Entrepreneur syndrome
In this Article I cover another of the things I’ve learnt about Operational Business Leaders (SME Managing Directors) that I’ve christened The Entrepreneur Syndrome. This is a behaviour that stops the accidental (or even deliberate) business leader moving on and limits the growth of their business, causing growth to plateau.
They know they need to step back and be more of a director and less of a doer. They know they need to work ON the business not IN it. And they know they need to get out and about, see the wood for the trees and learn from others.
(Apologies in advance for using some simplistic catch phrases below to make the point)
BUT THEY’RE JUST TOO BUSY.
It’s just never the right time and there’s never quite enough time! If only they could get just a little more business in, and make a bit more money and then they could take the time out to look at where they are going and invest a little of that extra cash in the future growth of the business.
BUT THEY CAN’T AFFORD THE TIME OR THE MONEY JUST NOW!
They’ll do it tomorrow. Which, as we all know, never comes.
The ironic thing is that the very behaviours that make an entrepreneur successful when they start a business – their focus on sales, their tight control over everything (which in the early days delivers excellent service at minimum cost) and their grabbing of opportunities as they come – are the very behaviours that can eventually cause their business to plateau.
Sometimes, natural talent, instinct and sheer hard work sorts things, and the business leader develops anyway, and eventually works out how to lead a successful medium sized business.
I have also written an article about how a business plateaus as well as tips to avoid your business plateauing if you would like to find out more about this.
But the sad thing is, there are many cases where Entrepreneur syndrome gets in the way of growth and causes a plateau or worse. If you would like to talk about entrepreneur syndrome or would just like some general advice then feel free to get in touch with me to see if we can help.