What I’ve Learned as a Self-Employed Entrepreneur (That I Didn’t Know as a Corporate Executive)

 

It is often said, “If you love what you do – you’ll never work a day in your life!” Here are several things I’ve learned as a self-employed entrepreneur that I didn’t know when I was a corporate executive:

1. There are more great business ideas out there than great businesses. The difference is in the people, the execution, the timing, commitment and passion to make a difference in people’s lives.

2. At a big company, you can say you spend your company’s money like it’s your own, but you don’t really spend it like it’s your own until it’s your own.

3. Enterprise sales always take longer than you think. Finding the decision maker(s) can be tough because many don’t have “decision maker” taped on their shirts. And, sometimes the head guy is not the real decision maker, no matter how many times he says he is.

4. You’ll finally miss your big company when your website goes down and “the guy” responsible can’t fix it. And, there aren’t 400 other “guys” lined up behind him. Asking “the guy” again and again when the site will be back up doesn’t get it back up any more quickly.

5. It all takes longer and costs more than you forecast…until it doesn’t.

6. Selling sucks and marketing is sexy! No one wants to be sold – EVER!

7. Keeping your own calendar sucks up hours a day. Making travel reservations takes up even more. I mess this up far more often than I would have thought.

8. There is an extremely fine line between “entrepreneur” and “small business owner.” Extremely fine.

9. At the big companies where I’ve worked, all faces turned to the CEO, and seniority mattered. But, I’ve learned much more from the quite-a-bit-younger-than-me entrepreneurs I’ve met over the past couple of years than from the CEO who spent an entire business review “talking at” his directs about how to run their businesses.

10. Every small SEO PR firm tells you they are a social media expert and a LinkedIn expert. (Every big firm, too.) The vast majority aren’t.

11. After a business lifetime of thinking of competition as “bad,” as an entrepreneur, it actually can be a great thing because it can validate and expand the market. “As the pie gets bigger, so does your piece of it!

12. You can make a lot of moderately-sized mistakes running a big business, and even a few big ones. You can only make a finite number of mistakes as an entrepreneur. Many of them involve recruiting and hiring the wrong people and choosing to work with the wrong clients because you (really) need the business which translates into you really need the money. Just plain dumb!

13. There is a lot of talk about how important one’s network can be inside a large company. This can be even more true in a new venture, where it can be one’s lifeblood; it has been shown to be a key determinant of success for entrepreneurs.

14. No monthly business reviews, operational SWAT (risk) team meetings, hundreds of staff meetings and quarterly annual off-site review/planning meetings. Note: Off-sites can be enormously freeing and fun if you play golf, but that can mean fewer guard rails…and, very few others to blame when things go wrong.

15. Worthy of a Wall Plaque #1: “Keep the main thing → THE MAIN THING!”

16. Worthy of a Wall Plaque #2: “Only do business with people you really like!”

17. Worthy of a Wall Plaque #3: “Develop referral advocates and groom client references.”

18. It’s sort of nice not to wear a suit every day.