What the Heck Does an Entrepreneur Actually Do?

NOTE from Phil: What follows is a fantastic guest post from Carol Roth about something I am very passionate about: Entrepreneurship. I hope you enjoy it!

Aspiring entrepreneurs usually believe one or more of the following:

• Their idea will get them rich

• Their idea will get them rich quickly

• They can escape the corporate grind

• They can be their own boss and have the freedom to do what they want, when they want

• They can work shorter hours and have more free time for their hobbies, families and other passions

• They can be in control of their career path or their own destiny

• They can leave their mark on the world

• They can do more of what they love to do; and/or

• They should open their own business because they will “do it better”

However, most aspiring entrepreneurs don’t understand what it means to be an entrepreneur. What’s worse is that they don’t understand that being talented at making goods or performing services does not mean you will be talented at running a business.

In the most basic terms, an entrepreneur is someone who starts or runs a business, and puts their resources at risk. This can be starting a new venture, franchising or buying an existing business – but they all require you to run a business.

A common misconception is that entrepreneurs get to spend most of her time doing what they love to do. But being a business owner means that you have to wear many hats. You don’t get to pick those hats. If you don’t like those hats you still have to wear them – like it or not. Here are some of the hats you will need to wear:

• Marketing to find paying customers
• Providing customer service to both happy and disgruntled clients
• Managing employees
• Overseeing payroll
• Managing professional service providers
• Dealing with vendors and suppliers

…and many more daily tasks, most of which are about as fun as watching paint dry.

Wearing so many hats often prevents entrepreneurs from spending time doing what they actually love to do.

So, the bottom line is that if you love cutting hair, writing, fixing cars, reading comic books or any other passion, you will likely maximize your happiness (and potentially your wallet) by spending the your time doing what you love. On the other hand, if you love the idea of running a business entity, that is the entrepreneur’s REAL job.

How will you decide if you really want to run a business?

Carol Roth writes Unsolicited Business Advice (TM) for aspiring entrepreneurs, solopreneurs and other small business owners, at CarolRoth.com You can find her on Twitter as @caroljsroth She helps businesses grow and make more money. An investment banker, business strategist and deal maker, she has helped her clients, ranging from solopreneurs to multinational corporations, raise more than $1 billion in capital, complete hundreds of millions of dollars in M&A transactions, secure high-profile licensing and partnership deals and more.

Carol is a recurring/featured guest on Pittsburgh Business Radio’s Women Mean Business show (WMNY) semi-weekly. She blogs about issues affecting entrepreneurs and their businesses from her Unsolicited Business Advice blog at CarolRoth.com and is the author of The Entrepreneur Equation, a book about evaluating the realities, risks and rewards of business ownership, coming out this fall.