Would you make a great business owner?

What makes a great business owner?

 

an article from Julia Payne and David Bowler, founders and directors of business consultancy, Incisive Edge (www.incisive-edge.com)

We meet and work with many businesses, helping them and their business to achieve success, so we are in a fairly good position to address this age-old question, but is there really just one answer?

For many, a good business owner is someone who leads from the front, someone who puts in as much effort as the rest of the team, who’s not scared to roll up his or her sleeves and get their hands dirty. This definition is of course complete and utter nonsense.

Then there are others who believe that a good business owner is someone who resides in an ivory tower of their own making away from the melee of less important staff whose banter and day-to-day tasks might cloud their judgement. The idea being that this peaceful, separatist, zen-like existence would give them the purity and clarity of thought to consider the bigger picture, to view the true nature of the business and see its path to greatness. This is a view usually endorsed by business owners who don’t want to get their hands dirty or actually work.

A good business owner is created as much by the people they surround themselves with as the people they are. There’s a real skill involved in viewing the past, present and future of a business and determining how to steer your little fishing boat of a company to more profitable fishing grounds. A good business owner has to be the master of numerous talents – a people person, a visionary, an inspired leader, an innovator, and so many more things besides.

Is there an answer to the question of what makes a good business owner? We believe there is and what’s more, we create them.