Running a business is not what most people imagine when they scroll social media.
It’s not just aesthetic photos, laptop coffees, and perfectly curated success stories. Most days, it looks like standing at your desk first thing in the morning, coffee in hand, Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour playing on your iPad for background noise, leftover Chinese food reheating for breakfast, QuickBooks open on one screen, and your phone recording content on the other.
This is the real work.
And after years of building multiple businesses, here’s the truth I know without hesitation:
You don’t have to like every job in your business — but you absolutely have to know how to do every single one of them.
Because your employees will call in sick.
Your vendors will forget about you.
Your family will be less supportive than you expect.
And no one will ever care about your business as much as you do.
Not your spouse.
Not your best friend.
Not your team.
Not your vendors.
You.
So it’s on you to find your groove — and get the work done.
The Roles You Didn’t Apply For (But Own Anyway)
Across every company I operate, my roles are remarkably similar:
- Bookkeeper
- Sales
- Scheduling
- Social media coordinator
- PR & marketing
- Operations & crisis management
- Facilities & maintenance
- Vision & strategy
The only thing I outsource is accounting to a CPA — because I don’t mess with the IRS.
Do I love every part of this? Absolutely not.
People problems are the hardest. I’m an introvert by nature and conflict doesn’t come easily to me, but business doesn’t give you the luxury of staying comfortable. Over time I forced myself into ambivert mode. I can talk to anyone, anywhere, about business. I’ll meet someone in line at a coffee shop and two minutes later I’m their biggest cheerleader and small business coach they didn’t ask for.
Then there’s chasing invoices — the emotional tax of entrepreneurship. Providing a service, honoring your end of the agreement, then watching someone fail to honor theirs feels personal, even when it isn’t. Over time I built systems that protect the business: firm payment policies, service suspension for unpaid balances, and termination after 30 days of non-payment. It still hurts, but it keeps the company healthy.
This is leadership.
The Myth of the Supportive Inner Circle
Nearly every entrepreneur I know shares the same realization:
Your personal network does not understand your motivation.
You expect celebration.
You usually get polite disinterest and a subject change.
Do not expect friends or family to become your customers.
If they do, expect requests for discounts or free services.
Plan to build your business on the backs of strangers who believe in what you do — not the people who already know you.
That shift alone saves entrepreneurs years of frustration.
The Real Rhythm of Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship is not a single daily routine. It’s a cycle.
Content days
Real work, layered with recording. Videos while cleaning conference rooms. Selfies at networking events. Explaining QuickBooks to a phone screen.
Networking days
Chamber events. BNI meetings. Hosting your own events. Putting on the professional face and digging deep when your social battery is already empty.
Cleaning & maintenance days
Vacuuming. Organizing. Resetting spaces. Prepping for vendor shows. Filling in when an employee needs time off.
Operations days — the ship-steering days
The office door is closed. Something plays quietly on the iPad. You work through QuickBooks, bank statements, blog drafts, new business cards, checks, scheduling, and problem-solving. These days keep the company afloat.
Most days are ship-steering days.
And the ocean is the Atlantic in hurricane season.
The hustle never stops — but it’s a powerful ocean to sail.
Why You Must Know Every Job
Here’s the foundation of real business ownership:
The world is full of well-meaning, flawed humans who will ghost you, disappoint you, deprioritize you, and make mistakes. Expecting anyone to care about your business the way you do is unrealistic.
So you must know how to do every job in your company.
Not because you’ll always do it —
but because one day, you may have to.
And when that day comes, your business survives because you prepared.
Everything Is Connected
Ignore this and your business bleeds:
- Great at sales, terrible with numbers? You won’t pay your mortgage.
- Amazing product, no sales skills? Your business stays in your mom’s basement.
- Strong sales, unreliable vendors? Your customers revolt.
- Beautiful content, chaotic backend? Collapse is inevitable.
Once you understand how deeply interconnected your business is, you learn what’s truly worth outsourcing — and when someone is selling you expensive nonsense you could do yourself in a few focused hours.
Knowledge creates leverage.
The Taylor Swift Principle of Business
As Taylor Swift said in the Eras Tour documentary:
Everyone envies what you have.
No one envies the work it took to get there.
They see the stage.
They don’t see the rehearsals, the injuries, the contracts, the exhaustion, the invisible years of building.
Business is the same.
Every Job Matters
You don’t need to love every job in your company.
But you do need to respect every job.
Learn every job.
Understand every job.
Because when you truly know your business, you stop being held hostage by people who don’t care about it like you do.
And that’s when real growth begins.