I was once appointed to a management board of a Non-Profit Organisation and duly elected Chairman. It has become an interesting journey finding my place as Chairman of a board of an organisation that I do not work in on a daily basis. What is the role of a chairman? What do the other board members and the staff expect of me? And how do I get along with the CEO?

The Chairman’s hat is a large and often heavy one to wear. It is woven with responsibility and procedure and can often bring about long discussions and uncomfortable decision making. Any organisation from the smallest to the multinational needs someone to play the chairman role and wear the hat. Not having a chairman is like going on holiday without a map. Maybe fun and exciting for a while but soon you will be lost and have no sense of direction.

In my experience, it is always good to get the Entrepreneur and Chairman hats to chat at length to discover the possibilities or opportunities of the business before you bring in the Manager and Share Holder. This allows for expansion before fear sets in. If you do not have a Chairman in your business then take it upon yourself to wear the hat or hire a consultant or coach to wear it for you.

Think for a moment how you would act or react if you had equity in another business? What sort of input would you like to have in the way the money is spent on R&D and marketing or wasted on yet another batch of pink T-Shirts for the next convention. Now consider your own business, I assume you have equity in this? Why then do we ignore the way we often waste our resource just because we have the authority to do so. The Share Holder’s hat needs to be worn all the time to assist in the distribution of funds and budget compilation and approval. How different would you run your business if you have 30% equity invested in say me? I would require regular financial reports and discussions about where my money is going. When any person owns 100% of their business they seem to throw this hat away or hang it up on a peg of non-concern.

It is very interesting to see how this changes when a loan is required and some form of equity or surety is signed. Then all of a sudden the papers fly and new reports are produced. Take time out today and put on your Share Holder’s hat and consider what you would say to the business manager about how they are running your business. Then go look in the mirror and have a board meeting.

Every Business needs someone to wear the hat of the manager. This hat is the hat of responsibility and procedure. Doing things right is the motto of the manager. He gets the right stuff done at the right time in the right way. Admin, finances, forms, legal and taxes are all done in the correct order. This is often a neglected area of a small business as most owners do not wear or even own a managers hat.

To get the business in a place of sustainable growth the manager needs to visit the business and get these tasks completed. If this is not part of your skill set then outsource these to a bookkeeper, accountant and labour broker before you find yourself having to fill out forms with a lawyer. Manager people do often lack any sense of humour, marketing ability or the risk-taking gene. They struggle to grow a business using any dynamic form of marketing or new concepts.

If you are looking for a manager to join up with you can often find them in phone booths adding up numbers just for fun, or drop by the queue at the SARS office, they are the people standing in the line with a smile on their face. I am married to a Manager person, there is not a day that goes by that I do not give thanks for my wife. She keeps my business on the even keel and can find a form filed years before in just a few minutes. Her filing cabinet is her friend, as are all the window envelopes that arrive each day.

From the people I get to see and consult with each month, most are Techies. People who have learnt a trade in the industry and have gotten to a point that they think they now know everything or enough about what they do to start their own business. Technicians make great business owners because they know what they are talking about. Better a Technician who sucks at business than a businessman who bullsh#ts his way through the sales process.

All businesses need someone to wear the hat of the technician. These are the people who get the job done and know the details of the business down to the smallest nut and bolt. Most small businesses are born from the technician and develop through a series of growth levels, normally from the lounge to garage to wendy-house to factory shop to warehouse.

The problem we see with technical people is the lack of business acumen and procedures. They get the job done but there is little or no paperwork or marketing. Cash flow and planning become huge issues. And they often see their business failing because of some legislative issue like tax or DTI regulations. If you are a Techie then make sure your partner or outsource with a Manager hat to advise you and keep you on the straight and narrow. If sales and new ideas is an issue, then hire a coach or consult with an Entrepreneur hat, they make great company.

The first hat we discuss is that of the Entrepreneur. This for me is the easy place to begin because it is my natural hat. An entrepreneur in simple terms is a risk taker and opportunity seeker. We like to seek out new ideas and concepts and then make a plan to get them to market. This requires vision and energy. The Entrepreneur is one who sleeps with a notebook and pen, so he can awake at 02:45 to make notes for a new business concept. Entrepreneurs have huge imaginations and the word ‘impossible’ is not a part of their vocabulary. They like to take risks and ask questions later. The ‘screw it, let’s do it’ attitude is often hard for others to follow and will lead to frustration for suppliers and contractors or staff who get done with a project only to discover it is already 3 versions behind.

Every business needs some Entrepreneurial input to keep the ideas fresh and moving forward but will also need some form of balance to keep the business on an even keel and cash flush.

If you are like me, a natural Entrepreneur then surround yourself with two types of people, Sounding boards and Managers. You need to speak your ideas to help bring them into focus and let them hatch. Managers will assist you in getting all the paperwork done to keep both you and the business out of the poo.

Every business owner and Entrepreneur has many different roles to play. Each one separate from the other, yet similar in many ways. Getting the balance right is an art, getting it wrong results in failure at work and at home. Over the next 9 weeks, we will look at the various hats or roles that any Entrepreneur needs to wear. We will unpack all the pros and cons around each hat and assist you to become a better business owner, parent and spouse and Entrepreneur.

Be prepared to answer those questions that only a coach can ask, it may get a little uncomfortable but well worth it in the end.