I recently had a very enlightening conversation with Alex, a friend who had the power to connect me with one or more angel investors. He and I were reviewing one of my small businesses and preparing it for presentation to an investor. To say the least, I found our conversation to be a complete mind bender!

After Alex and I had gone through the business end of things I told him that I felt exhausted. He laughed and said, "That's because you're not used to wearing your CEO hat. You're so busy wearing your Project Manager or Marketing hats that you can't see further than the next milestone." During our conversation Alex had continuously pressed me for my business' end game or aim.

He'd ask me, "What's your mission?" My business does have a mission and it always has but I realized that in the hurricane of daily activities I had lost touch with that mission. My eye had shrunk until all I could see were the near term tasks on my current to-do list.

This, of course, is one of the great difficulties of being a start-up entrepreneur. Even though I have staff to help me run my business I am still deeply involved with the nuts-and-bolts aspect of my business. I hadn't taken off my Project Manager hat for so long that I began to think that management was leadership.

During one of our talks Alex sketched some quick drawings on scratch paper. He drew one box each for the CEO, Editor-In-Chief (I have an online magazine), Writer, and Marketing/PR roles. Under each role he quickly defined some goals and activities. When I looked at his picture I realized that I was great at the Writer and Marketing/PR roles, but had not assumed the CEO and Editor-In-Chief roles in a long time.

I now realize that we entrepreneurs need to engage with Alex's little sketch at least once a quarter. If we're great managers but poor visionaries, we need to step into the CEO role and take a look at the end game. We need to ask ourselves, "What's my exit strategy?" In other words, we're not going to work forever. At some point we must sell or merge our companies, go public, or retire. I suppose another option would be to die at our desks, but it's not an option I really like.

On the other hand, if we're great visionaries but poor detail thinkers then we need to get our feet back on the ground and take a microscopic look at the business. We need to ask ourselves, "What's working here? What's not working? Would could I do to move things along?" We need to put on our manager hats.

Whether we are the only staff or have a staff of 100, most of us tend to get stuck in a rut. We are good at wearing certain hats and end up wearing them most of the time. If you haven't worn a new hat in a while, why not try a new one on? It just might change your style enough to help your business make the leaps and bounds you've been looking for!