The 10 Daily Roles of a Startup Entrepreneur

Leading a business is complex work. It’s not a matter of walking into the office, churning out a few ideas and considering yourself done for the day. No, the reality is that you’re going to be doing a little bit of everything -- especially in the earliest stages of your business’s development.

You won’t have the resources to afford entire departments, nor the operations experience for those departments to operate autonomously. Instead, you’ll have to step in to fill those roles temporarily to establish a foundation and direction for your company to grow.

Throughout your tenure as an entrepreneur, you’ll find yourself filling these 10 important and varied roles on a daily basis:

5 Lessons I've Learned From Building Our Remote Startup Team

Many business owners have heard that if they want to hire the most competent and talented employees, they need to relocate to New York City or San Francisco. That simply isn’t true. There is tremendous untapped talent all over the world -- you just need to know where, and how, to look.

I’ve always gravitated toward location-independent business models that allow me the freedom to move and travel to new places (including Asia, where I started my first company). My current company has four full-time employees and ten part-time contractors, all of whom work remotely. Our team is based both internationally and stateside, and members live in Chile, Vermont, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Chicago, Portland and other places.
In my experience, the following benefits of building a remote team far outweigh the challenges:

7 Rules to Follow, to Acknowledge That 'Your Business Is Your Boss.'

You’re an entrepreneur. But who’s the boss in your business?

It’s not you. It’s your business.

One of the most profound and game-changing moments for me as an entrepreneur was when I finally realized who was in charge. As an entrepreneur and cofounder, I had thought I was calling the shots and making the decisions. And, from the perspective of the organizational chart, I certainly was. But, from a smart business perspective, I owed my allegiance to a more authoritarian boss -- the business itself.

This shift in mindset changed the way I approached and worked on the business. Instead of interacting with it as an authority figure, I deferred to the interests of the business.

I believe that this change has made me a better businessman and a better manager, and has contributed to the success of my ventures. Here are seven requirements that I suggest every entrepreneur keep in mind, recognizing that your business is your boss.