Kathy is a tax preparer who started a tax preparation company. Fred is a painter who started a painting company. Claire loves tea so started a tea company. Mike was an attorney who started a consulting company. They all have something in common. They are solopreneurs. At this time, they are technicians who created a business that provides them with work. Not all soloprenuers want to own a business, but these three say having a business that does their work IS their goal.
Technician Business Owners
Not all companies have an owner who is a technician. Some owners are good managers and run businesses. Other owners are entrepreneurs, and they run businesses as well. Each type of business owner runs their business very differently. This article is about technicians who start businesses with two very different results.
Technician Turned Business Owner
Mark is a graphic designer who started a webs design business to leave a corporate job and to give himself work. Frank is an insurance broker who started an insurance business. Sarah, who left a corporate job as a graphic designer and started a marketing promotional items marketing business. These three have something in common. They are determined not to be the technician in their business but to create a company that does the work of the business.
Technicians Business To Do List
These two groups of business owners have very different experiences as business owners. The first groups, the solopreneurs, are master technicians. They know how to do the work of the business and are busy doing it with dreams of freeing themselves from this role. What keeps them from making this change from being the sole technician in their business to owning a business that does the work? They think like a technician. They approach business development from a tactical perspective; thinking of things they can do to get work, increase income and products/services they can sell. They have a long business development to do list. The list is a technician’s to do list.
Creating A Job
From an EMyth perspective, business development is not about creating work a technician can do. Some of the technician to do list involves work with their clients, and some of their lists include ways to create more work and income for themselves.
Business owner technicians are not open to another way when in this mode. They do not need someone to help them. They already have an extensive list of things they know they need to do to grow their business, to keep them working.
Creating A Business
The second group of business owners takes a different approach. They were technicians but want to stop doing the work of the business. They know they have to change and suppress the urge just to do the work themselves. These men and women are expert technicians, and it feels easier just to do the work than to grow a business, hire staff, training them to do the work the way you want your business to be. This group is different because they are determined to create time to think strategically, to find solutions and create ways to stop doing the work of the business themselves. They are willing to face the challenge to change how they are as a business owner.
I feel I am retelling Sarah’s story from EMyth Revisited, a woman who loved baking, so started a baking business that gave her work to do. Thankfully, Sarah realized what she was doing and was willing to get outside her comfort zone of baking to create a business that made and served baked goods.
Tactical or Strategic
The first group above has not reached that point of looking for help to grown their business a new way. They are very busy, even overwhelmed, thinking of things they can do to make more income, create passive income, get more clients and thus more work for themselves. Their mind is filled with great ideas, feel they are too busy and have no time to create a change. They actually cannot stop. It is energy spent on continuing to be a technician business owner.
The Courage to Change
Creating a business that does the work of the business and a business that helps you create the life you desire takes a change in how we are as business owners. Mark, the owner of a web design and online marketing company, has moved from being the technician to having an excellent staff that happily does the work of the business. Mark’s new role is being the leader of the business who has the vision, a plan, and mentoring staff to get there. His company is growing, but the change was not easy. He admitted the other day that he took on a project that only he is qualified to do. He slipped into technician mode because it was easier than being the leader at that moment. Mark now realizes how letting this happen disrupted his business, his time and his role. It was a good lesson. As a result, Mark made a list of projects their company will not do moving forward. Mark realized that when he becomes the technician, it disrupts the business he is creating.
If you know that you are a technician business owner and want to change to create a business check in with yourself. Are you ready to become a leader, to spend time building a sustainable business in which you mentor others, build systems to run your business and are eager to get help to make these changes?
Best wishes for your success, Kay