Chapter 4: From Employee to Entrepreneur

When you go out on your own most people tell you, "Wow, that's great! Best of luck to you!" Or something to that effect. And an overwhelming majority of them are sincere when they say it. Some may know exactly what the journey entails, while others may not have the slightest clue. The truth is, the transition from an employee to an entrepreneur is many things all at once: exciting, frustrating, exhausting, rewarding, the list goes on. And there's no secret ingredient to make it an easy, smooth, or immediate runaway success.

I do want to focus on one important element that's easy to overlook and take for granted when you come from a W2 role: transactional relationships and their application to trust. I'm making an assumption, here, so take it with a grain of salt.

EMPLOYEE MINDSET

If you're a W2 resource, you're likely coming from an employer that's large enough to have a reasonably diversified book of business or client base. In other words, the company probably doesn't have its future riding on one client (there are exceptions, of course). As an individual employee, however, apathy is an easy trap to befall, which can lend itself to less personal client relationships. That is, transactional relationships. I found myself in that predicament a few times throughout my career as I juggled multiple engagements and transitioned from one from to another. In some cases the transitions were welcome; in others they weren't, as the projects were engaging and interesting. Alas, few budgets last forever, and that was often the way of things in corporate consulting.

ENTREPRENEUR CHALLENGES

Step into a world where you start your own business, and suddenly things are different. Your relationships with your first and early clients have a very different meaning than the relationships you may have had with clients at a larger company. Every interaction is a reflection of your brand; your integrity; your appetite to partner rather than transact. Despite all the challenges of starting, owning, operating, and growing your own business, one of the easiest aspects of the journey for me to embrace was this notion of serving as a true partner to my clients—earning their trust and conveying through my words and actions that I have their long-term interests in mind rather my own short-term ones. I'm sure this concept resonates with many of my former colleagues across various professional services disciplines, but it shouldn't stop there because the underlying theme of this is the concept of trust.

IMPORTANCE OF TRUST

I went into one of my last job's interviews—the final interview, with the CEO—and he asked me what I thought it was they were selling. I thought about it for a few seconds (honestly, I overthought it). As a firm comprised of financial advisors, I said, "I'd say you're selling expertise." A reasonable answer, I thought. He smiled at me and calmly said, "We're selling trust, Chris." He was exactly right, and I should've trusted my instincts. A reasonable party—retail or commercial—wouldn't engage in a professional relationship if they couldn't trust the counter-party, so as an advisor of any sort you have to sell your trustworthiness just as much as your more tangible attributes. This is especially important in the early stages of an entrepreneurial venture when every lead is important, and every win-wire is an ongoing lesson in customer satisfaction and retention.

A relationship built on a foundation of trust skips the transactional phase to one of recurring benefit to both parties.

HOW TO BUILD TRUST

Let me be clear, I'm not implying that large companies simply chase the dollar and are immorally hoodwinking their clients. What I'm trying to convey is that, in my opinion, there's likely a greater weighted risk attributed to your role as a trusted party to your clients as a smaller business owner than to your previous role as an employee in a larger company, so it behooves you to curate and maintain a focus on long-term partnerships with your clients. Prove to them that you're in it with them for the long haul—when they win, you win (even if you don't necessarily share in their financial success).

In a previous life, I'd be invited to late-stage pre-sales calls with large accounts to help direct prospects toward either an on-premise perpetual license or a SaaS subscription agreement. The kicker was, I wasn't in the Sales org. I was in Product, so I had no financial incentive riding on the customer's decision. My goal, in that capacity, was to kindly dismiss the Account Rep from the dialogue and have a candid conversation with the customer, letting them know what my take on the scenario was.

I'd ask them how they expected to use the product, how they'd used similar products in the past and what did or didn't work for them, what they wanted to improve this time around, etc. After distilling those details, I'd inform the buyer that the decision was wholly theirs—I had no horse in the race, and my compensation and performance would in no way, shape, or form be impacted by their decision. With those cards on the table, I'd give them my assessment: on-prem or SaaS, whichever I felt would serve their interests best over the duration of their relationship with our company.

Early interactions like this establish an immediate standard for trust. So, if you've started your own business, then you've obviously taken a risk. Let your [prospective] clients know that they should feel comfortable taking a risk on you. Speaking of risk, in the next chapter I'll start exploring that very concept in more color and how it's shaped my career. Until then, try having a conversation with a customer, client, or partner focused on their long-term goals rather than immediate deliverables, and notice how it shifts the dynamic. I hope the results are as fruitful for you as they were for me in my experience.

-Chris