
Entrepreneurship should be collaborative
Work Smart Show daily blog.
If this headline is a surprise for you it is likely that you aren’t in business or if you are you aren’t having great results. There is a reason that business is encouraged by governments worldwide as we know as they grow they contribute to GDP, employ people and create markets for needs that other companies then grow to fill. A simple example of this would be a cafe setting up, hiring staff; chef’s, barista’s and maybe admin staff, then purchasing furniture and kitchen equipment, food stocks from local companies and lastly hiring a local cleaning company for after hours cleaning. Now this is as the business builds from a small staff to many but undoubtedly business is built on collaboration and we can’t deny this.
But somehow when we look at the entrepreneurial space this is exactly what we do. We see people putting in huge amounts of work to keep their company 100% owned when they could benefit massively from a co-owner or partner. Now I have no problem with the argument of keeping ownership of your assets and company as this makes sense but only as far as it benefits your business. The rapper, Mogli the Iceberg, often talks about doing his own production and keeping his publishing rights so that he can keep more of every dollar earned from his music. But would you rather have 100% ownership of a business earning $40-50,000 gross per annum or a smaller percentage of a company that could work into the millions per annum.
There is also one other aspect to consider apart from the income and ownership, do you honestly want to create a company by yourself? For myself I always want to create in a duo as I find this creates the best results and together we can bring out a product of business that is far superior to what I could have created by myself.
Now of course there is no guarantee that a business will succeed with one, two or a whole team of owners but based on the biographies, business books and interviews I have consumed over the last few years this seems to be the consensus. I know that when I started the Work Smart Show I wavered between wanting to be the sole director with Jared and Jeremiah working under my direction or as an entirely diplomatic, equal system with work and input from all three of us sharing the load. As time has gone on it has taken form and I am very happy with the system as it sits.
Currently I make the decisions, create and set the direction of the radioshow, podcast, site and blog. However Jared and Jeremiah are both open to and regularly contribute ideas and make suggestions for content and discussions. This is something I enjoy the most about the Work Smart Show; the idea from one person, developed by the team, and implemented by myself. It is in every way a collaboration and just because I put in the bulk of the work and time it is no less collaborative.
The story that is being told to anyone considering entrepreneurship is that you must work hard, by yourself, stay on your grind. I would like to suggest that if you find the right business partner or team you would as as good if not better working hard together, staying on your grind and building towards a bigger business together.
