Learning Objectives Small Business Entrepreneurs Characteristics And Competencies

Description
Learning Objectives Small Business Entrepreneurs Characteristics And Competencies

Small Business
Entrepreneurs:
Characteristics and
Competencies
C H A P T E R
2
? New advances in technology
and communications are helping
entrepreneurs like Laura Tidwell
fulfill their career goals while
also balancing their family
life priorities. In addition to
learning how to take advantage
of these resources, what other
entrepreneurial skills and qualities
enabled Laura to grow her
business into what it is today?
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LO
After you complete this chapter, you will be able to:
LO1 Recognize the key aspects of the entrepreneurial personality.
LO2 Assess the operational competencies of the successful entrepreneur.
LO3 Describe the challenges of family business owners.
LO4 Recognize the special nature of entrepreneurial teams.
LO5 Identify the challenges women and minority business owners face.
LO6 Describe the situation of people who become business owners later in life.
L
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N
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Focus on Small Business: Internet
Entrepreneur Laura Tidwell
1

The two things people could always say about Laura Tidwell was that she had tremendous drive and a winning
personality. In 1990 at the age of 16 she parlayed both, entering Brigham Young University as a communica-
tions major specializing in advertising. But her life became complex, and at 18, she found herself divorced,
broke, and the single mother of a toddler. Yet Laura was determined to have a career in advertising—
one that would allow her to stay at home, earn a decent living, and raise her daughter. Laura remained
convinced that the key for her lay in advertising. She only needed to find the right type of work in advertising.
While socializing at a club in 1994, one of her dance partners told Laura that he wrote Web pages for
a living. Never having heard of such a job, she asked, “Web, as in spiders?” Although he initially laughed at
her response, he did take the time to explain his job. She suddenly realized that the Web was the answer
to her dream. That night she decided to become the owner of a home-based Internet advertising company.
Laura lacked expertise and funding, but she had a goal and the determination and self-confidence
to make it a reality. Laura learned the business every way she could using Web-related sources, but she
focused on developing contacts at Internet trade shows and through industry associations. She realized she
needed even more expertise and started working for people in the industry, at first for free and then in a
paying job with an Internet start-up company. By 1996 the then 22-year-old Laura thought she had learned
enough, knew enough people in the industry, and saved enough money to step out on her own. She quit her
job and started her own Internet advertising business, Advantage Advertising.
Operating out of the one-bedroom apartment she shared with her daughter in Troy, Alabama, Laura
began with only one small business client. Seeking big name clients that would prove her firm’s credibility,
she bravely made an offer to representatives of Encyclopedia Britannica and of The Thomas Register whom
she met at a trade show. She would handle their online advertising purchases, such as banner ads, free of
charge for a period of time. In return they would become her clients if they were satisfied with the quality
of her service. Intrigued, they gave her a chance, and she quickly proved her worth, making these large
companies her first major clients.
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30 PART 1 Entrepreneurs and Ideas: The Basis of Small Business
This gave Laura the visibility and credibility she needed to attract additional clients, and she has enjoyed
a thriving, profitable, growing business ever since. Today you can find her firm at www.theadfirm.com . Spe-
cialists in advertising construction products, her clients include Rheem Water Heaters and Tendura Flooring.
Her advice to future entrepreneurs? “Accept challenges. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box.” It worked
for her.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Why did Laura Tidwell decide to become an entrepreneur?
2. What skills did she develop to become a successful entrepreneur?
3. What opportunities did Laura find and pursue?
The Psychology of Entrepreneurs
In the opening vignette above, Laura Tidwell displayed three of the key characteristics of successful
entrepreneurs introduced in Chapter 1 : she believed in herself and her ability to create a business that
would let her work and take care of her daughter, she sought out help from others to learn her busi-
ness, and she persevered over several years until she achieved her goal. These are aspects of Laura’s
behavior, her way of looking at and thinking about herself and her world, which is called cognition ,
and her visible actions . Is Laura’s pattern of entrepreneurial behavior the only type there is?
The answer is that there is no one pattern of entrepreneurial behavior or entrepreneurial type. In
Chapter 1 we broke up the entrepreneurs around the world into opportunity-driven and necessity-
driven types. We talked about entrepreneurs in corporate, social, and independent settings and how
their focuses differed. We even discussed the four kinds of overall growth strategies entrepreneurs
typically design their businesses around. There are literally hundreds of ways to think about entre-
preneurial personalities. That is good because it means there can be more than one personality type
that can lead to success, and it increases the likelihood that there is an approach to entrepreneurship
that will fit with your interests and style.
Successful entrepreneurial behavior leads to the creation of a new firm that meets the goals of
the entrepreneur. Some parts of entrepreneurial behavior can be done in very different ways, while
some elements tend to be more consistent across people. In this chapter we will consider the ways
people are different, the ways they are the same, and close with a look at the patterns leading to suc-
cessful entrepreneurial behavior for several distinct groups of entrepreneurs.
The Five Ps of Entrepreneurial Behavior
There are five aspects of behavior that most successful entrepreneurs display. These are not the
only possible behaviors that you could consider, but they are behaviors that have been shown in the
research to relate to success among entrepreneurs. The five behaviors include the following:
1. Passion: Passion is an intense positive feeling the entrepreneur has toward the business or
even the idea behind the business. It comes from being actively involved in moving the busi-
ness forward. Passion has multiple benefits, such as increasing your commitment to the busi-
ness (which relates to perseverance), and inspiring key stakeholders like potential investors,
employees, or subcontractors. Passion is displayed in three ways: (1) by looking at the chal-
lenges of the business in a creative way, (2) by being persistently focused on the business,
and (3) by being absorbed by the tasks and concerns of the business.
2
When we talk about
entrepreneurs who “live for the business,” we’re talking about passion. When you see entre-
preneurs get excited as they describe something about their business, we see and respond to
their passion.
2. Perseverance: Perseverance is best thought of as a type of learned optimism,
3
the ability to
stick with some activity even when it takes a long time, and when a successful or unsuccessful
outcome is not immediately known. It is one of the most powerful contributors to entrepre-
neurial success like that of J. J. Rosen who literally taught himself programming to make his
business work (see Small Business Insight box on page 32).
4
In Chapter 1 , we talked about
LO1
Recognize the key as-
pects of the entrepreneurial
personality.
cognition
A person’s way of perceiving
and thinking about his or her
experience.
action
The visible behavior a person takes.
passion
An intense positive feeling an
entrepreneur has toward the
business or the idea behind the
business.
perseverance
The ability to stick with some ac-
tivity even when it take a long time
and its outcome is not immedi-
ately known.
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Small Business Entrepreneurs: Characteristics and Competencies CHAPTER 2 31
the strategy of perseverance with the old expression “If you don’t succeed the first time, try,
try again.” Trying again is the behavior behind perseverance, but requires thinking about what
went wrong and what went right, and adjusting your next try to achieve a better result. Behind
this thinking and behavior is the attitude of learned optimism, knowing that you can and will
keep at this until you have mastered it.
5
The danger is to keep trying the same action repeatedly
without learning. That is a problem behavior called perseveration .
3. Promotion/Prevention Focus: Most of us have some mix of two internal focuses (also called
our regulatory focus), a promotion focus intent on maximizing gains, which gives us a bias
toward pursuing opportunities likely to lead to those gains, and a prevention focus intent
on minimizing losses, with a bias toward inaction or protective action.
6
Being a successful
entrepreneur involves balancing the two focuses. In an established industry or a poor one, a
prevention focus can work well, while a promotion focus can yield better results in richer,
dynamic, uncertain environments or industries.
7
A reckless pursuit of opportunity may bankrupt
your company, while a protection-at-all-costs focus may mean you will miss the opportunities
necessary to keep cash flowing into your firm. Successful entrepreneurs deal with preventing
problems by planning ahead of time and creating actions to avoid or deal with problems. For
J. J. Rosen, keeping his day job until his software business took off was one way to protect his
family and business. Those same successful entrepreneurs also plan where to find opportunities
and how to pursue them. But planning is rarely perfect; you have to be ready to act when the
situation demands it. Your own promotion/prevention balance is likely to come into play in
those quick decision situations. Trust your plans, and where the plans don’t have the answer,
trust your “gut” or intuition. Entrepreneurs may have regrets about their choices, but they
generally feel better having taken charge of the choice process.
8

4. Planning Style: There is more than one way to plan. In fact, there are five ways.
9
Com-
prehensive planners take a long-term view, develop long-range plans for all aspects of
the business, are comfortable with planning, and act based on the plans they’ve developed.
Critical-point planners plan around the most important aspect of the business first, act on it,
and then consider if additional plans are needed. It is not a very long-term approach to planning.
Opportunistic planners generally start with a goal and look for opportunities to achieve it.
Once they find a good opportunity, even if it isn’t the one related to their original goal, they act
on it, so it is very short term in orientation. Reactive planners are completely passive, waiting
for cues from the environment to determine what actions to take. Their focus is entirely short
term, and there is little in the way of goals driving their efforts. They can make the most of a
? Passion is an intense positive
feeling about what you do, and
this entrepreneur clearly has it.
How do you display passion when
you feel it?
promotion focus
An entrepreneur’s attention to max-
imizing gains and pursuing oppor-
tunities likely to lead to gains.
prevention focus
An entrepreneur’s attention to
minimizing losses, with a bias to-
ward inaction or protective action
to prevent loss.
comprehensive planners
Entrepreneurs who develop long-
range plans for all aspects of the
business.
critical-point planners
Entrepreneurs who develop plans
focused on the most important as-
pect of the business first.
opportunistic planners
Entrepreneurs who start with a
goal instead of a plan and look for
opportunities to achieve it.
reactive planners
Entrepreneurs with a passive ap-
proach, who wait for cues from the
environment to determine what
actions to take.
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32 PART 1 Entrepreneurs and Ideas: The Basis of Small Business
situation because there is no other plan competing for their attention. Habit-based planners
do not really plan at all because their actions are dictated by their routines. They do today what
they did yesterday. They don’t plan, and they don’t even tend to react to changes in their envi-
ronments. Simply put, results from small business owners in countries around the world have
shown that in terms of getting a start-up launched, keeping it going, and making a living from
it, comprehensive planners do the best, followed by critical point planners, and opportunistic
planning types.
11
Reactive and habit planners generally do very poorly in business, even if they
manage to get their firms started.
5. Professionalization: One hallmark of successful entrepreneurs is that they usually do at least
one thing much better than average. That average is called a standard business practice
and every industry has them. Doing that level or better is what professionalization is all about.
There are three levels of professionalization: expert professionalization when most aspects
of the business meet or exceed the industry’s standards, specialized when one or two aspects
of the business are at this level, or minimalized when none of the business can achieve the in-
dustry standard. Consider the oldest professionalized firm in the world, the Zildjian Company.
The company started in Turkey in 1623 with a formula for making an alloy ideal for cymbals.
At this stage the company was specialized. In 1929, when Avedis Zildjian inherited the com-
pany, he moved it to America and applied his marketing, financial, and business knowledge to
bring the firm up to the level of expert professionalization, where it remains today.
12

Notice that these behaviors are relevant to more than starting a business. They are useful be-
haviors in business in general and even in life. If you are an employee, your bosses will want you
to show passion (often called engagement) in the business, be persevering and strike a balance of
promotion and prevention. The fact that these five ideas are behaviors means that you can learn how
to display them, even if it is not the way you were behaving originally. That is what education, skill
development, and practice are all about. Each of these types of behavior can be assessed formally
using psychological questionnaires, but you can make a general assessment with items like those in
Skill Module 2.1.
habit-driven planners
Entrepreneurs who do not plan,
preferring to let all actions be dic-
tated by their routines.
professionalization
The extent to which a firm meets
or exceeds the standard business
practices for its industry.
standard business
practice
A business action that has been
widely adopted within an industry
or occupation.
expert business
professionalization
A situation that occurs when all the
major functions of a firm are con-
ducted according to the standard
business practices of its industry.
specialized business
professionalization
A situation that occurs when busi-
nesses have founders or owners
who are passionate about one or
two of the key business functions,
such as sales, operations, account-
ing, finance, or human resources.
minimalized business
professionalization
A situation that occurs when the
entrepreneur does nearly every-
thing in the simplest way possible.
SMALL BUSI NESS I NSI GHT
After graduating from Vanderbilt University in 1992 as a psychology major, J. J. Rosen landed his first job as a
child-support coordinator for the Tennessee District Attorney General Conference, an administrative branch of
the state’s court system. As he closely observed the work processes, he soon realized that much of the work
performed by the state’s child-support collection agencies could be done more efficiently and effectively if it were
computerized. There were just two problems—many of these agencies had no computers, and no specialized
computer software existed to handle the type of functions needed by the organizations. J. J. set out to resolve
this problem, fulfill a need, and take advantage of this potential business opportunity.
Here J. J. faced his third problem—while he had an idea for software, he did not know how to write a
computer program. Driven to make his idea a reality, J. J. taught himself this skill. A few months later he had
mastered programming well enough to create child-support services software that could track child-support
payments and collection efforts. With this product, the Atiba Software and Consulting Company was born as a
part-time venture. Promoting his software as a better idea and offering very low prices to get an initial customer
base, he sold the software statewide. Soon his business was growing through word-of-mouth advertising, and
he landed his first major client, Andersen Consulting, within a year of starting. Only then did J. J. quit his job in
the district attorney’s office and embark on his own business full time. By 2012 Atiba had more than 500 clients.
For J. J., the idea drove the business, carefully.
J. J. Rosen and Atiba Software and Consulting
10

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Small Business Entrepreneurs: Characteristics and Competencies CHAPTER 2 33
SKI LL MODULE
2.1
Entrepreneurial Personality Overview
13

The complete assessment of each of the five Ps would require more than 100 questions, but you can get a very
general sense of how you lean by answering and scoring the questions below.
In the following questions, determine how strongly you agree with the statement from 1 (Strongly Disagree)
to 5 (Strongly Agree). If you are not sure, make your best guess.
Strongly
Disagree
Strongly
Agree
1. I am better than my peers at being able to solve problems. 1 2 3 4 5
2. I am better than my peers at making money. 1 2 3 4 5
3. I am better than my peers at being creative. 1 2 3 4 5
4. I am better than my peers at getting people to agree with me. 1 2 3 4 5
5. I am really excited to be establishing a new company. 1 2 3 4 5
6. I am really energized by owning my company. 1 2 3 4 5
7. I am really in love with creating a new firm. 1 2 3 4 5
8. I am really excited to create something out of nothing. 1 2 3 4 5
9. I really enjoy nurturing a new business through its emerging success. 1 2 3 4 5
10. My personal philosophy is to do “whatever it takes” to establish my
own business.
1 2 3 4 5
11. I would rather own my own business than earn a higher salary
employed by someone else.
1 2 3 4 5
12. Owning my own business is more important than spending time
with my family.
1 2 3 4 5
13. There is no limit to how long I would give a maximum effort to
establish my business.
1 2 3 4 5
14. Overall, I am more oriented toward achieving success than
preventing failure.
1 2 3 4 5
15. I often think about the person I would ideally like to be in the future. 1 2 3 4 5
16. I frequently think about how I can prevent failures in my life. 1 2 3 4 5
17. I am anxious that I will fall short of my responsibilities and obligations. 1 2 3 4 5
For the next set of questions, rank them by putting a “1” by the statement that most closely fits your approach or
belief, “2” by the next closest fit, and so on.
Rank (1–5)
A. I am most comfortable when I have planned for everything.
B. If I’ve taken care of the biggest challenge, I feel my job is done.
C. I am always looking for the next big thing, and when I find it I go for it.
D. If someone offers me a good opportunity, I’ll go for it.
E. Whatever happens, I stick to what I have been doing all along.
For the next set of questions, rank them by putting a “1” by the statement that most closely fits your approach or
belief, “2” by the next closest fit, and so on.
Rank (1–3)
F. I feel best when everything I do is done the best way possible.
G. I think it is important to be known for doing one thing extremely well.
H. I believe it is more important to get the job done than to try and make it perfect.
Scoring of the Entrepreneurial Personality Overview can be found in endnote 14 in the back of the text.
14

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34 PART 1 Entrepreneurs and Ideas: The Basis of Small Business
Entrepreneurial Operational Competencies
All the aspects of the entrepreneurial personality depend on hard work, but there are other specific
types of business-related expertise—called competencies —that appear repeatedly in successful
entrepreneurs around the world.
15
While there could be as many competencies as there are per-
sonality types, theories, like the BRIE (boundary/resources/intention/exchange) model introduced
in Chapter 1 , help us focus on those few competencies that are essential to successfully starting
and running a business. After you have read about these entrepreneurial competencies, use Skill
Module 2.2 to assess your competencies.
LO2
Assess the operational
competencies of the suc-
cessful entrepreneur.
competencies
Forms of business-related expertise.
Competency Self-Assessment
In this exercise, rank your skill or competency at different types of business activities. The goal is to see where you
feel you have strengths and on which competencies you need to work. For each skill, think of a person or a com-
pany that does a really good job at that activity. Then compare your own performance to it using one of four levels
of competency: needs development means that you still have to learn the skill; needs refinement means that
you have the rudiments of the skill, but still need to practice it and carefully check your performance; competent
means you can perform the activity consistently and without mistakes; excellent means you perform the activity
as well as your role model, or nearly so. The categories of competencies are built from those listed in the text.
Level of Competency
Skill
Role
Model
Needs
Development
Needs
Refinement Competent Excellent
Key Business
Functions
Sales
Operations
(production)

Accounting
Finance
Human resources
Industry Specific
Knowledge
Industry expertise
Industry skill
Market knowledge
Ability to diagnose
Ability to see opportunities
Resource
Competencies
Business information
Business financing
Space for the business
Raw materials
Support people
SKI LL MODULE
2.2
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Small Business Entrepreneurs: Characteristics and Competencies CHAPTER 2 35
The competency suggested by boundary relates to the organizational and business processes of a
firm. This type of expertise can be called basic business competency .
16
There are certain fundamental
activities that all businesses must perform, which are called the key business functions , and in-
clude sales, operations (also called production ), accounting, finance, and human resources. Getting
organized and registered—which creates the boundary—is an example of an operations activity.
There is also industry-specific knowledge . A restaurant really is different from a mechanic’s
shop or a computer store or a portrait studio. Each requires you to understand a particular industry
and market, and each requires a very particular kind of skill. This was a large part of the reason
that Laura Tidwell, in the example at the start of this chapter, worked for others before going off
on her own. Some of these skills focus on knowing your new business and its context ( Chapters 5
and 6 ), having the kind of skills that fit the business, being able to diagnose your business’s health
(Chapters 8, 12, 13, 17, and 18), and being able to see future business opportunities while doing your
everyday work ( Chapters 4 , 7 , and 20 ).
Resources lead to specific resource competencies .
17
For even the smallest part-time business,
the entrepreneur needs to find or gain access to resources such as time, information, financing, space
for the business, raw materials, and a variety of people (advisers, suppliers, service providers, cus-
tomers). For J. J. Rosen of Atiba Software, getting the computer programming knowledge was criti-
cal. Knowing the best place to get raw materials or set up your operation, finding better information
than your competition on your market, or having enough financing to ride out downturns in sales
are examples of resources that could give you an advantage. You’ll learn more about gathering re-
sources in Chapter 5 (Small Business Entry: Paths to Part-Time Entrepreneurship), Chapter 11 (Small
Business Distribution and Location), Chapter 14 (Cash: Lifeblood of the Business), Chapter 15
(Small Business Finance: Using Equity, Debt, and Gifts), and Chapter 19 (Human Resource Man-
agement: Small Business Considerations).
Intention reflects your determination to start your business and make it a success. These
determination-driven skills can be called determination competencies
18
and are demonstrated
by focusing on your business over other choices and being ready to find out about and do what it
takes to pursue opportunities that will help get the business going. The entrepreneurs we have men-
tioned in this chapter—Tidwell and Rosen—displayed tremendous determination to do the work
Determination
Competencies
Business as
primary focus

Ability to manage time
Ability to find/get help
Ability to sustain
relationships

Willingness to act
Opportunity
Competencies
Found profitable idea
Idea imitates with a twist or is
new, but tested

Idea is hard to copy
Entrepreneurs often find it useful to copy this list and ask people who know them well to fill it in with them in
mind. Good examples can include business consultants or bankers, people who have worked with you, or even
family members. Comparing what others see to what you see in yourself can help you put in perspective which
skills need further development or better demonstration to others. In big business, such an approach is called
“360 degree feedback,” but it can also be applied in small businesses.
key business functions
Activities common to all busi-
nesses such as sales, operations
(also called production ), account-
ing, finance, and human resources.
industry-specific
knowledge
Activities, knowledge, and skills
specific to businesses in a par-
ticular industry.
resource competencies
The ability or skill of the entrepre-
neur at finding expendable compo-
nents necessary to the operation of
the business such as time, infor-
mation, location, financing, raw
materials, and expertise.
determination
competencies
Skills identified with the energy
and focus needed to bring a busi-
ness into existence.
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36 PART 1 Entrepreneurs and Ideas: The Basis of Small Business
and stick with the business through thick and thin. Many of these determination competencies are
essential to deciding if a business is feasible for you, a topic that is covered in Chapter 4 for the time
before you start a business and in Chapter 20 for businesses already in operation. Time management
competencies are covered in this chapter in the section on Family Businesses. The competencies
related to getting help are seen in Skill Module 1.1 and in Chapter 3, where we will look at the social
skills related to building and sustaining legitimacy and relationships.
Exchange deals with the actual process of exploiting the opportunity for profit—which is a
fancy way of saying “making sales.” The competencies that make this work are called opportunity
competencies ,
19
which include identifying an opportunity, a product, or service idea that is likely
to lead you to a profit and is ideally distinctive to your firm and, you hope, hard for others to copy.
For Bill Gates and J. J. Rosen, the opportunity each found was for creating software that would
make life and work easier. You’ll learn more about the opportunity process and protecting opportu-
nities through strategic planning in Chapter 4 and Chapter 7, where we will discuss the strategy of
imitation with a twist.
Research suggests that people can learn what they need to know to have adequate levels of
expertise in all five competency areas. In fact, students who go through formal training or classes
often score higher on the expertise tests than people running businesses.
20
In addition to training or
classes, you can get consulting assistance from public or private sources, or you can even buy exper-
tise in package form by adopting industry standard techniques. You can use state-of-the-art services
or you can franchise.
The presence and absence of certain skills makes a tremendous difference in distinguishing those
who start businesses from those who don’t. But for those businesses that do get started, the amount of
expertise is what distinguishes the more successful from the less successful firms. The concern about
expertise leads to thinking about the level of professionalization you choose to use in your firm.
The Sociology of Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs can be as strongly affected by their social or sociological characteristics as by their
personality characteristics.
21
These sociological characteristics relate to the social groups to which
they belong. Family, gender, race, nationality, religion, age, and other types of group memberships,
such as being a member of a team or a veteran, are typical examples. Some of these memberships are
important enough that they are protected from discrimination by federal laws, and government and
companies dealing with the government make special efforts to support members of those groups.
? Look carefully at this photo
of a Common Dog vehicle. How
do the descriptions of product
services, contact information,
and endorsement slogans
all demonstrate Common
Dog’s grasp of opportunity
competencies?
opportunity
competencies
Skills necessary to identify and
exploit elements of the business
environment that can lead to a prof-
itable and sustainable business.
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Small Business Entrepreneurs: Characteristics and Competencies CHAPTER 2 37
Others lack such protections but are still powerful influences on the individual entrepreneur. The
challenges members of these groups face share some similarities, as do the programs designed to
support them. To get an idea of how this works, the section below considers entrepreneurs in family
businesses and teams, women entrepreneurs, and second-career entrepreneurs. While there are les-
sons and advice given for each of the groups below, the lessons can apply to everyone, for example,
the techniques of time management, which are discussed in the Family Business section, or the
methods for managing idea ownership, discussed in the Teams section.
Family Businesses
We think that the U.S. economy is built on an array of very large, publicly held companies—
General Motors, Boeing, IBM, Bank of America, Exxon, and others—but this is only part of the pic-
ture. Many of America’s largest companies—Mars, Hallmark, Dell, Motorola, Nordstrom, Campbell
Soup—fully one-third of the S&P 500 companies—are family owned and managed.
22
Small and large,
they make up over half the businesses in the United States historically and were the creators of well
over half the new jobs in the United States.
23
But our interests are in those small businesses that are
also family businesses, and those represent 39 percent of American businesses, or about 10.8 million
firms. Defined as firms with a majority family ownership and direct daily family involvement, family
business is a major economic force, employing 58 percent of America’s total workforce.
24

Small, family-owned businesses have many advantages. If the business is managed at the top by
a group of tight-knit family members, communication-based integration can be more effective, and
decision making can be easier and quicker.
25
A strong family bond can become a strong business
culture, enabling members to make effective, coordinated decisions with little or no formal com-
munication. Family members already have developed strong relationships and interact on a regular
basis both in and outside the workplace. Families are a major source of funds and personnel for
new small businesses,
26
providing a support network made up of people the entrepreneur knows and
trusts. Family businesses are also a self-perpetuating source for future small businesses. Many new
entrepreneurs have been raised in families in which one or both parents or other relatives owned a
family business,
27
as you can see in the examples of the Ross and Enstrom families below. As chil-
dren of family business owners, these individuals learned how business works by observing their
family at work. They gained early experiences that helped them develop the skills, competencies,
and self-confidence that contributed to later decisions to become entrepreneurs and to their ability
to succeed.
28
In fact, most entrepreneurs come from families of entrepreneurs.
There are two challenges typical to family businesses—role conflict and succession.
29
Role
conflict describes the kind of problem that arises when people have multiple responsibilities, such
family business
A firm in which one family owns
a majority stake and is involved
in the daily management of the
business.
LO3
Describe the chal-
lenges of family business
owners.
SMALL BUSI NESS I NSI GHT
Ross’s Teal Lake Lodge and Teal Wing Golf Club is a family-owned business. Victoria Ross began helping wait
tables at the Hayward, Wisconsin, resort when she was only 6 years old. By the time she was 18, she had moved
into management positions. Having already earned her bachelor’s degree in business administration, she is now
working on her master’s in global tourism. At 25, Ross is ready to take over the family business.
Jamee Enstrom Simons took a different track to management of her family’s business, Enstrom’s Almond Tof-
fee. She began working in the company when still a child, hand dipping chocolates after school. Jamee eventually
became a registered nurse, but when her parents expressed interest in selling the company, she and her husband
bought it in 1993. Under her leadership, sales revenues for Enstrom’s Almond Toffee reached $10 million in 2001.
Ross and Simons both gained the confidence and skills they needed to succeed as small business owners
from their early experiences in the families’ businesses.
Two Routes to the Family Business
30
role conflict
The kind of problem that arises
when people have multiple respon-
sibilities, such as parent and boss,
and the different responsibilities
make different demands on them.
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38 PART 1 Entrepreneurs and Ideas: The Basis of Small Business
as parent and boss, and each makes different demands on them.
31
As a boss, you might want your
daughter to stay at the store and work, while as a parent you might want your daughter to take time
off to be with her own children. Role conflict is at its worst when people fail to recognize it. Often,
reminding yourself and others that you face multiple, conflicting roles helps them understand the
types of choices that must be made and the kinds of decisions that are most important.
32
For fam-
ily business, the most effective approach for avoiding role conflict is to keep family issues out of
the family business, as you can see in the case of Boyd Coffee (see Small Business Insight box on
page 39). Whenever possible, try and make decisions based on business necessities. When making a
decision from a family perspective, broaden it to apply equally to nonfamily as well as family mem-
bers. For example, if family members in the business can take off for their children’s graduations,
so should employees who are not part of the family.
33

Role conflict breeds another unending problem—the shortage of time. Entrepreneurs are among
the most rushed people in the workforce. Part of this comes from the responsibilities of ownership.
Entrepreneurs are always working, even if it is just thinking about what to do next at work. Add
family responsibilities, and schedule overload is almost a certainty. There are, however, a collection
of techniques for time management , which can help meet the challenges of schedule overload.
Consider these basic methods:
?
List —Whether you use a pad of paper, a specialized form like a Franklin Planner, a PDA,
or Microsoft Outlook’s Task function, the key to staying on top of your responsibilities is to
list them as soon as you get them. Then as you finish them, you can enjoy crossing them off
the list.
?
123 Prioritize —As you look at your list, prioritize your tasks based on their importance to
your business and their due date . The most important tasks due soonest get a priority of 1.
Tasks with lesser importance or a longer time to completion get ranked 2, and your “back
burner” concerns get ranked 3. If there are tasks (of any level) that can be lumped together,
so much the better. How do you decide importance? If the task will not help your business or
family, it is probably not a priority 1 task.
?
Delegate —Look at your task list and see which tasks you can get others to do for you (for free
or at a price). When you’re overloaded, getting more people on the job for you is a powerful
way to get more done.
?
Repeat —Take a few minutes every day to repeat the above steps. It will save you time later.
time management
The organizing process to help make
the most efficient use of the day.
? Planning together for the future
is key to the success of family
businesses. What other factors
are important?
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Small Business Entrepreneurs: Characteristics and Competencies CHAPTER 2 39
?
Strategize —Once a week, take a few minutes to look at the things you didn’t do this week and
check if you are overlooking something which could be important to your business, family, or
yourself, but is getting overlooked in the short run. Entrepreneurs are notorious for overlook-
ing their health and cheating themselves and their businesses out of time to think about the
big picture and their firm’s future. Ten minutes a week spent this way can make a world of
difference.
34

Thirty-nine percent of U.S. family-owned businesses are expected to face the retirement or semi-
retirement of their CEO within the next five years. This statistic grows in importance if you factor in
the idea that only one-third of family-owned businesses survive beyond the first generation.
35
Part
of the problem can be an entrepreneur, like Rudy Boyd, who has difficulty letting go. Problems can
arise when the owner cannot come to grips with retirement or envision someone else running the
company.
36
Owners often resist giving up control and undermine—consciously or unconsciously—
potential successors.
37
This is a problem because top managers at family firms tend to stay in their
positions much longer than those at nonfamily firms. One study found that CEOs of family firms
had an average tenure of 17 years as opposed to just 8 years for CEOs in other businesses.
38

When the current owners are ready to think about what follows them, we get into succession —
the process of intergenerational transfer of a business. Often the lack of a clear succession plan is the
death knell for those family firms facing their first intergenerational transition.
39
If the founder dies,
becomes seriously ill, or is incapacitated before he or she can groom a successor, the new family
leader may be suddenly thrust into the role before coming up to speed on vital company information
and developing needed skills. Also, in the absence of a succession plan, private and public dissen-
sion among various factions of the family becomes more likely, negatively affecting operations
within the firm, and may eventually cause the business to fail.
40

succession
The process of intergenerational
transfer of a business.
SMALL BUSI NESS I NSI GHT
Boyd Coffee, started in 1900 in Portland, Oregon, had survived its first transition from founder P. D. Boyd to heir
Rudy Boyd. Rudy’s sons, David and Dick Boyd, grew up working in the family business. In 1975, Rudy officially
retired, but he refused to leave the business. Even though David, the eldest son, became the CEO, Rudy stayed
on as chairman of the board, and for many years he remained an active and influential presence around the
company—often to the irritation of son David. A few years after Rudy’s “retirement,” the board of directors of
Boyd Coffee—Rudy, his wife Ellen, David, and Dick, then president—voted 3–0 (with David abstaining) to remove
David as CEO and name Dick the new CEO.
David and Dick believed the management change was based solely on members of the family taking sides in
the David/Rudy conflict, rather than on sound business judgment. With the loss of the CEO position, David also
wondered whether he had originally received the job because he had earned it through hard work and demonstrated
ability or simply because of his name and family position as the eldest. Although after the awkward switch the
brothers continued to work together for many years, their personal and professional relationships deteriorated to
the point where they seldom communicated. The tension and lack of coordinated effort between the two inevitably
led to the financial decline and instability of Boyd Coffee. Finally, in 1997, David threatened to dissolve the company.
Only when faced with such a drastic possibility did the brothers begin the slow and difficult process of reconciliation.
With the assistance and guidance of outside advisers and consultants, the brothers have now made suc-
cession planning their top priority. They have established a family trust that allows younger family members the
opportunity to leave home and develop their business skills and networks independently. The brothers also have
encouraged their children to gain work experience outside the family business before deciding whether they want
to return to work for the company, something the brothers never got to do.
Boyd Coffee
41
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40 PART 1 Entrepreneurs and Ideas: The Basis of Small Business
As is true of so many things in a successful small business, the answer lies in taking a profes-
sional approach to the problem. In this case the professional approach involves crafting a succession
plan like the one created by Boyd Coffee after Dick became president. Succession plans deal with
the people who will take over, what roles they will fill, and what supports (such as training, outside
assistance, voting power, resources control) they will receive.
42
Problems arise when there are no
successors available within the family. One study found that only 5 percent of all entrepreneurs were
able to rely on family members to take over.
43
Sometimes none of the children have an interest in
the family business. The opposite problem arises in situations like that at Boyd Coffee when several
family members believe they should take over the top spot and vie for the position to the detriment
of both family and business. Problems like the Boyd Coffee competition remind us that it is impor-
tant to plan how disputes will get resolved. Expect those disputes. The owners of a family business
tend to be especially passionate about their enterprise, because they have a huge economic incentive
to pay very close attention.
44

One way to maximize communication in the succession process is to create a family council. A
family council includes family members with immediate interests in the business (spouse, sisters
and brothers, older children, etc.). The focus of council meetings is the business-family relationship.
The meetings can also be a good forum for grappling with issues like role expectations, commit-
ment, and personal responsibility.
45

An advisory board, or a formal board of directors, can also contribute important skills and
strategic direction. At Helzberg Diamonds, Barnett Helzberg Jr. set up a board to confront plan-
ning issues and to “help bring order (read professionalization ) to the seat-of-the-pants decision
making” at the firm. The board was critical to succession planning at Helzberg when trusted
board members convinced Mr. Helzberg that he needed to step aside as president. He brought in
someone else who had the skills to lead day-to-day operations while keeping the chairmanship
himself.
46

The key difference between a family council and a board of directors is that the function of the
family council is to keep the family involved while the board is focused on running the business.
The board includes significant nonfamily membership.
47
Careful use of a family council can also
help by keeping family members involved in an appropriate way, allowing you more room to main-
tain a different balance with your board of directors.
48

In addition, a good plan, like the one Boyd Coffee developed, also talks about the handling of
the assets of the company in order to minimize the tax burden on the family and the firm and pro-
vide a suitable income for the former owner and his or her household. Because of the legal, tax,
accounting, and leader development complexities, succession planning is best done with the advice
of experts.
49
For family councils and boards of advisers, it is often helpful to get professional advice
at the start, and then continue on your own. One organization that tracks experts in family business
is the Family Firm Institute.
One special situation of the family business is the case of a married couple who jointly own and
manage their business.
50
You only need to consider the divorce rate in general to realize that mar-
riage and business can be a volatile mixture. The problems of a lack of agreement, difficulty keep-
ing business and family issues separate, and how to handle endings
51
are very much in evidence in
couples’ businesses, and the solutions are very much the same—being clear about responsibilities,
trying to maintain boundaries between work and home, having outside advisers to help sort out
thorny issues, and planning for how the firm might end or change.
52

Entrepreneurial Teams
While the classic image of the entrepreneurial small business would involve the image of the solo
entrepreneur, the modern reality is different. The majority of new businesses have a team of two
or more co-owners, and the trend is toward even more businesses being developed by teams of
entrepreneurs. Figure 2.1 shows you the latest breakdown from the Panel Study of Entrepreneurial
Dynamics.
Most teams are family related. In fact 53 percent of teams are spouses or life partners working
together. Another 18 percent of the teams have different arrangements of family members work-
ing together, while only 15 percent of teams are composed of unrelated business associates.
53

LO4
Recognize the special
nature of entrepreneurial teams
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Small Business Entrepreneurs: Characteristics and Competencies CHAPTER 2 41
48%
3%
4%
7%
38%
One member
Two members
Three members
Four members
Five + members
That means about 520,000 new firms a year are started by teams, with about 442,000 started by
family teams.
54

Why so many teams? There are advantages to a team. When family members start a business,
they start with already knowing and trusting each other. Teams are also likely to have more money,
time, and expertise to put into a business. If the team members live together, they can save even
more for the business.
When putting a team together it is important to work out key issues ahead of time. For example,
team members might be putting different amounts of money or time into the business, but might
be expecting identical returns, which creates an equity problem.
55
A team can also face conflict
over idea ownership (see The Thoughtful Entrepreneur box below), shared goals and how to make
decisions, especially when the team is evenly split on choices.
56
Legal solutions to setting up
partnerships are discussed in Chapter 18 , and the solutions mentioned above for couples—being
clear about responsibilities, trying to maintain boundaries between work and home, having outside
advisers to help sort out thorny issues, as well as planning for how the firm might end or change
57
—
work just as well for teams composed of unrelated individuals as they do for couple-based teams.
FIGURE 2.1
Number of Owners
Involved in Start-Ups
from the Panel Study
of Entrepreneurial
Dynamics
Adapted from Howard E. Aldrich,
Nancy M. Carter, and Martin Ruef
(2004). Teams, In Gartner, William B.,
Shaver, Kelly G., Carter, Nancy M., and
Reynolds, Paul D., eds. Handbook of
Entrepreneurial Dynamics: the Process
of Business Creation . Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage, 2004, Table 27.1, page 307
In one of my classes students were supposed to work on teams around an idea. Greg, a student in the class, had
an idea for an iPad stand with embedded lights that would pulse in time to music. He did a quick look online and
did not find any such products available yet. The professors approved the idea as a project possibility for the class.
Greg described the idea to the class, and two other students, Nancy and Jim, joined the team. They all worked
on the project and did the presentation for a grade. After that, Greg said he wanted to concentrate on getting into
law school and was planning to put the idea on hold. Nancy, however, wanted to go ahead with the idea and kept
working on it. When Greg found out, he want ballistic. “She stole my idea!” he would tell anyone who would listen.
The disputing alums came back to the professor. The first question was what was said to Nancy and Jim
about ownership rights when they joined the team. It turns out Greg had not specified anything. In his own mind,
however, Greg thought it should be obvious that the idea was his and that Jim and Nancy were contributing their
labor for a grade. In Nancy’s mind, it was clear that she and Jim were Greg’s partners in the business, contribut-
ing their time, ideas, and sweat equity. Now they had to negotiate after the fact.
Ownership problems like this happen all the time in teams. The best way to handle it is to come out right at
the start and specify or negotiate who owns what. There is no one “right” answer; it depends on how the group
Managing Idea Ownership on a Team
THE THOUGHTFUL ENTREPRENEUR
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42 PART 1 Entrepreneurs and Ideas: The Basis of Small Business
Women and Minorities in Small Business
Women-owned businesses are one of the fastest growing sectors of all U.S. businesses.
58
Between
1997 and 2012, the number of private businesses with at least 51 percent female ownership increased
by 54 percent, while the rate for firms overall was 37 percent.
59
Around 29 percent of all businesses
are majority owned by women, with another 17 percent equally owned by women and men.
60

Although in 2012, there were 8.3 million businesses owned by women, women-owned firms
accounted for only 4 percent of small business revenue nationally.
61
Why the smaller impact? Gen-
erally it is explained by the kinds of occupations and industries women choose when starting their
businesses. For example, Table 2.1 shows that more women choose service industries that tend to
have lower average sales levels, while there are more men in construction and financial industries,
which have higher average sales levels. Men also report more high-tech firms, as well as firms
where technology is central to the business. Both are associated with higher firm sales.
62

The entrepreneurs’ goals in starting the business might also play a role. For example men more
often mention making money as a motivation, while women more often mention having flexibil-
ity for personal and family life. The overall growth strategies discussed in Chapter 1 also differ,
with more women choosing single-person lifestyle firms over the small business forms that employ
others. Along these strategy lines, women prefer less-risky firms, which also tend to be the firms
with lower returns.
63
Another idea from Chapter 1 was whether the entrepreneur chooses to start a
business to pursue opportunity or out of necessity, here however American women and men report
similar trends, with about 70 percent of each group mentioning opportunity.
64

LO5
Identify the challenges
women and minority
business owners face.
TABLE 2.1 Percentage of Women Entrepreneurs in
Different Industries, 2012
65

*The average percentage of women across all industries was 29.2 percent.
Source: The American Express OPEN State of Women-Owned Businesses Report—A Summary of Important Trends, 1997–2012.
Industries with More
Women Than Average* Percentage
Industries with Fewer
Women Than Average* Percentage
Health Care and Social Assistance (doctors,
dentists, residential and child care)
52.9 Professional/Scientific/Technical
Services (lawyers, CPAs, consulting)
29.1
Educational Services 45.2 Accommodation and Food Services 24.7
Personal Services (e.g., beauty salons,
dry cleaners, auto repair, etc.)
40.3 Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate 21.3
Administrative Services 36.9 All other industries 18.6
Retail Trade 34.0 Construction 7.5
Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation 30.5
and their larger organization (the school) handle it. Some schools maintain that all ideas generated for school
projects belong to the school. Others say the idea belongs to the student, but in that case, which student?
Where there are no school rules defining “ownership,” everything starts with the person who has the idea. If
the person with the idea wants to keep absolute rights to the ownership, he or she should not take on other team
members, or take on only members who agree (in writing) that the idea belongs to its inventor, even after nonin-
venting students contribute their work to it. Why would students work without ownership? It can be for a grade
or to save themselves from having to come up with their own idea for the class, or for the experience, or for the
bragging rights of “I helped bring that to market.” On the other hand, the noninventing but contributing students
can try to negotiate some ownership rights. But whatever is decided, the students involved should make sure
everyone has a copy of it. Emailing the agreement is a good way to show everyone was sent it at the same time.
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Small Business Entrepreneurs: Characteristics and Competencies CHAPTER 2 43
Representing approximately 22 percent of all U.S. businesses, the number of minority-owned
firms has likewise grown explosively in recent years.
66
While the total number of U.S. self-
employeds edged up by only 6 percent between 2000 and 2010, minority-owned businesses wit-
nessed a remarkable 43 percent growth rate. During that same time period, the number of African
American-owned businesses climbed by 13 percent, Hispanic-owned businesses by an incredible
86 percent, and Asian or Pacific Islander-owned businesses by 6 percent.
67

What are the reasons for such phenomenal growth in the number of minority entrepreneurs? The
establishment of both public and private funding and networking initiatives have helped to level
the business playing field for minority entrepreneurs by offering information, advice, and funding
access. Another explanation lies in the growth of racial and ethnic groups within the U.S. popula-
tion, a trend that is expected to continue. The two fastest growing minority groups (Hispanics and
Asian Americans) represent the largest segments of minority business owners. Hispanics represent
46 percent of all ethnic business owners, Asians 25 percent, and African Americans 24 percent.
68

Despite the growth in the number of women and minority entrepreneurs, both groups still face
the challenge of access. Access refers to the simplest form of discrimination—often women- or
minority-owned firms are simply excluded from the opportunities offered to firms owned by white
males. This can result from the way that networks built from interpersonal relations in business
exclude women and minorities. When business relationships build from shared hobbies, sports,
or even college ties, social situations that are all male or largely white outside of work can lead to
unintegrated business networks.
Access problems for women- and minority-owned small businesses crop up most often as dis-
crimination in financing.
69
This means that they may not be given the same access to funds
70
or
contracting opportunities
71
that white male-owned firms are given. For example, a national survey
of small business finances found that minority business loan applicants were denied at twice the rate
of whites, even though application rates did not vary by race.
72
The same study found that Asian and
Hispanic business owners pay higher interest rates on their loans. These differences in loan denial
rates and in interest rates occurred even when all business-related differences were considered.
There are two solutions for access-based challenges. One solution is institutional, when minority-
and women-owned small businesses pursue dedicated contracting funds, known as set-asides ,
among big companies and government agencies. The good news is that governments at all levels
have special contracting opportunities for small businesses that are owned and operated by
minorities or women. For example, the U.S. government allocated nearly $23.5 billion on set-aside
based contracts in 2011.
73
Big companies and those with government contracts also have similar
programs, typically with two to three times.as much money as the federal government allocates.
74

Qualification for set-asides requires certification as a business owned and operated by a woman or a
minority (or both).
75
For corporations, certification is handled by organizations that are not affiliated
with the government or big business, such as the National Minority Supply and Diversity Council
? Women -and minority-owned
businesses are rapidly increasing.
Due to unprecedented educational
and financial opportunities now
available What are some of the
challenges you perceive still
facing minority and women
entrepreneurs may be able
to tap into which traditional
entrepreneurs lack?
set-asides
Government contracting funds
which are earmarked for particular
kinds of firms, such as small busi-
nesses, minority-owned firms,
women-owned firms, and the like.
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44 PART 1 Entrepreneurs and Ideas: The Basis of Small Business
or the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council. Certification consists of proving that the
business is truly owned and operated by a woman or minority. A similar process is used by the U.S.
government, with the Small Business Administration certifying firms for the SBA’s 8(a) Business
Development Program, whose details are online at the SBA site. It is also good to know that the
Commerce Department has the Minority Business Development Agency ( www.mbda.gov/gov/ ) that
can provide help, along with local SBA, SCORE, and Small Business Development Center offices.
Certification is not for every women- or minority-owned small business. For example, the SBA 8(a)
and most corporate certification programs require a business to be in operation at least two years.
As is true for any program involving government or big business, the small business needs to put
more energy and resources into record keeping than it might otherwise do, especially businesses that
opt for minimalized or specialized levels of professionalization. For those businesses that qualify,
certification provides a ready means of access to opportunity and to networks of businesses and
government agencies which can be leveraged to gain access to other sectors of business.
The second approach to solving problems of access is personal and involves making extra efforts
to network. As discussed in Chapter 3 , building a social network is central to business success. For
minority-owned and women-owned businesses, networking is especially important because such
firms need to network even more than other types of firms. While networking with other minority-
owned or women-owned firms will feel comfortable, and lead to business within that group, the real
gains in business require networking in more diverse and potentially less comfortable situations,
such as industry and trade associations, chambers of commerce, and the like. Success comes from
the number of different types of contacts one makes, and for a minority- or women-owned business,
this requires having business contacts from other races, genders, ages, and sectors.
Second Career Entrepreneurs
A special group of entrepreneurs are called second career or late career entrepreneurs—people
who begin their businesses after having retired or resigned from work in corporations at age 50 or
later. Whether these individuals start their business as part of a postretirement career plan or after
early retirement has forced them to reevaluate their lives, a late career as a business owner has be-
come a necessity for them.
76

As increasing numbers of corporations merge, downsize, reorganize, and/or close altogether,
many firms are offering attractive retirement packages to encourage employees to voluntarily leave
the organization.
77
Workers are opting to accept generous offers to retire early (between ages 50 and
64). People’s decisions of whether to return to work depend on their individual level of wealth (re-
tirement income and savings), their health, and their work experience, as well as general economic
conditions.
78

About a third of the retirees who return to work decide to become self-employed.
79
Those who
do face three challenges—adjusting to the entrepreneurial life, reestablishing self-confidence, and
keeping personal finances out of the business.
Working for others for most of their life, late career entrepreneurs are likely to have gotten used
to having many of the daily chores of running a business done for them. Even for former managers,
the mechanics of getting the location cleaned or the payroll checks written may have been things
they could take for granted. As entrepreneurs, they have to do these things themselves or arrange to
have them done. All entrepreneurs get used to a do-it-yourself approach, and this is a challenge for
everyone, but it can be especially trying for late career entrepreneurs, who may have hoped that life
would get easier rather than harder later in their careers.
The key for managing the demanding life of the entrepreneur is to get advice from people in your
line of business, or from consultants (which can include the free consulting available through Small
Business Development Centers or SCORE) about the basic activities of the small business. Make
sure you have all the demanding aspects of running a business covered. Pick one or two that are
particularly hard or onerous and consider subcontracting those out in order to keep the early stage
of the business manageable.
The second challenge comes from a loss of confidence.
80
The stigma attached to older workers’
departure from their former job can make a tremendous difference in their level of confidence.
certification
An examination based acknowl-
edgement that the firm is owned
and operated as specified.
late career entrepreneurs
(also known as second career
entrepreneurs ) People who begin
their businesses after having re-
tired or resigned from work in cor-
porations at age 50 or later.
LO6
Describe the situation
of people who become
business owners later in life.
? Second career entrepreneurs
face distinctive challenges such
as maintaining self-confidence as
they retrench themselves.
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Small Business Entrepreneurs: Characteristics and Competencies CHAPTER 2 45
Being given early retirement can be seen as a company’s effort to replace expensive (if capable)
older talent with junior people who work for less. But being laid off or downsized suggests that the
person was expendable at best, deadwood at worst. The difference in labeling makes a difference in
the late career entrepreneur’s self-confidence.
When there are self-confidence issues, the first solution is to take some time to get over the shock
to self-image. Counseling, whether job or psychological, can also help tremendously. When the
person is ready, the solution often involves redefining one’s life. The goal is to describe life in ways
that help the individual take control over it. A layoff becomes an indication that it was time to move
on. A downsizing becomes something that occurs to those best able to land on their feet. In taking
control over the past, it can become easier to assert control over the present and future.
The second self-confidence solution comes from networking. Entrepreneurs as a group are an
energetic and optimistic group. Just talking to people you know, as Donna Herrle did (see Small
Business Insight box see below), or joining local entrepreneur organizations, such as the chamber of
commerce or the local chapter of a trade or professional organization, can expose you to people full
of energy and ideas. This is contagious, and as you hear the stories of perseverance and overcoming
challenges that abound among entrepreneurs, the possibilities for a successful entrepreneurial life
seem to become more realistic.
The third problem is keeping personal finances out of the business.
81
Often when individuals
are laid off or given early retirement, they can receive lump-sum financial settlements. Frequently,
people intending to become late career entrepreneurs plan to use a substantial portion of these funds
to start the new business. Sometimes this happens because late career entrepreneurs see their per-
sonal funds as “easy money,” funds that can be obtained quickly and without a lot of hassles. The
problem is that many people who take the easy money are also taking the easy way out. They fail to
carefully consider how they will invest the money in the business, and how it will be used. Taking
the easy way out can often mean late career entrepreneurs underprepare for the rigors of business,
and they are risking their retirement nest egg.
For late career entrepreneurs, the solution is to treat their own money as objectively as possible.
Invest it only if you can make a strong case that the investment in the business is going to produce
reasonable returns. Treat your own money as an outsider’s investment. Do a business plan and
SMALL BUSI NESS I NSI GHT
Imagine getting an invitation to a wine and cheese party for a new business, where the owner shows a “before”
picture of herself in her corporate garb and an “after” picture of her in her home office, wearing pajamas and
slippers, with the adage “change is good” over them both. That is what Donna Herrle, 51, sent to business ac-
quaintances, friends, former co-workers, and family when she started her Pittsburgh graphic design business,
Drawing Conclusions. A graphic designer and former sales manager of design and print services, she was out on
her own after being laid off from corporate America in 2002. That layoff had set off alarm bells for Donna, who
feared the loss of security a regular paycheck had brought her. At loose ends after the layoff, she also wondered
what she should, or could, do.
Her turnaround and focus on starting Drawing Conclusions came about from talking to everyone she knew.
She was surprised at how many others had been in or were facing the same situation, and the advice she got
helped her make her own transition to self-employment. The advice she received again and again was to plan
the business carefully and keep networking, and the work would come.
And the work came. One client brought a project to the wine and cheese party, based on Donna’s graphi-
cally impressive invitation. Five more projects came in within 10 days of the party. Within a year she had over
50 clients and gross sales in six figures.
Donna Herrle
82

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46 PART 1 Entrepreneurs and Ideas: The Basis of Small Business
consider seeking outside funding from friends and family to help keep you honest about the chances
for the business.
This chapter starts with the idea that while no single explanation can really cover all 14.7 million
self-employed people in the United States, there are aspects of the entrepreneurial life that apply
to many. Some of these are general ideas, such as the entrepreneurial career or the competencies
needed to be successful in small business. There are also types of entrepreneurs that describe many,
but not all, self-employed people. Whether we look at attitudinal or behavioral types like the classic
entrepreneur or small business owner, or if we look at demographical groups such as women entre-
preneurs, the more we know about people pursuing entrepreneurship, the better it is for identifying
important issues in their business and personal lives. Every entrepreneur’s story is uniquely his or
her own, but across millions of entrepreneurs, there are some similarities, and these help make it
easier to think about the entrepreneurial process and get the right kind of help to entrepreneurs.
CHAPTER SUMMARY
Recognize the key aspects of the entrepreneurial
personality.
? In addition to self-efficacy from Chapter 1 , there are five other
key behaviors for entrepreneurial success.
? Passion: The intensely positive feeling entrepreneurs have for
their business.
? Perseverance: The ability to stick to activities over long peri-
ods, even in the face of setbacks.
? Promotion/Prevention Focus: The behaviors related to pursuing
gains and preventing losses.
? Planning Style: Ranging from comprehensive to habit-based,
this reflects how much and about what you ordinarily plan.
? Professionalization: The extent to which a firm meets or
exceeds the standard business practices for the industry.
Assess the operational competencies of the
successful entrepreneur.
? Forms of business-related expertise are called competencies .
? To be successful, an entrepreneur needs competency in the
key business functions (e.g., sales, operations, etc.), industry-
specific knowledge, resource competencies, determination
competencies, and opportunity competencies.
Describe the challenges of family business owners.
? Family businesses are one of the major forms of small business.
? The major challenges facing the family business are role
conflict, time management, and succession.
? All three challenges can be met through careful planning.
? Married couples and nonfamily partnerships face many of the
same problems and solutions.
Recognize the special nature of entrepreneurial teams.
? The majority of businesses are started by teams.
? Spouses or life partners are the most common form of team.
? Couple teams can benefit from trust and financial flexibility.
? Typical problems include lack of agreement, separating work
and family issues, and handling endings.
? Similar problems also crop up in non-spouse teams.
Identify the challenges women and minority
business owners face.
? Women-owned and minority-owned businesses are growing at
rates faster than other types of businesses.
? The major challenge facing these businesses is gaining access
to opportunity.
? Access is achieved through networking and set-asides.
Describe the situation of people who become
business owners later in life.
? Late career entrepreneurship happens when a person is laid
off, downsized, or given early retirement.
? The challenges facing late career entrepreneurs come from hav-
ing to do everything themselves, loss of confidence, and using
too much of their personal money too soon in the business.
? Having to do everything can be handled by identifying the tasks
to be done ahead of time. Loss of confidence can be dealt with
through taking time to heal and by networking with enthusias-
tic entrepreneurs. Late career entrepreneurs should use their
own money only when it makes sense for the business, usually
proven through a business plan.
LO1
LO2
LO3
LO4
LO5
LO6
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Small Business Entrepreneurs: Characteristics and Competencies CHAPTER 2 47
KEY TERMS
cognition, 30
action, 30
passion, 30
perseverance, 30
promotion focus, 31
prevention focus, 31
comprehensive planners, 31
critical-point planners, 31
opportunistic planners, 31
reactive planners, 31
habit-driven planners, 32
professionalization, 32
standard business practice, 32
expert business
professionalization, 32
specialized business
professionalization, 32
minimalized business
professionalization, 32
competencies, 34
key business functions, 35
industry-specific knowledge, 35
resource competencies, 35
determination
competencies, 35
opportunity
competencies, 36
family business, 37
role conflict, 37
time management, 38
succession, 39
set-asides, 43
certification, 44
late career entrepreneurs, 44
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. What are the different aspects of the entrepreneurial
personality?
2. What would be the likely impact on a start-up if the entrepreneur
had a strong promotion focus and a weak prevention focus?
3. Could someone with good industry-specific knowledge but low
competency in basic business skills be successful as an entre-
preneur in that industry? Why or why not?
4. When does it make sense to create a business using a mini-
malized approach to professionalization? Why is that so?
5. What are the strengths and weaknesses of a team?
6. What is the major challenge facing women- and minority-
owned firms? How can this be solved?
7. What makes the situation of late career entrepreneurs prob-
lematic? What can they do to smooth their way?
EXPERIENTIAL EXERCISES
1. Which of the aspects of the entrepreneurial personality
describes you the best? Be ready to explain why.
2. Which entrepreneurial competencies do you possess? Be ready
to provide examples and explain why you made these choices.
You can use the result of Skill Module 2.2 to aid you in this.
3. Pick small businesses with which others in the class are famil-
iar and analyze what level of professionalization they display.
Be ready to explain the basis for your classification.
4. Select a local family business owner or female or minority
entrepreneur whom you admire, and research the person’s
business and professional background. Interview this person if
possible. What particular challenges were faced? What compe-
tencies were used to overcome them?
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48 PART 1 Entrepreneurs and Ideas: The Basis of Small Business
GEORGE WASHINGTON, DISTILLER AND SEVENTH-CAREER ENTREPRENEUR
83
When he stepped off the podium in front of Federal Hall in New York City on March 4, 1797, George
Washington was probably thinking not about the presidency he just handed over to John Adams, but about
his audacious plan to start a new career to rescue his Virginia farm, Mount Vernon, from bankruptcy.
For Washington, farmer, surveyor, soldier, commander, legislator, and president, this new role might be
called his seventh career, but it was necessary.
Washington had owned a plantation for much of his adult life, and he tried to get back to it between
stints as the nation’s top general and as president. By the time he could retire to Mount Vernon, he dis-
covered the business was in trouble. The number of people for whom he was responsible had grown from
10 when he inherited the farm to 300 as he left the presidency. Unfortunately his land-holding size and
productivity had not kept pace. He was facing bankruptcy.
Knowing this even as he was preparing to end his term, Washington picked up on the idea of a dis-
tillery when James Anderson, a Scottish immigrant to Virginia, pitched the idea. Washington had shown
himself supportive of inventions, having developed new ways of training mules and preparing wheat for
market. He had even received America’s third patent.
Anderson’s idea made financial sense. Taxes on imported rum were high, and this was putting a
crimp in the average American’s drinking habits. Back in 1797, the average American was annually drink-
ing 5 gallons of distilled spirits like rum and whiskey (today the average is 1.8 gallons). So there was a
ready market.
So, working with Anderson, Washington started with two small stills in 1797 making a 110-proof
rye whiskey. Production grew in 1799 to 11,000 gallons sold in two versions (50 cents/gallon for regular
and $1/gallon for premium whiskey) and to $7,500 profit made, making Washington America’s leading
distiller. While Anderson could handle the role of running the distillery itself, the business side was in
Washington’s hands. Unfortunately, he failed to train a successor. Then Washington died in 1799. The
distillery passed into several hands but began a seemingly unstoppable decline and was closed for good
in 1814.
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CASE DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. What advantages would George Washington bring to James Anderson’s idea for a Virginia
distillery?
2. Washington’s farm was operating even as he got the distillery off the ground. What kind of
problems could that raise for the ex-president?
3. At his death, Washington’s distillery was the largest in the United States. Did this make
Washington a high-growth entrepreneur or a small business owner? Why?
MINI-CASE
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Small Business Entrepreneurs: Characteristics and Competencies CHAPTER 2 49
Video Case:
? Small Business Volunteering, p. VC-X
SBTV.com Videos:
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? Minority Entrepreneurs Break through Barriers
STVP Video:
? Learning to Take Risks: A Personal Story
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Are we putting
video case
page numbers
in the listing?

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