Thinking Entrepreneurially

Deanna and I are excited to teach the NxLevel Course again and we wanted to share some information from the course that we think you will find interesting.

So, here are some ideas on "Thinking Entrepreneurially."

You are important to the economy. We am paraphrasing out the NxLevel Guide for Entrepreneurs which is the text book for the course. Studies show that small businesses produce twice as many innovations per employee as large firms. Small businesses also help lead the country out of economic downturns (Get busy, you have a job to do!). Small businesses tend to create jobs during an economic downturn while large firms tend to loose jobs. They quote a statistic that between 1980 and 1990 (an old statistic) businesses with fewer than 20 employees added almost 4.1 million new jobs to the economy. During that same period firms with 20 to 499 employees lost 850,000 jobs and large firms lost 500,000 jobs.

So why is it that smaller businesses tend to add jobs during a down economy? Because they think entrepreneurially.

One of the defining characteristics of an entrepreneur is PASSION. Their passion and enthusiasm are contagious. We often work with entrepreneurs who have lost their passion and become synical or skeptical because being an entrepreneur, especially when things aren't going well, is one of the toughest jobs in the world. But once we uncover and unleash their passion, they tend to work harder, be more focused, happier, and more productive than other people. Your passion keeps you going!

Entreprneurs can "see" OPPORTUNITIES (because they are looking for them) and have the confidence to take action to seize the opportunities.

Entrepreneurs make their IDEAS and resources make money! That is why you are so important to our local economy(Think about the tax dollars, financial activity, and jobs you generate. Not to mention the money you make or will make because of your business).

One of the things we talk about in the NxLevel Course is how as a business owner and entrepreneur you wear many hats and it makes it harder to make more money and grow. There are three types of business owners:

1) The self-employed owner (which means you are the only employee)
2) The manager-owner (which means you have employees reporting directly to you and you are still involved in the day-to-day operations)
3) The entrepreneur-owner (which means you have managers running the day-to-day operations of your and you are freed up to work on developing and growing your business).

My observation is that as a self-employed owner, because you wear so many hats, the business only gets about 20% of your money making attention. As a manager-owner the business grows because you have more employees, however, the business still only gets about 15% of your money making attention because you have more to manage. When you decide to build a business that gets you out of the day-to-day operations then the business gets 100% of your money making attention. This is one of the most exciting discussions we have during the NxLevel Course. Several people have mentioned that this really changed their view on how and why to build their business.

We get a lot of opportunities to the see the financial statements of businesses. One of the things we consistently observe is that as an owner hires the right people and puts systems in place that allow them to get out of the day-to-day operations their revenues and profits increase.

In conclusion - remember your passion for your business, see and sieze opportunities by taking action, and continue to come up with ideas that improve your customer's experience with your product or service and think of ways to free yourself up from your day-to-day operations. You will make more money and have more fun like we do in the NxLevel Course.