Momentum for the Entrepreneurial Personality Type (EPT)

You don't want a pain-free business There are very few people out there that know how to help entrepreneurs grow and scale businesses. Unfortunately there are a lot of people out there who claim to know how to help entrepreneurs grow and scale businesses. Whenever one of them advertises as making your business "pain-free" I cringe. I know immediately that either they have never helped anyone grow and scale their business, or they are making a promise they can't keep. There is no such thing as a pain-free business. And if there was, you wouldn't want it.

Growing a business can be confusing. Where should you spend your time, what should you do next to give you the absolute biggest result, and where does the company need the most energy? While growing the business can be confusing, the answers to these questions don't have to be. When you understand the five core functions of your business, you will very quickly identify the answers to these questions and how you can grow your company faster. Unfortunately there are a lot of consultants and coaches out there that claim to understand how to help someone grow their business. If you're working with someone that has you focusing on anything other than these five core functions, run.

Resources Mentioned:

https://charfen.com/5Core

You may have a business but do you have a real company? Do you have an organization that helps you achieve at a level higher than you could yourself? Are the results predictable and can they be anticipated? Does your team feel safe and feel like they have a place where they can succeed? If any of these things are missing from your company today, then you are not maximizing your potential or doing everything that you can. One of my clients Molly Keyser who owns Boudie Shorts is building a real company and doing it fast. The changes are so real that even her team is giving her feedback. If you have a company that you are trying to grow, you have to hear this.

In order to successfully build a business, you must do everything. Successfully building a business conditions to you to do everything.

When you build a team, you no longer are going to do everything, so you must change behavior. Unless your team knows where you are going, they will always be behind you. When you're team is always behind you, you will be the permanent bottleneck in your organization.

When you tell your team what is happening first, they can get out in front of you and support you. When you don't, you challenge your ability to lead, challenge your teams ability to trust you, and create insecurity and your organization.

There is a better way.

If you are an entrepreneur, the only way you will reach your full potential is to build a team. It is impossible for us to do everything by ourselves. Eventually we have to admit that we both need and want help. By building a team we get the protection and support we need in order to get more accomplished and move forward faster. When we have a team all of our capabilities are increased exponentially, and that is exactly how we want things to feel. I am often asked "How do I build a team if I can't afford one?", here is my answer.

Far too many entrepreneurs give out titles without thinking about it. I can't tell you how many companies I have run into where there are six people and five c-level executives. Titles matter. Titles provide a roadmap for losing your company and how your chain of command and communication flows. Titles indicate to the people working in your company, and the people from outside working with your company who does what. Titles let your company interface with larger companies because you will match up departments with departments in the most appropriate way. If you give away titles, they don't matter and none of this is possible.

One of the most dangerous things you can do as an entrepreneur is play monkey in the middle with your team. It happens without you even knowing it. Someone comes to you with information they really should go to someone else, rather than redirect them, you pass on the information and become the conduit of communication. You have immediately have set yourself up as the channel of communication. Rather than communicate with each other, and your team will communicate through you. This will take away your time, rob you of your energy, and make managing the team feel increasingly overwhelming. There is a better way.

Entrepreneurs are driven by contribution. The more successful we become, the more we want to contribute. Many entrepreneurs who have successfully grown a company and experienced a level of success are motivated to do something on the side. That passion project that calls to make a difference, share who we really are, inspire a movement, and provide value in a way different than we ever have. If you want your passion project to be successful, it must show a profit.

Most entrepreneurs avoid trying to understand what is going on in their team's lives. It seems easier if we just don't get involved and the less we know the better. After all if we find out something is going on, won't they want us to help? Expect special treatment? If we don't know what is going on in our teams lives, we are constantly exposed. I have always understood every executive I have had on a personal basis. And someone has understood where everyone in my organization is on a personal basis. This way when someone had something going on, we were aware of it. We could plan around it. Sit down with them them and help them with perspectives. And make sure that they didn't miss in a way that effected our clients.

As an entrepreneur, part of what you do is determine what your company will spend it's money on. What do you need to buy in order to grow and make more profit? You will soon have to buy things you know little or nothing about. You may try to become an expert in everything that your company needs to acquire. I know I did, it almost killed me. I was so afraid of spending money in the wrong place that I obsessed over every dollar we spent and did far more research than I needed to. Once I created a purchasing system, not only did things get easier, I had confidence in every decision I made.