The Many Hats of a Small Home Business Owner

Note: this is another refocused "insight" from the book E-Myths..

Every small home business owner wears several hats: you wear the hats of Entrepreneur, Manager and Technician.

At the beginning, the need to wear at least 3 hats becomes very apparent. Of course, I wanted to be the Entrepreneur, the visionary, working with a strong team to bring health and prosperity to the average family. I needed to be the Technician, the technical expert, who organized the correct emails, mailings, webinars, conference calls, company updates, training sessions, and so on. Then, of course, I was also the Manager who wore the pragmatic hat in terms of talking with people, prospects, new customers, sales and marketing questions, goal setting, solving problems and so forth. In order for any company to be successful, you’ll need to develop these 3 skills or hire somebody to play each of these roles.

However, as time and experience evolved, and the Information Economy and technology continued to expand, then more questions had to be addressed in long term management systems. I’m happy to note these questions have now been answered with the help of information tools and a simple 1- 2 - 3 step marketing system.

• How can I get my business to work, but without me?
• What’s the best way to delegate my responsibilities?
• What procedures should I implement to make the business run and grow itself?
• How can I spend my time doing the work I love to do rather than the work I have to do?

My advice for any person looking for a home business is to start with the basics: Become a student first. Learn the basic facts about the industry you’re interested in. Now you can set some entrepreneurial goals and long term vision. Plug into Information Technology to help with the technical details. For management goals, let information tools by top experts tell the story for you.
So what else is there for you to do?
How about answering the last question; mainly, spend more time doing the work you love.

Of course, we also wear a multitude of other "hats" as mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, sisters, brothers, relatives, neighbours, co-workers,employees, sports fans, hobbyists and so many more...all the more reason to use professional information tools.

Standing by to help with questions or comments,

AnneMarie

PS. Share some stories about the "hats" you wear.

refocus insight on small home business

I thought I’d share some information from a top business expert Michael Gerber and his famous book: E-Myth Revisited, Why Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It. I remember reading it a few years ago with some uncertainty. But I must say my current home business has helped to refocus my time and energy. Now I have different insights and thought they might help anyone contemplating a small home business.

First, the premise of the book is the belief that many businesses fail because the founders are technicians that were inspired to start a business without knowledge of how to run a successful business. A key component in that equation is how to market successfully...and that in itself, could involve years of training and practice.


The assumption that many people make is that because they are experts regarding technical details of a product or service, they will also be an expert at running that sort of business. If you are a great cook with special ethnic dishes, you should be great at opening up a restaurant. If you are a excellent computer technician, you should be able to operate a computer service business. But as it turns out for many, this can be part mythology and a bad assumption.

Here are some of the lessons that I learned to apply to my profitable home business:

1) Don’t only work in your business; make sure you also work on your business.

How many small business or home owners do you know who work 24/7 trying to handle every single technical detail day to day? At one time, I also worked hard “in my business”, often consumed by details.

Now I invest some time developing a long term plan and vision; in other words, I work “on my business.” You need to develop systems and business procedures to ensure the success of your company over a long term range. It's best to work with conscientious, like-minded people who engage in similar goals and support.

In the earlier years of my business, I kept everything in my head. Later on, I learned that I would need to create formal systems and write out formal procedures. A critical component was a simple, formalized marketing plan. This one strategy is essential to a growing, thriving business that people want to talk about.


Next time, more about refocusing on some home business "myths."

AnneMarie

amarie10@gmail.com

ps..drop me a note if you'd like to share some of your business "stories".