Being an entrepreneur
Being a businessman (or an entrepreneur) does not mean to work for yourself. It means engaging in the creation and development of business models. This ability embodies the key competence of the business manager: you need to be able to diagnose, configure, and link all the parts that make up the business into one working mechanism. This process is simultaneously similar to science, and to art. And this what makes it beautiful.
At the same time it does not matter in which industry you are building business models — they all work roughly according to the same rules. And these rules need to be known. Not intuitively somehow understood or guessed, but studied, as the business cannot be treated as a craft or hobby, if, of course, you want to succeed in it.
At 9PM we try not to engage with those clients who start their businesses first of all to make quick and easy money. Costs and revenues (the positive difference between which keeps all novice entrepreneurs awake at night) are just parts of the business model. Products, customers, and relationships with them, delivery channels, resources, key activities, management, strategy, philosophy, and values are integral and very important parts of any business and cannot be overlooked.
Therefore the essence of the entrepreneur’s work is not to make a business model on paper, but to implement it in a way that all nine parts of the business model work in concert as a complex mechanism. To grasp that is the most challenging task of all. If you forget about this work, the result will be similar to trying drive a broken car without wheels, just having it filled with petrol.
It is common knowledge already that funds to maintain the viability of the business model can even be obtained elsewhere, not necessarily from customers. There are lots of examples of consistently unprofitable companies, showing tremendous growth. And these companies are not bubbles, as many might think. These companies look at the business model as a whole. Above all they focus their work on what lies at the heart of any model — it’s product — the point where any successful (or unsuccessful) business begins.
Therefore, any entrepreneur, if she wants to be one, and not a hired employee in a company without a director, should understand the principles of building a product. Take, for example, the chef, who opens her restaurant, hoping to succeed only because she cooks well. But it is not enough. She needs to be able to create a product from this skill. The subtle nuance of the situation is that you do not need to cook well to build a successful product, but you have to know how to create products. Many owners who used to come through our agency door tried to ignore this problem. It seemed to them that the primary task was to sell. But the truth is that the main objective of business development is to become something, that people would like to buy. This realization brings the necessity to initiate and sustain change.
That’s why to be an entrepreneur means to be able to think and dig deep, take responsibility, be willing to express yourself in the product and show the world the unique qualities and strengths of your personality. It means having the courage to show the world, who you are.
Inspired by @rdnk
