined” me at the start of my career, I was fortunate to find a place at CBI Group because it offered me a chance to be entrepreneurial, make decisions for myself and be a leader, but also learn about business before jumping in to be my own boss.
 
I’d like to share a few quotes from Alan Burkhard that were brought to life for me at CBI Group.

“What’s the value to you? That’s the value to me.”

“My business philosophy is the same as my personal philosophy.”

“Culture is defined by what we do and how we act. You must live it. Be it.”

“It’s all about relationships.”

What I learned is that an entrepreneur’s work is a lifestyle. Work doesn’t start at 9 AM and end at 5 PM. For an entrepreneur, work is life and life is work. “You are your own boss,” is true when taken literally. But what is also important is that when it comes to work, you should be able to be yourself, make your own decisions, challenge and enjoy yourself. That is what I get at CBI Group, the chance to be entrepreneurial, even though “I’m not my own boss.”
 

Most entrepreneurs hate to take risks. In fact, the more we take the more we try to mitigate the risks we can control. We scrimp and save and have conservative investments in our stocks and 401k’s. When we borrow for the business, we avoid borrowing in our personal lives. When we invest in our business, we reduce our expenses at home any way we can. Entrepreneurs know how hard it is to get one dollar that is spent back into their business.

When we started our business, we were real believers in the American Dream. We bought into the notion of being your own boss. We wanted to take our idea, build a great place to work, grow it and have it create a “lifestyle” that few ever achieve. Many want this but will not attempt it because of the risks and sacrifice required.

Over the last two years we have seen the “entrepreneurial dream” fractured for many. There are countless examples of good businesses that could no longer support themselves and their owners. We’ve all heard stories of homes in foreclosure, loans called in and bankruptcies filed. This is the really dreadful bottom line that many have faced. There are those that have to go find jobs in a marketplace that will not even pay them unemployment (one of the risks of being your own boss).

There are also the stories of those companies that survived through the recession. They have made their payments and negotiated to lower their business costs. They have lowered employee head count and strategically executed plans to squeeze out more top line revenues. Yet they have little left to invest, cannot borrow and probably would not if they could get it. They cannot hire. They cannot grow. They are wounded….The question that comes to mind is, “When can we trust that risk taking might be rewarded again?“.

This is not intended to be all doom and gloom. In fact, my message around all of this is that there is real hope. I have learned many important leadership lessons through this recession that helped me survive and thrive with CBI Group.

My risk taking list:

1. You really have to be willing to canabilize your business. No sacred cows here please. Times change. We must launch new offerings all of the time. This life cycle is critical.

2. Balance. Gone are the days where business is like a constant happy hour! Get your life in order. Stay in shape. Have a life. Take a simple day off or vacation. Your staff and your business will thank you.

3. Business is an ultra-marathon. Not a marathon. Or half marathon. Many of us start our businesses like a short sprint and attempt to do it forever. I have been doing this for nine years and have come to understand that one must pace themselves for a long run. When a great runner runs a 100 mile race, they run 16 minute miles. A snails pace compared to what they can do in a short run and more than twice as slow as a training pace. What does this mean in business? That recessions happen; there is a cycle to business and one must plan for the ups and downs of the business race!

4. Know when to get back in the race or stock market or whatever metaphor you like. Everything evolves. This market is improving. Many of us are making good things happen.

When will you trust the entrepreneurial dream again?