The increasing value of the entrepreneur

Many ‘entrepreneurs’ I meet just want to be the ‘big ideas’ person. They’re not interested in the little stuff.

But businesses win or lose based on the execution of the little stuff.

It has to happen.

So, either the entrepreneur has to do it, or they are so well capitalised that they can pay people to do it.

The problem for most starting out is that they aren’t that well capitalised, which means either they have to do it, or it won’t be done.

That’s why a mentor of mine, Keith Cunningham, wisely says, “Structure is the price the entrepreneur must pay for success.”

The entrepreneur starting out can’t just be the big ideas person, they have to be customer service, sales, marketing, administration, accounts, operations etc.

As the business grows, more and more of these functions can be taken care of by employees, until ultimately the entrepreneur is almost exclusively focussed on strategy. And as this happens their value to their organisation grows. But they can’t skip straight to it.

And that’s why only a few ever achieve huge success.

Are you prepared to pay the price?