The adventurous spirit runs deep in entrepreneurs. They crave change and achievement. They feel they have finally broken the gravity of the ordinary life and are ready to fly. In short, the rush of entrepreneurship is the intoxicant of discovering the possibilities of working life. Without that craving for those possibilities the serial entrepreneur wouldn’t start new businesses, wouldn’t take chances, and wouldn’t light the fire under associates and employees.

Some time in the year 1991 I went to bed an entrepreneur and woke up as a small business owner. The fire and intoxication of a great product and the possibilities of a working life became the hunger pains of a small business and the headaches of ownership—I had responsibilities and must face them. This isn’t my first experience of having my entrepreneurial wings clipped. Both times that I started businesses I had to quickly transition from soaring flight to instead hitting the ground running and meeting the needs of the business. That of course had something to do with feeding and housing my family.

But some creatures can both fly and run, and fortunately Man is one of them. The trick to running a small business is mastering the art of continuing what you love to do, and unlocking the potential of your abilities. I love being the entrepreneur: I love innovating. I love interacting with creative customers. I love meeting needs that others didn’t see. As long as I can do those things, I’m happy. It’s a very good thing that these actions are important for any business. And there are practical ways to stay the entrepreneur while running the business:

• Build some time into your week for dreaming. Some people dream by themselves so some quiet time for them works. Some people need to brainstorm with others to dream, so a lunch with a like minded associate works wonders to rev up the creative juices.
• Allow your dreams to have goals and value. In the work-a-day world it’s too easy to value balancing your books more than dreaming up the next product line, or seeing new business possibilities in a similar field. Realize that the future prospects of your company deserve a chunk of your time at least equal to the accounts receivable. You can do this by setting a goal for the dreams, for example: once a month set aside a day to review the competition and write down thoughts of how your company could do more than those competitors.
• If you love to evangelize, then networking groups, clubs, and organizations can allow you to hone your message to people at the same time as regaining the energy of showing off the uniqueness of your product/ service. Or give yourself a chance to talk at a tradeshow demonstration. You’ll remind yourself why you started the business.
• Use club memberships to better listen to others and practice solving problems of others. You’ll find that you’ll come back with better networking skills, and more dynamic ways to think, form alliances and see new markets. Of course the day-to-day work won’t magically disappear, and you will still need to balance the books and collect the receivables, but that’s somehow much easier to do when you still love the business.

Remember that successful businesses are more about change than ever. The same skills that an entrepreneur brings to the table in creative thinking are a big plus in small business in overcoming the daily obstacles of competing with the big guys.