Entrepreneurs: Examine Your Hat Collection

Starting up a new business means that you will have to wear many hats. The problem is, not every hat is going to fit you perfectly. Knowing what hats to wear and which hats to put on someone else's head can be the difference between a business success or a business nightmare.

In your business' infancy, you MUST wear all the hats. I say must, because even if you have the ability to hire a staff right off the bat, it is necessary to understand your business from every angle. Immerse yourself in it, sign every check, examine every invoice, talk to every customer. Really get to understand everything about it so that you appreciate every nuance that goes on in the belly of what you have created.

Soon though, you need to ensure that the right people are wearing the right hats.

Most entrepreneurs are of the creative type. They see the world a bit differently than most people do. They see opportunities to improve things and shake the system up to make it better. If this is you, then put that hat on. Look at your business from all of those angles and use your creativity to change the things that can be improved. That may mean that you need to have a manager in place to take care of the day to day maintenance type decisions. You may need sales people to handle the finding of customers or clients. You may need an accountant to crunch the numbers. Find the right people for those jobs so that you can concentrate on wearing that hat of creativity to steer your business in the ways it must go.

You may be of a different set though. Some entrepreneurs have incredible technical knowledge of the product they are producing but may not have the business savvy to take it to the public successfully. If that is you, wear the right hat. Surround yourself with a dynamic manager and sales staff who can take care of getting your product out to the public while you put your skills to use where no one else can, perfecting what it is you have created.

Every entrepreneur is different. To be successful, you must be honest about what your true skills are and where you are lacking.  You must then be willing to find others who have skills where you are lacking to create a well tuned business.

In the beginning, wear all the hats for a bit so that you know how they all fit. But then, examine your skills, put on the hat that really fits you, find people who wear the other hats perfectly, then watch your business soar as everyone does their part according to their skill.