What Kind of Technology Business Owner are You?

What I love about the title of this post is that depending on how you read it to yourself, it can take on a different connotation. To some it may sound offensive, another group will think it's sarcastic and others will take it as a simple question.

The odds are, your own opinion of yourself as the owner of a business will determine how this question comes off to you.

But that's not the real reason for the post. It's actually taking us back to my normal rants about how businesses will win and businesses run like jobs will lose over the next 6 to 18 months.

So let's get into the 3 main types of people that own businesses:

Glorified Contractors- These people don’t want to be “held down” as an employee. But are in fact just over achieving employees thinking they can squeeze more money by eliminating the “middleman” also known as a boss or employer.

They spend most of their time doing jobs and hoping another comes along while avoiding the business side of the business. They have few if any marketing skills and no business operations skills or even recognition that these functions exist.

Many of them are actually just waiting for an opportunity to again become an over achieving employee for someone else. As a definition, an over achieving employee loves the rewards of being a "top dog" at whatever they do as their job in a business but he/she does it without the risks of being an actual owner of the business.


Business Owners- These guys and gals understand that there is a business operations portion to take care of and do what’s minimally necessary to handle it but are more interested in being in the trenches and being their own boss verses owning a company and running it. This puts a low ceiling on how much money they can make and they usually work many more hours for less money than they should be putting in their pockets.


Entrepreneurs- They get the whole picture no matter what size business they choose to have and develop. These people have the drive to seek and take opportunities and continuously look to maximize profit and business value. Their businesses are perceived in an entirely different light by clients and potential clients. They work on the business more than it it. Their efforts are more productive giving them much more to show for it than those of the regular business owner.

So where are you? And how does this relate to my main point about businesses run like jobs?

Well, the glorified contractor has no business at all and is pretty much at the mercy of real businesses that can hire them in a fashion that avoids getting nailed as treating them like an employee. Fines and lawsuits are running rampant in most states because of this issue. This and the fact that you never know if these people will show up the next day is driving clients away from this type of outside assistance for anything more than quick project help. (Think Elance.com)

Glorified contractors will only survive if they actually do some marketing and have enough businesses to sub-contract to so that they are not looked at as employees but an actual sole proprietor working on small projects. Not a good place to be.

Business owners are already starting to see the squeeze as clients and potential clients are looking for long term partners to their businesses that are experts in a niche and in many cases an entire vertical. They want to see business savvy inside of these partner companies showing they will be around for the long haul and proof that they understand the client's business/business problems. Talking techie is not cutting the mustard anymore.

Being an entrepreneur is where it's at, my friends. When you can see the big picture within your own business, you can see it better along with your clients and it will lead to better clients to work with that are willing to pay more money for your value.

Acting entrepreneurial has nothing to do with how big your business is or how big you want it to be. It has everything to to do with how you think, how you structure your business, and how you are perceived by others outside of your business. It's also the way to build business value, maximize your profitability, and raise your value to your clients.

Take the first step today to be a happy entrepreneur.


To Your Business Success-

George Sierchio
The Consultant's Coach