I Want to Ask You a Question About Questions
You see, questions, and asking the right questions, is a very underrated but a vital entrepreneurial skillset. Over the last 25 years, I’ve made some decent successes, but I also had some big flops, some failures, and some really embarrassing issues. Some of those flops were unforced errors totally on me, but a lot of the issues that I have dealt with in my entrepreneurial career was what I call “out driving your headlights”.
When you don’t know the right questions to ask and the advisors, you’re seeking answers from don’t know the right way to advise you. This process is going to leave you far from what you really want to achieve.
What I want to ask you right now is a simple question… What kind of entrepreneur are you? Let me give you a couple examples of entrepreneur types.
Entrepreneur or TREP Type
eTREP
One type of TREP is the efficiency entrepreneur or eTREP. This is an entrepreneur who really wants to create affluence. They’re looking for growth ad for the ability to really understand where they are and improve continuously. eTREPs oftentimes take the Kaizen approach or incremental advantage. This entrepreneur is one you might see in professionals, lawyers, doctors, and consultants. They’re looking to build around themselves and their capabilities, as well as looking to create a level of affluence, ultimately to use that affluence to take money out of the business.
XTREP
XTREP or the eXponential entrepreneur is someone who’s looking to build something bigger than themselves. The XTREP isn’t looking to build around themselves, but to surround themselves with talent that is better than them. This entrepreneur wants to build something meaningful and of significant value while creating wealth and other streams of income. The XTREP is looking at future wealth; like when exiting their business.
The Difference Between eTREPs and XTREPs
There’s a huge difference, but not in a “good or bad” way. The Difference in these entrepreneur types is the ability to build a business that is efficiency versus building an economized business where you can utilize many tools, resources, new technologies, and methodologies, to streamline the business. XTREPs keep expenses low, produces revenue, growth, drive profit and cash flows, and ultimately, takes money out of the business to be able to create wealth.
Understanding Who You Are Is Important
It’s essential, entrepreneur, to understand what kind of entrepreneur you are. This allows you to maximize what you’re doing, right now, to know what your current value is.
What are the value drivers in your business?
What some of the things that might take away or detract value from your business?
These are really important to know. As an eTREP, you’re going to have a different set of objectives, strategies, and business models. As an XTREP, you’re building a business that’s your legacy where you will likely pass your business on sometime far in the future after you’ve made intentional steps to secure your future wealth by maximizing your current value. It’s important to ask yourself the right questions… what type of entrepreneur am I?
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