Entrepreneurs develop sense for success

They slaved for days in hot, dirty, cramped conditions with lousy food, no bathroom and frequent lashings by whip.

To top it off, when the ship sank in battle or bad weather, they went down with it.

It’s sort of that way with a lot of small business owners – the present day counterpart of the galley slaves of yore. When you’re an independent business owner starting out, life can be brutal and unrelenting. Regardless of the enterprise – retail, medical, insurance, service, etc. – when you first open your own little company, it doesn’t take long before the idea of returning to a 40-hour work week for a steady paycheck looks pretty darn attractive, especially when it hits you that profitability is as elusive as a rare Everglades ghost orchid.

If you’re a small, independent businessperson, commonly known as an entrepreneur, you know exactly what I mean. More importantly, if you’re thinking about breaking out on your own and starting your own business, maybe you’d best read on.

I just finished interviewing 10 local businesspeople who, within the past few years, stopped being employees and started their own businesses. There are several common traits that all 10 of these very different people share that you can learn from and use. Their experience, perhaps, might reduce your risk should you ever decide to shackle yourself to the oars of business ownership.

Let me begin by listing the types of businesses these folks started: retail jewelry, heating and air conditioning, restaurant, convenience store, retail gift shop, home theater retail, lawyer, mortgage banker, copy shop and a church.

Each entrepreneur indicated that they had previously worked for one or more companies in the same type of business they opened.

Some are male, some female. They range from very young to quite old, and several hail from distant states or countries. There are different ethnic backgrounds, deep differences in terms of schooling and a broad range of work experience.

Truly, they seem to share only two common experiences: every one of them had been fired from good jobs, and every one of them thought they could do a better job of running a company than their previous employer.

Some admitted that they likely would still work for someone else had they not been fired, meaning it took a radical change in their careers to motivate them to become business owners.

There’s a third similarity that most of them share, as well. They say it took almost twice as much money and twice as much time to turn a profit than they originally thought it would take.

All of them seemed to have developed five senses that, in my way of thinking, lend to their success:

A sense of purpose: Each conveyed that they were deeply dedicated to do what they must do to succeed in their businesses.

A sense of humor: No one seemed to take themselves too seriously. In spite of the pressures they faced, they smiled and joked and looked like getting up in the morning and going to work made them happy.

A sense of daring: All seemed comfortable with change and, in fact, embraced change as a natural and healthy process.

A sense of drama: Like actors on a stage, all knew their “lines” and were quite expressive and animated when they discussed their businesses.

A sense of peace: All the folks interviewed were very confident that they’d made the right decision to be in business for themselves. Even the owners who have yet to show a profit maintained a sense of cool, a sense of hope that everything was progressing as it should.

I believe nine of the 10 businesses will succeed and stay in business for a long time. Ironically, the one entrepreneur who, I predict, won’t succeed is the new pastor, who proved to be a man of questionable integrity. In the ministry field, where integrity is essential, he dropped the ball. But, that’s another story that I’ll get to later.

All of the entrepreneurs were amused at how former colleagues, friends and family assumed they were making fortunes, even though they’re beholden to lawyers, bankers, some government overseers and a nagging mate or some other relative who keeps breathing down their neck and questioning their sanity.

And, why not? Who wouldn’t question the mental health of a volunteer galley slave?

Bob May is former managing partner of five local radio properties and is now engaged in the publishing of large-print phone directories in about 50 small towns in southwest Missouri.