Most of not so advanced entrepreneurs think that projects, which they invented, are their kids. And that is true. However they also think that they have to think about them all day long. That they have to worry about them at night, that they are the best people to develop them and to manage them. And that is not true. I can say much more… stay away from them. You are the client!
I think that it’s one of the hardest thing to do when you have to work at the project, which you have invented.
However that’s the fact. You can’t work on your own project, you can’t develop it. You are an entrepreneur, not a web developer. Even more… you are an entrepreneur, not a project manager.
Do you teach your kids the construction of the chemical elements, or maybe send them to the school, to let them learn from the pros? Do you cure them when they fall ill or maybe you punish them to go to the doctor? The same thing is with the project. You care about it, you are worried about it. You can even love it. However… your role is to take care of their character and temperament. Your role is to observe whether they are on the right road either they are not to far away of it. Your role is to give them the right conditions for development and funds to operate.
Notice that I am talking about the firm, that it is not any kind of one-person company.
Your project is not your firm. You are responsible for the firm, not one of its components.
Remember that if your project fails – that probably would be the fault of a project manager. If the firm will be closed – that will be your fault! Your project (even this most important one) is not your firm. It’s one of the components of your company. Sure… could be the most important… product. However it’s still only a product. It’s still one of the elements of your firm. And nothing more.
You have to be responsible for all kind of aspects of your firm. You need to think about the accounting issues, about the payments, about the bills, taxes, employees, about the investors, customers and a lot of other things.
Your project could be important. However without all these things that make up the entire company – it’s just an unfulfilled dream.
You don’t have enough time.
You shouldn’t have enough time to manage project. If you have – then you forgot about something. Did you pay all your bills and taxes? Did you transfer money to employees? Did you find new customers? Did you meet other members of your team and talk about new project? Did you reply for all your e-mails? Did you… ?
Remember:
- Project management is a full time job! Even if you are the most organized guy in the world. Even if you delegate all kind of responsibilities. Even if you think, that you are gonna make it – you are not. Don’t even try.
- Being an entrepreneur is a full time job. Often it’s much more then a full time job. All the time which you spend on managing projects – you could spend on managing your company. That would be much better for you, for your company and for your project!
If you want to be a project manager and an entrepreneur in the same time – you won’t be good in any of these roles.
All the good things, that you do with the company, will be twice as good for the project.
As long as your company will exist – your project will exist.
The bigger your company will be – the more it would be able to offer to your project. More money for hiring people, more money for marketing, more money for IT infrastucture (…)
Try to imagine positive aspects of your actions. You can manage your project without direct managing it. Think of it this way.
That’s the feature of good entrepreneur!
