Apologies
Nov 03
May I start off this business angel blog by apologizing to regular readers of this blog for the absence of new postings over the last few days. Being an Englishman in North America – I confess to going down with flu (lets be honest, men don’t get colds – we always get the flu!).
It got me thinking about the issue of absence from work and in particular entrepreneurs being off ill. Firstly, I should state that I did manage to go to all my business engagements and nothing was cancelled. I was suffering and when I got home, I did not have the energy to write a blog.
I invested in a business a couple of years ago and after about ten months the entrepreneur decided to take two weeks off on paternity leave. I have to say that along with the other investors; I was a bit upset about this. Being an entrepreneur carries with it special responsibilities that in the first few years you should not seek to ‘escape from’.
I have written previously about the need to take a break – and I hope that I am not contradicting myself by now appearing to be attacking leave which you are entitled to. And if the former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, can take paternity leave, why can’t entrepreneurs?
For me, the answer is about scale. As a small start up with a management team of just two, the entrepreneur taking paternity leave for two weeks, in the anecdote above, did have a significant and negative effect on the business. If you want to take leave (and there is nothing wrong with that desire) you have to put in place a structure that can cope without you.
This is not always possible in the first few years if you are the main driving force and putting in very long hours. Having said this, I would be nervous about investing in a business that was so dependent on just one person.
The lesson for entrepreneurs is – if you want to be flexible with your time and want to be able to take paternity leave (and this is not a judgment call for me to make), then you should either only seek investment from family and friends or you should raise enough money (and therefore have a strong enough business) to hire a good management team to look after things when you are not there. Investors should also learn from my mistake and only invest in businesses which are not utterly dependent on just one person.
Happy breaks!
Hi and welcome to my blog. 
Nov 03 at 12:28
I don’t think it’s a contradiction, starting a business (especially with other peoples money) is a big life changing commitment, as is starting a family. Combining both is going to be challenging and one or the other is likely to suffer (and in some cases both).
Nov 04 at 05:40
I read your Business Angel Blog sent to me, unfortunately the very first blog after my registration. I do agree with your viewpoint here but certainly not in its entirety, reason being that I myself am a small single entrepreneur in India who is looking for a far sighted business. There are pros and cons of everything in this world and certainly the way you have looked at the situation is the single side of a two sided mirror.
I do agree that every small entrepreneur has more responsibilities than anyone else in the business world. He should realise 100% that the entirety of the business is dependent upon him alone. He cant and should not run away from this fact.
Every person who is getting associated with his business is dependent upon him, with this I mean EVERYONE, including the outside investor, his staff, his suppliers, his buyers and to the farthest end the families or persons associated with all of these. Therefore, his responsibilities are at the utmost. If he fails, he is the one who is the prime cause of the failure of the said project.
From the Enterprenurer’s point of view I do agree that he should also be entitled to have some leave for his family but to attain this goal its his duty to foresee what all will happen in his absence and that utmost due care is taken of every aspect of business in his absence. No one should have the feel of his absence, he should pre-organise all this with a complete vision. However if he fails to foresee then I would say he is a failure, on his own and he is the cause of the failure of everyone else in his team. He should understand that due to his failure he has become a cause of failure for so many along with him.
There may be some people who would disagree with my above opinion but i am definite that there quantum would be far less if they just try to access this situation keeping themselves as a team which went failure because of this Enterprenurer.