What Is An Entrepreneurial Professional?

Jack Jones is a young CPA counting a lot of beans for a mid-sized firm. He and his colleague Ned Taylor have been working on the accounts of a number of musical bands. They often dream about jumping ship and going off to start their own firm. (The example is real; the names are not)

One day, the partner on one of the accounts blames them for something for which he should have taken responsibility. This is the last straw for Jack and Ned. A couple of clients encourage them to leave to start their own shop. For the first few years they operate in an office the size of a closet. Ned’s strength is accounting, Jack’s strength is organization and rainmaking. In the beginning, they are the rainmakers, the staff, the bookkeepers, and the maintenance crew. Fast forward to 2009: Jack and Ned have built a 300+ firm that is one of the fastest growing firms in the country.

What makes these professionals so remarkable and successful? Each has integrated the mindset of an entrepreneur, implemented the best practices of running growing businesses, and overcome the mistakes made by most entrepreneurs. They regard their firms as businesses, not practices.

In today’s roller-coaster economy, with many professionals losing what used to be secure positions in law and accounting firms, this blog reveals what it takes to become a successful “entrepreneurial professional”:

• What are the unique skills one needs for a successful firm?
• How does one distinguish between growing a business vs. a practice?
• How does one design and implement an entrepreneurial approach to make a service enterprise successful?
• How does one become a good leader when one’s training has been to follow other professionals?
• How does one implement an entrepreneurial mindset within a firm?
• In turn, what benefits do these attributes and skills bring to the entrepreneurial clients?

Looking at Jack and Ned, you can see these common traits:

1. Immense drive; a big “why” to be successful despite the usual fears.
2. Persistence. Unstoppability.
3. Confidence.
4. They understand how to make money, be profitable.
5. Develop key relationships with influencers and decision makers.
6. Have successful mentors from whom they learn.
7. Never let making a mistake or looking foolish stop them from going forward.
8. Good leaders of others – aren’t afraid to hire entrepreneurially-minded people as talented or more talented than them.
9. Unstoppability. (It’s worth repeating)

Will taking on an entrepreneurial approach require transformational thinking and actions? Surely.

Yet, there is no time like a difficult time to jump-start changes for you and your business.