The Entrepreneur as Chameleon

I was watching this week’s most recent episode of the FX TV show, The League, about a group of friends in a fantasy football league.  The show’s naïve, somewhat goofy character, Andre, professed himself a “dating chameleon” – that is, whatever his girlfriend likes, he becomes.

This made me think about how we all must become “chameleons” at times, adapting to the likes – or perhaps needs – of the people and environment around us.  In addition to being a business lawyer, I became a business owner in 2011, and I had to learn to be a chameleon and take on all kinds of roles that were new to me.

My business is retail – a saddle shop and equestrian sporting goods store – with some side services such as horse blanket repair and saddle fitting.  I love chatting with customers, going to market to pick new products for the store, and hosting big sales events. But owning a business is so much more!

My favorite motto that first year was, “Well, they didn’t teach this in law school!”  I became a handyman, changing light ballasts and replacing parts in our industrial washing machine while watching an instructional YouTube video.  I learned the ins and outs of marketing, designing Constant Contact email campaigns and preparing ads for print and social media.  I went through a DOT exam and began hauling our mobile unit to events.  I developed interviewing skills, found myself with a staff to manage, spent hours staring at QuickBooks™, and tried to decipher complex point of sale reports that would help me make educated buying decisions.  And I bought an industrial sewing machine, which might as well have been a time machine for all I knew about it.

This all worked fine…for a while.  But gradually, I realized that adding an in-house bookkeeper would make invoicing and payroll go much more smoothly (and take that headache off my plate!).  Calling an electrician seemed an obvious move after I shocked myself trying to remove an exit sign.  I brought in a trailer manager (with a DOT card) to handle the mobile unit, and an expert seamstress to operate our industrial sewing machine.  And yes, I have an appliance repair company handle the washer repairs now.

For those with an entrepreneurial spirit, it can be especially tempting to jump headfirst into each new challenge because, frankly, there’s not a lot that scares them.  And truly, most entrepreneurs make great chameleons!  But the bigger test comes when the same entrepreneurs need to define their limits and learn to hand over the reins (pardon my pun).  Adapt, yes!  Challenge yourself, yes!  But be careful not to electrocute yourself in the process!  Focus on the things you do well and should be handling in your role, and find the right experts to handle the rest.