Management tools for the entrepreneurial business model
by Elizabeth Harris-MoritzBeing in control of one’s future, having one’s own “little corner of the world,” is the dream of the entrepreneur. However, any successful business owner will tell you that the reality of owning your own business is a far cry from the dream. It takes awesome courage and blind optimism to defy insurmountable odds to go after the dream in the first place.
There are two types of entrepreneurs. The first isn’t concerned with building an empire. They bought themselves a job and are content with the limitations of it – no illusions of grandeur there.
The other group, the one we address here, is focused on managing and growing the business. To accomplish their goal, there is one talent that every entrepreneur must cultivate in order to succeed: effectively managing people – employees, customers, clients, consultants, advisers. There’s no way around it. Even a one-person shop has customers and clients, all of whom require excellent people skills.
The reality is, once the first employee is hired, you aren’t working for yourself; you’re working for them. Reality isn’t a bad thing. It can anchor you in hard, cold facts that will guide you to good decisions as you create your little corner of the world.
The trick is to get your hands on those facts – business tools like strategic planning, organizational development, performance assessments, and team-building programs. These are the divining rods that help to create the environment that allows your business to flourish and grow.
Business does not thrive without people – the right people, in the right jobs, motivated by the right elements. Productive and talented people want, need and expect the owner or manager to communicate the vision and lead the way. These people are vital if the company’s vision is to be brought to fruition. But they have to be managed. Whether it’s a landscaping company or a software startup, it’s pretty hard to succeed by yourself. When hours exceed your human capability, help is required.
Three consistent elements run through every aspect of a business. Entrepreneurs must master them. They are managing people through innovation, communication and change.
Is the entrepreneurial business model more difficult in terms of management? Not necessarily. It’s different. What makes it different is the nature of the model – in startup, the universe of business is fluidity, innovation is cultivated and ideas thrash about like loose electricity. The business owner’s job is to capture it, harness it and drive it, through sales, marketing, finance and operations.
The common thread among successful businesspeople is the ability to learn – innovate, communicate and change, bringing out the best in the people who work for and with them.
Successful business leaders also possess another common trait: They listen and they learn, from everyone they met, from every book they could read. They devour and inhale every bit of information that could help them to be better at what they were doing.
At the Business Connect conference, one of the three morning programs will be dedicated to helping the entrepreneur develop better tools for Managing Your Business. Through an interactive two-hour panel discussion, successful Cape Cod entrepreneurial business leaders Tony Shepley, Brian Drake, Dr. Neil Ringler and Patrick Butler, Esq., will each share their uniquely successful journeys, from startup to organizational development to succession planning. These successful businesspeople will share their tips and trials with the audience and a panel of management consultants and business experts. The panel will use the entrepreneurs’ stories to illustrate business philosophies and specific business tools and applications that can be adopted by any entrepreneur to manage, grow and develop a business organization.
This program is focused on demonstrating that with the right tools, the right philosophy and the right approach, we all have the opportunity to create our own little corner of the world. It all begins with people. A business doesn’t manage itself – without people, there is no business.
In the Marketplace at Business Connect, look for The Executive Suite’s List of 100, where Cape Cod business and community leaders, whether involved in for-profit business, nonprofit business, municipality, or county or state government, have been invited to submit their list of the top 10 books that have influenced their lives and careers. Be sure to check out the board and see how many of your favorites are listed and by whom.
Originally published in the Nov/Dec 2006 issue of Cape Business
Elizabeth Harris-Moritz Elizabeth Harris-Moritz is president of The Executive Suite in Hyannis. As a business consultant specializing in human resources, she writes about the human resources issues that influence the way we do business, from the recent overhaul of the FLSA overtime and exempt/non-exempt regulations to the power of benchmarking personality tools for employee selection. 
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