What Style of Business Owner Are You? How Your Business Ownership Style Impacts Your Company
As a business owner or CEO, you’ll have a leadership style all your own. Just like you have your own leadership style, you’ll also approach being a business owner differently than other business owners. Like most things in business, everything starts at the top, and the way that you approach ownership as a business owner or CEO will impact your ability to meet the goals of your business. This article breaks down various types of ownership styles and how they impact business goals differently.
What Are the Different Types of Ownership Styles?
There are many different approaches to ownership, but here are the top three styles that we see most often.
chief everything officer™
The key trait of the chief everything officer™, or the lowercase ceo™ as we call them, is they are heavily involved in the day-to-day operations of the business while also trying to lead their company. The lowercase ceo™ is doing everything from managing the books to hiring and training employees to fulfilling orders to generating sales to managing the social media profiles to planning for the future, all at the same time.
Just a Job Exec
As the name would imply, the key trait of a just a job exec is that they treat business ownership like a job. They show up to work, and they go home. As long as there is enough cash in the bank account to pay their own personal bills, they are happy. However, on the flip side, any fluctuations in the bank account balance throw them into a tizzy.
Uppercase CEO™
You might have noticed that we called the chief everything officer™ the lowercase ceo™, so you can imagine that The Uppercase CEO™ is the opposite. The key trait of an Uppercase CEO™ is that they focus on one thing: being the CEO. They have a vision, and they are focused on building a team to do the day-to-day work of making their vision a reality.
How Does Each Style Impact Key Business Goals?
Just like there are many different approaches to ownership, there are many types of business goals. We’ve narrowed down to the top three that we see most often.
Growth & Scalability
Growth can occur in many areas—revenue, units sold, market share—but usually, when we hear this, it means the bottom line: profits. Achieving this means looking at how scalable a company is. Scalability is a company’s ability to profitably handle a growing amount of work.
Here is how each ownership style impacts a company’s ability to grow and scale.
chief everything officer™: Since the lowercase ceo™ is already doing so much, they often can’t take on more work successfully. For every ball they pick up, they drop another, leaving the company doing more work with little, none, or, worst case, less payoff.
Just a Job Exec: The Just a Job Exec has a team, but since they are focused on the bank balance, they only think about growth as a way to fix a fluctuating cash balance, causing them to make emotional decisions that result in short-term fixes. Or worst yet, they are only concerned with their bank balance because it will impact their personal bottom line.
Uppercase CEO™: The Uppercase CEO™ has teams to delegate to, but unlike the Just a Job Exec, the Uppercase CEO™ is focused on the bigger picture. They work with their teams to get information to make informed, smart decisions to learn from dips and turn them into climbs.
Fundability
Sometimes, we see this goal come in first as a challenge, but sometimes, we see it as part of a company’s ability to grow. Fundability refers to how attractive your company is to lenders and investors—how easy or difficult it will be to raise capital, regardless of whether that capital is debt or equity.
Here is how each ownership style impacts a company’s ability to get funding.
chief everything officer™: The chief everything officer™ is a jack of all trades but rarely a master of any. Lenders and investors are looking for specific things in your numbers, so when the numbers aren’t presented correctly, they won’t consider lending or investing in your company. Another factor they consider is operations. A one-man show, which is essentially what they see in lower case ceo™ owned businesses, is too risky of an investment for them.
Just a Job Exec: The Just a Job Exec’s Achilles heel is timing. Since their actions are motivated by their bank balance, it often means that they are showing declining numbers, lowering a lender’s or investor’s confidence in the company.
Uppercase CEO™: Since the Uppercase CEO™ has a trusted team, which usually includes a CFO and accounting team, they are focused on the future. The Uppercase CEO™ can present, with confidence, to lenders and investors the financial numbers and strategic plans required to secure funding for their businesses.
Sellability
Like fundability, sometimes we see this goal on its own, but many times, it’s the reason behind the growth goal. Sellability refers to how attractive your company is to potential buyers.
Here is how each ownership style impacts a company’s valuation in a merger or acquisition.
chief everything officer™: One of the critical factors for many mergers and acquisitions is how well a company would function without the owner’s involvement. Since the chief everything officer™ is involved in anything and everything, they would be crucial to company success, which actually lowers a company’s sellability score and company valuation.
Just a Job Exec: Again the Just a Job Exec’s Achilles heel is timing. Although the company can function without their involvement, they often come to these decisions late, leaving little to no time to position the company for a higher valuation.
Uppercase CEO™: The merger or acquisition that an Uppercase CEO™ is involved in is the last step of a succession and exit planning strategy they have usually been working on for years. The result is that the company is not dependent on the owner’s involvement and the business is growing and scalable, leading to not only a high sellability score reach correlates to high company valuations.
The Takeaway
Each style of ownership can be successful, but your ownership style can impact how successful you’ll be. Which one are you? The more strategic question to ask is, which one do you want to be?
The chief everything officer™ is hands-on, micro-managing the day-to-day operations, which may be working for them right now but, in the long run, hurts their scalability, fundability, and sellability.
The Just a Job Exec treats ownership like a job, focusing on immediate needs and often making last-minute, short-term emotional decisions based on financial fluctuations. Since they play the short-term game, they are frequently forced into bad deals, losing or leaving money on the table.
In contrast, the Uppercase CEO™ delegates effectively and focuses on the long game. This builds a sustainable, profitable, growing company that is better positioned for scalability, securing funding, and achieving a high valuation in the end game—exiting the company.
Transition to the Uppercase CEO
Ready to take control of your business’s future? Contact us to start transitioning to the Uppercase CEO and start seeing results.