Grow Your Business

As your business operation expands, you need to delegate more than when you were just starting a business. So aside from hiring additional labor force, you'll need managers, middle managers and/or "ideas" people to help you run the venture more smoothly as well as to look out for other business opportunities.

Sometimes, you will find among the applicants for these positions entrepreneurial-minded persons, which sometimes poses a dilemma on whether you should hire them or not.

An entrepreneurial-minded employee is commonly described as someone who takes the initiative and works effectively on his/her tasks without much intervention or guidance from managers. But some business owners are afraid of someone learning from their growing business, copying their concepts, and eventually competing with them.

Banking on the Advantages
According to Doy Roque, owner of Media Meter and M2Comms, the word "entrepreneurial" has baggage in Philippine culture. "We often hear of the 'entrepreneurial' employee who stole ideas from the company. Most companies outlaw freelancing, calling the moonlighting employees as being too 'entrepreneurial.'"

But he keeps an open mind and loves hiring them. "Being entrepreneurial means you have the creativity to imagine a better future for yourself and others. They don't just dream projects up but follow through and execute, making them amazing assets to any company," he explains.

Because of an entrepreneurial employee Roque was able to develop a media monitoring system that garners praise even from their Multinational clients.

Similarly, Art Mendoza, one of the owners of Baja Mexican Cantina in Greenbelt 3, doesn't fear hiring entrepreneurial-minded people because he sees the importance of smart employees. "To be successful in a business, you have to hire someone smarter than you," he explains.

But he says that one should always be cautious. "You also have to be hands-on in a macro-level." To make sure that trade secrets are protected, especially since these are what keeps his business growing, Baja is developing a generic naming method for their ingredients i.e. using "Seasoning A," etc. in the packaging instead of the real name of the ingredient.

"I made the mistake of hiring an employee who tried to steal some business from the company," Roque recalls. "He neglected his accounts and spent most of his time on personal projects. That's not being entrepreneurial, it was just plain greedy."

Factors to Consider in Hiring an Entrepreneurial-Minded Person
According to Prof. Regina Dy of De La Salle University, the decision to hire an entrepreneurial-minded person depends on factors like the size of the company, the intentions of the prospective employee, and the skill level of the applicant.  

For big companies an entrepreneur can be advantageous. "If I'm a big company and the employee is at the managerial level, I really wouldn't mind because this person will only be able to see one portion of the business and not the whole operation," explains Dy, adding that an entrepreneurial-minded employee contributes by providing innovative thinking.

But for startup enterprises, having an entrepreneurial-minded employee might pose a risk to the business. "If I am a small company and the employee is in a managerial position, I might think twice because he may learn the tricks of the trade and compete with me."

It is also crucial to be able to clarify one's perspective of an entrepreneurial-minded employee. "An entrepreneurial employee can be someone who thinks like the top management/owners, looking at the big picture and thinking based on long-term goals."

Prof. Dy recommends hiring people with this kind of attitude since they have more foresight and a sense of responsibility, but only when they can be loyal to the company. "An intangible asset such as human resource skills, innovation, and intelligence can be a competitive advantage."