Many entrepreneurs are excellent at starting a new business and bringing it to the point of functional profit. However when it comes to keeping the business in profit they are a walking disaster. If that sounds like you then you need to adopt a strategy to fix this problem and that's exactly what I'm going to outline.



The entrepreneurial personality requires excitement and challenge. They thrive on starting new businesses and finding ways to make them succeed. This is their passion and while they are in that passion they are happy.

Once a business is up and running successfully it needs a steady controlling force that keeps it on track, steadily growing at a pace that the business can handle. This is where the entrepreneur comes unstuck.

The steady predictable nature of the day to day activities of sound management drives the entrepreneur insane. There is not enough excitement. They need to be living on the edge and a "live on the edge" manager is the last thing a business needs.

When the entrepreneur is stuck with management his or her subconscious mind decides that things aren't working right. Where is the excitement? Where is the do or die life that is normal for the entrepreneur? Where is the drama?

In order to "put things right" the subconscious mind creates drama and excitement in the business. The easiest way to do this is to create some huge financial problems that need to be solved. Once these are in place the entrepreneur is at home again. They have a challenge to sink their teeth into. In other words, an entrepreneurial manager will subconsciously throw a spanner in the works just so they can be back in their comfort zone.

If you look at the pattern of these entrepreneur run business you will see a classic saw tooth pattern of ups and downs as the spanner get thrown in, the problems get fixed and then the spanner get thrown in again..

So what is the answer?

There are basically two answers.

The first answer is for the entrepreneur to recognize and accept this personality trait, to hire a competent manager for the established business, and then go start a new business.

Appointing a manager can be difficult for an entrepreneur because they are also usually control freaks, but it is the best for all concerned.

Once a competent manager is in place the existing business can settle down to steady growth and become a passive profit center for the entrepreneur. The entrepreneur, on the other hand, is off doing what they do and love best, starting a new venture.

If this system continues then the entrepreneur will end up owning a portfolio of successful, profitable businesses that they continue to add to. They will be having fun and building their net worth at the same time.

The second approach to this situation is for the entrepreneur to sell the existing business while it is in it's up phase and then go start a new business. This can also be a profitable system. However it has been my observation that people with the sell mentality rarely invest that profit in a capital growth investment. The result is that over the long term they have made a lot of money but retained little. For this reason I prefer the portfolio building approach of solution one over the sell approach of solution two.