The Doer vs. The Deal Maker

Entrepreneurs can be categorized into two groups. On one hand, you have the doers. These are the people who organically grow a business over time. They plod along for years, or even decades in the same business. They look for small, incremental improvements every day.

Then you have the deal makers.

These are the entrepreneurs who are constantly on the prowl for partners or arbitrage opportunities where they can create value. They spend little time operating their business and favor investing time in new relationships, partnerships and strategies. The deal maker’s natural tendency is to say yes to new ideas, which can occasionally get them into trouble.

Jonathan Jay is a deal maker. Through his 20-year run as an entrepreneur, he has started and sold three businesses, bought two distressed businesses, been sued and had a falling out with a partner. Jay has emerged as a wiser entrepreneur with the scars to prove it.

Whether you’re a doer or a deal maker, you’ll want to set your business up to run without you to maximize your options for the future. Evaluating your company’s dependence on you is something we do using the Value Builder questionnaire—the higher your score, the more able your business is to succeed without you. Complete the Value Builder questionnaire.

 

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About Our Guest

Jonathan Jay is the author of five books on business and marketing: Sack Your Boss (2004)
Marketing Secrets Of A Multi Millionaire Entrepreneur (2008)
Unsung Business Heroes (2010)
1001 Ways To Get More Customers (2013)
Turn Your Website Into A Sales And Marketing Machine (2014) Jonathan has been featured in over 100 newspaper articles, radio stations and TV shows.