The business is a machine, you are not. You are not a machine and you are not the business. They are separate.
Another key mistake of early-stage entrepreneurs is that they confuse themselves with the business. They think they have to do everything themselves, and that everything that everybody thinks about the business is a reflection on them.
This leads to that enormous strain we all know too well: the early-stage entrepreneur trying to do everything themselves because they don’t trust anyone else to do it well enough. They feel they can’t trust anyone because they don’t want anything to be less than perfect, or any customer less than sublimely happy, because that would be a reflection on them.
They take it personally, so they do it personally. And some of them get so confused they mix their personal money with the company money.
These are all separate issues, but we should address them together, because they both stem from this one simple lack of understanding.
You and the business are separate things, or in legal terms, separate entities. You started as an entity when you were born and became a legal entity when you got a birth certificate. You know this, but some people need reminding.
You shouldn’t need reminding that your business became an entity when you first thought about it and became a legal entity when you either registered it as a company, or started trading as an entity (depending on legal definitions – and if you’ve done that yet).
Whatever the legal status of your business, one thing is very obvious: you and it are not the same.
So don’t confuse them.
- If your business is a failure, it doesn’t mean that you are a failure. It’s just the machine.
- If someone else works for you, it doesn’t stop being your business
- If your business has money, it isn’t necessarily your money
If people don’t like what your business is doing, it has nothing to do with you – personally. If your business is doing what it is supposed to do, and its customers like that, you shouldn’t take it personally if some other people don’t.
You can’t do everything your business can do. If you try, it will never become a machine. It will never become efficient. It will never become better. It will never be anything that it could become. It will just be you, with a separate bank account.
Oh, and please, please, please, make sure that it has a totally separate bank account.
Money that is supposed to go into that account goes there, and money that is supposed to go to you, as a worker and shareholder in the company, comes to you.
One of the key things you establish when you separate the business from yourself, is what elements of the business you can Assess, Improve, Repeat.