Making leap from entrepreneur to employee challenging, but not impossible
Dear Sam: I had my own business for 27 years and grew it slowly and steadily to generate millions in annual sales. While this sounds good, unfortunately, my attention was required for every facet of the business; therefore, I consider myself good at many things, but not good enough in any one specific area to compete as a subject-matter expert. I’m a “jack-of-all-trades and a master of none,” so to speak.
One of the issues that I — and many other entrepreneurs — face is a stigma in the potential employer’s mind of, “Can this person work for anyone after he has been his own boss?”
What advice can you provide the thousands of former business owners who are now seeking to become employees? — John
Dear John: This is a fantastic question, and it’s one I hear frequently as business owners make the decision to transition to or perhaps return to a more traditional employee/employer engagement.
In fact, I am currently working with a
business owner who came to me with the exact dilemma you mentioned: What skills from his background should he highlight when he feels he can do many roles within an organization? My client feels that he perhaps has not carved out the niche many at his age have in their careers.
I consistently work with entrepreneurs who have made the decision — either willingly or not — to close their businesses, all fearing that same situation you mentioned of an employer not understanding the value in their “generalist” background.
As you mentioned, there is a potential stigma surrounding a former business owner/entrepreneur.
Typically, entrepreneurs are engaged by challenges and quickly move on when the challenge has been overcome. They like autonomy, they prefer to make the rules, and they have thrived in environments they have created. All of these characteristics often cause concern for the hiring manager attempting to recruit and retain talent for a long period of time.
As an entrepreneur, I believe one of the most important things you can do is figure out how to position yourself. As you mentioned, you are a generalist; you have done a little of everything, so you find it difficult to compete with the specialists out there.
To compete more effectively and more successfully, you need to define your target. Figure out what you want to do; then tailor your resume and its content in that direction to make you look more like a specialist. Doing this will likely mean you will have two, and possibly more, versions of your resume.
For instance, I often position entrepreneurs for business-development and relationship-management roles, as this makes sense based on their proven success in developing and retaining a client base. For an alternate target, I might position them as operations managers, which is also a role that would make sense.
Knowing that you have a broad skill set is a wonderful “value-add” to reinforce during an interview. However, on your resume, be sure you are presenting a targeted and refi image of who you are as a candidate so you can compete against those specialists or subject-matter experts (SMEs) out there.
Key to your success will also be your ability to leverage your professional and personal networks to open doors. More often than not, I see past business owners find opportunities based on who they know, not what they know. Leveraging your network and seeking referrals for both open and closed market opportunities will provide the third-party credibility that hiring managers seek.
Having someone in your network explain your journey to a potential employer — combined with the unique skill set you offer — will alleviate some of the concerns surrounding whether you will return to business ownership at some point in the near future.
Through a targeted resume, an understanding of how you are marketing yourself at this juncture in your career and the willingness to tap into your valuable business network, you should be able to open the doors to a more traditional employer-employee relationship.
I wish you all the best for a swift and successful transition.
— Samantha Nolan is an advanced personal-branding strategist and career expert, and is the founder and CEO of Nolan Branding. Do you have a resume, career or job-search question for Dear Sam? Reach Samantha at dearsam@nolanbranding.com. For more information about Nolan Branding’s services, visit www.nolanbranding.com, or call 888-9-MY-BRAND or 614-570-3442.