From Operator to Owner

For those of us driven by the desire to call the shots, to make all the decisions, to have the freedom to do whatever we want whenever we want - owning your own business sounds like the perfect dream. You know that it’ll take hard work, dedication, your own blood, sweat, and tears; but the desire to be your own boss and get out of the system is stronger, and you choose to make that leap from operator to owner...so what comes next? 

There is an anticipation and excitement found in the unknown of stepping out on your own. And yet at the same time, there is also fear and trepidation of the same reality. But the driving force for many is to truly determine what you are made of, to live out your dreams at your standards, and see whether or not you can actually achieve your biggest ambitions. In connection with that, there is an equally powerful driving force that stems from the desire to serve others through your area of expertise and genius. That through your experiences and knowledge, you have developed a unique formula for a problem that you must share with others so they too can experience the same breakthroughs and ease you have. These principles are at the heart of why we have the desire to move from an operator to an owner - to share whatever toolset or expertise the knowledge and experiences you have in order to alleviate peoples’ pain and serve others. 

Does this sound like you? Perhaps you remember working that corporate job and dreaming of what it would take to run your own business and make a greater impact. Perhaps you took that very leap and are now running your own business...and you find you’re not quite feeling the freedom you anticipated having. You feel overwhelmed with the constant demands and pressures, and fear that you may become one of the alarming statistics: seven out of ten entrepreneurs fail, only three survive within the first three years, and only one or two succeed over the first ten years.  

These statistics are incredibly alarming. Especially considering the number of colleges across the country where you can receive bachelors degrees and master’s degrees and doctorate degrees in business. On top of that there are books upon books about business, online training's, conferences, pop up classes and seminars. So many educated people should be thriving in this industry, and yet over three-quarters of them are still failing. Why?  

There are three major components contributing to this failure rate and preventing business operators from becoming true owners. These three components are psychology, strategy, and exit strategy. Let me explain more about each one below.  

Psychology 

All businesses start with an idea, right? An idea centering on, “I can do…” something - improve this process, meet this need, build this framework, create this widget. You must have the belief that you can do something in a way that will serve people and answer their desire of, “I want that.” Additionally, you must also believe you can take this idea and turn it into a business. You must know that you can move from being a hobbyist or dabbler to a true entrepreneur and gain revenue. Even more so, you must know you can earn revenue not just to put you in survival or stability mode, but revenue that will push you even farther into the areas of success and significance. To make this shift, you must have the psychology to believe in yourself, and use that self-esteem and confidence as the fuel to turn your abilities and ideas into money and revenue. You must know your surface motivator(s) and reasons why you are starting this business - if it is to provide for your family, buy a fancy sports car, experience the security of having money in the bank, enjoy a higher quality of life. While they are wonderful pursuits, these are merely vehicles for meeting your values and purpose. They represent the values that matter most to you, but your purpose is how you want to feel. Does providing for your family meet the need for contribution beyond yourself? Certainty? Connection/Love? Does a fancy sports car meet your need for significance, variety? You must know the ROOTS of your purpose, because the vehicles may change along your journey. This driving force will continue to light the fire and keep you in the right mindset when difficulties and challenges come. 

Understanding your purpose and the reason you are entering into business allows you to connect with your clients from a place of serving rather than selling. When your whole outlook on your business is coming from a place of making a difference and creating an impact on peoples’ lives, rather than manipulating clients into a “yes” for your gain, it allows you to show up with authenticity and build meaningful and lasting relationships with your clients or customers. Serving your clients or customers, as opposed to selling, also allows you to keep their best interests in mind - which may mean their best interest is not the product or service you offer. Choosing to believe there is an abundance of business and clientele for everyone also allows you to trust the right clients and customers will cross your path, if it isn’t these; moving from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset enables you to serve your clients with their best interests in mind. 

The last key to strengthening your psychology in business is always coming back to the heart and mindset of the creator. You must allow creativity to flourish as you seek to innovate things that haven’t been done yet. So often we think creativity is just about someone who creates artwork, or music, or film. In reality, a creator is also an entrepreneur - they have the ability to take an idea and create something that moves people to say, “I want that.” Connecting your head to your heart, knowing your purpose, and having the confidence in yourself to persevere sets the foundation for success; yet even with these core pieces you may still become a statistic if you fail to couple your psychology with strategy, and a solid exit strategy. 

Strategy & Exit Strategy 

Let me preface these next two sections with an analogy. Let’s say you are a farmer, and you are passionate about soybeans. You know you can grow the best soybeans around, you have an incredible plot of land, you are excited to get out there and plant and tend to your crop - you know in your heart you were created to be a soybean farmer. So you go out and do the back-breaking labor of clearing your fields and seeding everything. What would happen if you simply watched your farm, waiting all season for your soybeans to be ready for harvest? There would be no harvest! Even after the crop is planted, you must weed it and water it and give it the nutrients it needs. You must strategically tend to your crop to see a harvest. On top of this, you must also know the right time to harvest. You can do all the right things to grow a great crop, but if you don’t harvest it at the right time, then you simply won’t turn a profit. There’s not a farmer out there who says, “Well I never really thought about when we’re actually going to harvest.” They know exactly what to do and when to harvest to yield the greatest profitability. It’s not enough to simply have an idea and be excited about it, you must have the right strategy to successfully carry it out, and the appropriate exit strategy to accomplish the end goal with the greatest profitability. 

Strategy

One of the mistakes I see people making when they go into a profession such as life coaching, is they begin with great intentions of wanting to serve people. They feel that they have some experience and some knowledge, but they don’t get certified and end up dabbling. They become hobbyists, where they are excited to help people but fail to have a true framework for success and sustainability. They know what they want to do (help people), but don’t truly know why they are doing it. When things get tough, it’s not your strength that holds you to your purpose, but the strength of your purpose itself. So they get knocked down and knocked off course by temptations, simply because they aren’t crystal clear on their purpose. What they aspired to create becomes something they dabble in and do on the side, eventually giving up on their dreams and missing the opportunity to even implement a solid strategy to reach success. 

To determine the right strategy, you really have to understand it in context of freedom. As a business owner, you have the freedom to call the shots and make decisions - both the fun and challenging decisions. But you also have the freedom to determine your rules of engagement. How do you incorporate the spiritual as well as the material into your business? Have you unknowingly placed a glass ceiling on what you believe you are capable of? Has anyone told you there’s no glass ceiling, and you can achieve anything you set your mind to? How are you determining and measuring your success on an ongoing basis? It’s critical to give yourself the freedom to make the rules easy to win in order to generate the momentum that will keep you continuously moving forward. 

How do you make the rules easy to win when determining your strategy? Create a range for success in all areas and intentionally insert padding into your schedule ahead of time to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Rather than focusing on an exact amount of money or exact number of clients to be successful, you can still experience success in slower months by creating a range of successful outcomes. For example, perhaps your measure of success in your coaching business is to have 15 - 20 active clients, with a target goal of 17. You are successful when you have 17, and you are also successful if you have 15. This means if 2 discontinue, you know you are still in the range of success instead of feeling like a failure because you lost 2. You can have the mental fortitude to celebrate and figure out how to generate more leads to increase your numbers and increase your padding again. Padding can take many forms - money, revenue, time, etc. As an owner, planning for padding allows you to have the freedom to take time off and stop allowing the business to own you. An operator, on the other hand, is owned by his or her business because the business runs the calendar, not the other way around.  

In addition to making the rules easy to win, you must also establish a strategic framework that clearly determines both your leading and lag indicators. Many business schools clearly define the importance of lag indicators - produce these results. But if you’re measuring your success only by your results, it’s already too late to make adjustments. If you wait until the end of the first quarter to determine whether your business has been successful, the rules are no longer easy to win because you either hit your numbers or you didn’t. You either reached your projected number of clients or you didn’t, or reached your projected revenue or didn’t. By strategically adding leading indicators, you give yourself the awareness every step of the way to determine whether or not you are putting in the right work to achieve your desired goals. For example, how many meetings do you need to make this week or this month? How many phone calls do you need to have in order to set appointments? How many of those calls are going to show up vs being no shows? How many cancel? How many of these meetings actually turn into a customer or client? 

Setting strategic goals related to leading indicators is just as important as strategic goals related to lag indicators, and both need to be viewed in context of the pain the client or customer is in. Meaning, you must be able to effectively communicate to your clients why your particular product or service is worth them parting with their hard-earned money and entrusting it to you to solve their problem. You must be able to communicate in ways that your prospective client resonates with and you can actually open the lead to resolve that pain. Effectively using leading indicators are what will allow you to connect with your audience and build the rapport and trust for them to become your clients. 

Exit Strategy

There is not a single sporting event out there - be it NASCAR, football, baseball, soccer, etc. - where teams don’t go into it with an exit strategy to win. How many professionals enter the arena thinking, “You know what? Today I’m not going to care about the outcome. Win or lose, we’re all just here to have fun and play.” None! Professionals enter every practice and every game with clear strategies and outcomes for every single thing they do, and then they implement those strategies on game day. There may be a time and a place for playing to have fun, but those who play to have fun are typically hobbyists - they are not professionals.  

Are you showing up to your business as a hobbyist, or as a professional? Do you know what it takes to win, and when you’ve crossed the finish line? If you decide to run a marathon, you are crystal clear on your exit strategy - once you reach 26.2 miles of running, you’re done. That’s great, but what all do you want to achieve with running a marathon? Do you want to run it in 3 hours? 2 hours? 4 hours? Your complete exit strategy will determine how you need to show up to training every single day to be successful. Without a clear exit strategy, your business will own you and you will be imprisoned trading time for money simply because you didn’t structure it with a clear exit strategy in mind. As a true owner, you must have the long-term mindset of getting into business in order to get out of business or you will certainly end up plateauing and getting stuck. 

Keeping an exit strategy in mind can be difficult, especially for those who have given everything to their idea and gain significance from their business. Perhaps this identity increases your self-esteem, it makes you unique, it allows you to connect - it meets a number of the basic human needs developed by Maslow and later made popular by Tony Robbins. Even still, maintaining the mindset of, “how do I get out?” keeps your eyes fresh to take advantage of opportunities as they arise.  

Let’s return to the farming analogy. Though a farmer may love planting soybeans, he or she knows that there will be seasons where the entire crop of soybeans is no longer reaping profits and a completely new crop is planted and harvested. Why? Because in order to increase profitability and not deplete nutrients in the soil, a farmer must rest his fields or change out his current crop for something else. The long-term exit strategy is to reap the best profit at market - and sometimes the current crop has to change in order to maximize profits.  

Having a mindset fixated solely on what you are doing today in business with no clear exit strategy for the future results in being a consuming entrepreneur. The flip side, where I fall and encourage you to as well, is to be a purist entrepreneur - remain passionate about your idea and business, and disconnected enough to always keep in mind the exit strategy and take advantage when opportunity strikes. Many years ago, I owned a large apartment complex - it was multi-buildings, multi-stories, multi-acres, multi-tenants. When I went into it, I had no intention of selling it because it was running like a lean machine. Then someone came along and made me an offer. I quickly said, “Done,” and was able to make that decision because I always had my exit strategy in mind - even though I had no intentions at the time of selling. If you are a consuming entrepreneur, or an artist entrepreneur, the mindset is that there is no price I would take to part with my baby. A purist entrepreneur, on the other hand, has the mindset of, if offered the right price - I’m out. In my situation, I always knew what my number was. And even though it wasn’t the timing I was expecting, when I was offered something even better in less time, I ended up turning that investment around into a 2,000% profit because I remained clear on my exit strategy from the very beginning.  

Overcoming Limiting Beliefs 

Even with the right psychology, strategy, and exit strategy, you will never move from operator to owner unless you overcome your limiting beliefs and learn how to leverage your time, resources, and capital. If you don’t know how to leverage these three things, then it will be impossible to achieve the freedom you desire and your exit strategy will continue to own you. In order to effectively leverage yourself, you must learn to trust those around you - trust, and verify (as the Russians said). The “trust, and verify” principle is just as true to apply to others as it is to apply to your own self. Without realizing and overcoming the limiting beliefs within your own mind, you will never reach the heights you are capable of. Outlined below are some of the most common limiting beliefs and how to overcome them when making the shift from operator owner: 

 “I’m not a business person.” 

The fact is, even with the best intentions, there will be times you have poor judgment. There are so many competing voices about the best business strategies and the best marketing funnels and the best platforms - where the college professor says this, and the consultant says that, and the friend says something else. Trust me when I say, I have made more mistakes in marketing than most people will make in their entire business. The greatest lesson I have learned is that I must be able to understand how to verify when I am heading down the wrong path and cut the cord. Even when I leverage resources and trust others to carry out tasks, it is critical that I constantly verify this continues to be the best course of action for me and my business.  

Trusting, but verifying takes another level of accountability when it comes to business ownership, and there are a number of excuses entrepreneurs use to forego this accountability and place the responsibility elsewhere. Perhaps you have heard, or even used, one or more of these before:  

• “I’m not a business person, I’m just really passionate about what I’ve got.” 

• “If I put processes around this, then I’m going to lose my artistic edge.” 

• “I don’t want to become a sellout by monetizing my art or creativity.” 

The truth is, “not being a business person” does not absolve you of the responsibility to systematize your business in order to stop dabbling and actually become successful. Additionally, why would you want to be the artist who doesn’t strike it rich until you’re dead? Sure, all your inheritance goes to family members or a museum - but wouldn’t you rather enjoy it in your lifetime and have it now? Even as a creative and artist, you have just as much responsibility to develop a system and framework (i.e., strategy) for marketing your artistry as you do to create your art itself. They are two sides of the same coin, and in order to be a truly successful entrepreneur you must learn to play both sides. 

“I’m the expert.” 

Another pitfall many entrepreneurs fall into is holding to the false belief, “I am the expert.” At times people begin to sink too far into their own ego and believe no one else can do what they are doing. Is this really true? If you have any resistance to that statement or declaration, than I invite you to take a deeper look inside and see where you may need to release your ego to reach a greater sense of alignment within.  

Here’s a great example. Ten years ago, if you wanted to watch a movie at home on a Friday night, what did you do? You drove to Blockbuster, walked around the store, chose a movie that was in stock, paid for it at the counter, drove home, and potentially paid a late fee when you forgot to return it by Sunday. Then this little company called Netflix came along, and asked Blockbuster if they were interested in partnering. In their arrogance, Blockbuster said no - they already had a system in place and didn’t have a need for anything else; why fix something that’s not broken? Blockbuster was on top of the world when it came to at-home movie entertainment, but they forgot the value of always keeping in mind a sound exit strategy, nor did they review their overall strategy and tactics to see if perhaps they needed a new process or framework for the changing times.  

And Netflix came along anyways. If you wanted to watch a movie at home on a Friday night, no longer would you have to drive to the store, walk around, hope a movie was in stock, pay for it at the counter, and pay a late fee if you forgot to return it on time. Instead, all you had to do was go on the Internet and press a button...and now, you don’t even need to do that because the movie can be added directly to and from your TV. Netflix completely changed the strategy when someone else said, “I’m the expert.” Don’t let your ego be your Achilles heel. When you feel stuck as an owner, perhaps it is time to step back and let go of the reins, and empower someone else to strategize how things could become even more profitable. 

“I must do everything right.” 

When everything is on your shoulders as a business owner, it can be difficult to have the courage to make decisions that may be unpopular. You may struggle with others not liking you, or feeling as though you can’t show any vulnerability, or that if I don’t know something it must mean that I am weak and incompetent. It takes courage to ask others, “Is there another way?” “Is there something I’m missing?” “What do you think?” and then, most importantly, to listen to the feedback.  

An amateur owner is going to ask, “What do you think?” and then open the door for any and all feedback. A professional owner, on the other hand, is going to ask detailed and specific questions in order to glean the type of feedback they know will be most effective and useful. Their request for feedback may sound more like, “I want you to pay attention to everything in this plan of action. Tell me what soft points you see, what are we missing if we are aiming for this target?” The professional just received specific feedback on what he or she is looking for, knowing that this is the key to moving forward and reaching success. Leverage the knowledge and talent and resources around you, remembering to always trust, but verify. 

Another trap this limiting belief can create is analysis by paralysis. As an owner, you must be able to make decisions. Analysis paralysis stops the decision making process, making it very likely you will miss the most profitable time to harvest. Markets will shift, clients will become finicky, things will change - the effective owner has the ability to make strategic decisions with his or her exit strategy in mind without listening to the internal and external pressures of getting everything right the first time. Often times the loudest voices are the critics and naysayers letting you know everything that you are doing wrong. If you become too attuned and focused on these voices telling you how you screwed up or made somebody unhappy or how you missed the mark, it can become easy to hyper focus on fixing each critique and lose sight of your overall strategy and exit strategy. You must have the mental fortitude to go back to your psychology and your strategy to ask if something truly does need to change, and rely on your strategic leading and lagging indicators to verify your next course of action. 

“I must serve everyone who approaches me.” 

It is critical to know your ideal client and who you want to serve. Without knowing your audience, it is impossible to have the clarity to determine if working with someone will truly be a great fit and beneficial partnership. The clarity of understanding your ideal client also give you the courage, mental fortitude, self-esteem, and confidence to say no to people and opportunities that don’t serve you and don’t align with your business strategy and exit strategy. It’s not that you have anything against a client you turn down - saying no doesn’t come from a place of hate or dislike or prejudice. You simply have the confidence in your vision to know that working together won’t serve either of you, and it is okay not to serve everyone. Rather than judging the feeling, give yourself the freedom to realize this may simply not be your work to do, and move on to the work that is yours to do - because I guarantee there is plenty of it. 

“Owning a business is the same as leading a business.” 

Anyone can have an idea and get resourceful to turn it into a business. But owning a business is not the same as leading a business. In order to effectively lead, you must be able to manage yourself from the inside out. You must be able to recognize the language that is going on in your head, and if you are coming from a place of empathy and compassion or a place of judgement. When you are frustrated or upset, are you able to speak your truth in love, or are you walking around thinking “these people are freaking idiots” and “are you kidding me? Obviously no one can do it as good as I can.” The language happening inside your head will translate to your verbal and non-verbal cues as you interact with clients, customers, employees, vendors, and contractors. What you think matters, and you must determine if your thoughts reflect a true heart of service or if they are fueled by judgements and manipulation.  

“I can’t charge that much.” 

You must know your worth in order to feel confident setting the price point for your services or products, and you equally must be able to communicate the value you offer as well. When you are confident in your value and what you have to offer, give the prospect or client the opportunity to say yes or no - if you don’t ask them and put out there what you are offering, then you aren’t giving them an opportunity to accept and receive what you are offering. Here, it is all about if you truly believe in the value you are providing. If you don’t, then you’re right - you’re not worth charging that much. People will smell that inconsistency and bs 100%. You words must be congruent with what your body is saying, so if you believe in your price-point then you can certainly charge however much you know you’re worth. 

Next Steps 

So all of this sounds great - you understand the foundation pieces to move from an operator to an owner, you’ve worked on overcoming the limiting beliefs listed above...now what? If any of this has grabbed your attention and you are wondering what to do next, book an appointment and get on my calendar. There are some strategies you can get from articles and textbooks, but if you are truly looking to shift from an operator mindset to an owner, or if you are already an owner and are looking to close the gap in the success of your business, then let’s have a conversation.  

Here are some things you can expect to gain by booking time with me: 

1. Clarity on your purpose and desired outcome 

In order to be successful, it is critical that you know your purpose, why you are doing the things you are doing, and how to follow through. Likewise, in order to follow through and succeed, you must know your exit strategy to move in that direction. Without these core elements, you are simply dabbling and having fun. If you have the capital to do it, that’s great. But if you are actually in your business to transform peoples’ lives, you must always ask yourself, “Do I have a strategy that creates the leverage for people to say, ‘I can’t live without this for another second and you’re the person who can help me?’”  

I will help you gain clarity on your goals, why those goals are a must for you, the specific strategy to follow to reach your goals, how to define what success is for you, an appropriate and effective timeline, and how to measure your progress all along the way. In order to continually measure your progress, you must know where you currently are, where you want to be, and the scale to follow to get there.  

2. Tangible and effective strategies to move from survival mode into lasting success 

One of the biggest mistakes people make is trying to jump from survival mode into success, not realizing they are missing a critical level in between - stability. You can still set goals that will launch you into success, but you must also set goals that move you into stability first. Many businesses find themselves on a roller coaster between survival and success, and as soon as a challenge arises or they have a slow month they drop back into survival mode. Having an effective strategy in place to move from survival into stability, and then to move from stability into success will give you the capacity to weather any storm or challenge that arises. Consistent and persistent action today will lead to consistent and persistent results in the future, if that consistent and persistent action follows an effective strategy with the exit strategy in mind. 

3. Accountability to reach your goals

My clients stay working with me an average of 7 - 8 years. Why? They continue to get value - because I have a specific framework I go through every single time I meet with them. I know what their goals are, what they are working on between sessions, what they have committed to do, and I have a plan for every session we have. If my client comes to our coaching session with something that doesn’t seem to connect back to these important elements, we first address that and determine if this topic will serve them the most in the time we have together. In addition, and arguably one of the most critical pieces of the coaching I offer, is holding my clients accountable to celebrating their wins across the board. So often they think they can’t celebrate until they reach the “mega win,” but I help them discover things to celebrate each and every moment of the day because it’s a long journey.  

4. A mirror to reflect your blind spots 

Everyone has gaps - from the current operator to the small business owner to the CEO of a major corporation to the billionaire; working with me gives you the opportunity to catch your blind spots early and make corrections to still achieve your goals in the timeframe you desire. Don’t let your ego, or your fear of vulnerability, get in the way of you reaching your fullest potential. Whether it’s me or another coach, commit to working with someone who can help you get to the next level in your life. Schedule that appointment and unlock the confidence of knowing your why, having a sound strategy to carry it out, and the exit strategy that will result in the greatest profitability - all resulting in greater productivity with your limited amount of time and sleeping better at night.  

Working with a coach like myself on all of these areas will make the difference of what side of that statistic you fall in - will you be in the 90% of business owners who don’t make it in the first 10 years? Or will you be the 1 who not only survives, but thrives? Take my own advice and feel free to trust these points, and verify their validity. Book time on my calendar and see if I can serve you to reach the next level in your current journey. If you are serious about moving from an operator to an owner, or if you are already an owner and want to develop a true owner mindset, go to www.chadecooper.com and discover how you can gain the support you need to truly succeed.