The business owner is the main driving engine for a Micro, Small and Medium Sized Enterprise (MSME). The traits linked to the owner are the sources of new ideas and innovation, marketing and sales, production of goods or services, managing the daily operations and the growth on the long term, purchasing, etc. The business owner of an MSME performs these tasks by having different hats at her/his head.
Hats of a business owner
The entrepreneur hat is there for starting-up the business at the very beginning and incorporating new ideas and innovation afterwards. The technician hat is required for smooth and faultless running of the daily operations. And the manager hat is needed for coherence of activities and functions of the business for the short term and on the long term. The owner should keep these hats with her/him all the time since even during a day they are needed occasionally and the owner should place certain hat for certain times during the day. Normally the sizes of the hats are more than enough at the beginning of the venture while there is the possibility of not being sufficient with the growth of the business. That’s why the four main personal traits of a business owner will be the main factors as for the sustainable and healthy growth. It is given below a chart representing the ideal and a typical MSME owner case of these traits to show the gap which will be the main reason of failures during the growth of a small business.
Business owner traits
At the beginning of any small business, the level of traits needed for a successful run of any company is normally within the limits of the owner’s abilities. That’s why running the business and starting to grow is relatively easy with regard to the coming future for a growing business. It is because of that the growth will need more sophisticated traits and this requirement does not go linear but exponential with the level of growth.
Every main area of traits of the owner starts to be tested deeply as the pace of growth gears up and intensifies in an MSME. The entrepreneurial traits will stay competent for quite some time to grasp market opportunities. The technician traits will come along the way of growth to some extent. The personal traits of an entrepreneur will be enough to start the growth process and to accompany as for needed in the short term after the establishment. But the management traits will remain short along the way of growth and will be the first reason of struggle. Managerial abilities and competence of a business owner is the main source of risks for a growing business. If there will one opportunity of begging to be improved for a business owner, it should be the managerial traits of her/him.
But in overall, the business owner’s traits, as a whole, must always outrun the business itself. Otherwise, the business will wend its way and the owner will be dragged by the growth unintentionally. This is the point where the main risks associated to the owner starts to. It is to stay behind the business for a business owner. A business owner must be in front lines in every aspect of the business; as an entrepreneur, as a manager, sometimes as a technician (even though during the growth of a business the technical abilities of a business owner is needed less and less, s(he) should be capable enough to give direction or to control the works in the company).
As a result, the business owner of a small company is the leader. And the leader must have the vision beyond the current standing of the business and give confidence not only to the employees but also to the suppliers and competitors in the market. There are risks for an MSME in case the company owner and her/his traits are trying to catch up the business while the business is growing. In order to avoid the risk, a company owner must develop her/his abilities starting from the managerial traits and be in a continuous improvement during the journey of the business.
