role of the owner in business plan

Responsibilities and Liabilities of a Company or Business Owner

Are you a seasoned entrepreneur? Like, do you get the urge to be an entrepreneur occasionally? Or are you just starting out in business, permanently and for real?

Whoever you are, understanding your role as a company owner is important to your success. Because, as a business owner, you have a lot of control over your business and how it works. But you already know that with great power comes great responsibility, right? And it’s important to know your responsibilities and risks as a business owner. You have many responsibilities to run a successful and honest business, like ensuring your employees are safe and keeping your company’s assets safe.

Also, you need to know about your legal and financial responsibilities to keep yourself and your business safe from lawsuits and other legal problems. This blog post will discuss the most important responsibilities and liabilities of being a business owner and tips and best practices for doing these things well.

Who Is a Company or Business Owner?

A company’s owner runs the business, decides how it works, and makes money. A business is any place that sells things or provides services for money, like an online store or a freelance writer.

A business owner can work alone or with others, but they are responsible for making plans, teaching employees, and ensuring the business runs daily. A business owner oversees how the business runs and how well it does.

Bill Gates is a well-known business owner because he co-founded Microsoft, one of the world’s biggest software companies. As the business owner, he was a big part of deciding where it was going and making important decisions that helped it do well. Jeff Bezos, who started Amazon, and Elon Musk, who started Tesla and SpaceX, are also owners of businesses. 

Roles and Responsibilities in a Business

There are different types of roles in a business, and every role has certain sets of responsibilities to maintain. Some of these roles and responsibilities are divided into three levels-

• Operations and production.

Let’s talk in detail about those three levels of roles and responsibilities. Please take a look below:

1.  Executive Or Top-Level Business Roles

There are different executive-level positions in a business or company. Those are discussed below:

• Chief Executive Officer (CEO): A CEO makes top-level decisions, gets the company’s resources, and makes operational and structural changes that directly affect the organization’s growth. Either the president or the owner can carry out this task in smaller businesses.
• Chief Operating Officer (COO): A Chief Operating Officer oversees the company’s operations. In smaller businesses, the general manager can fill this role, which is similar to a COO. These top-level business jobs make sure that things run smoothly and often oversee different departments to ensure employees do their work right and on time.
• Chief Financial Officer (CFO): The CFO, also called the controller, oversees a business’s cash flow and how well it does financially. A CFO and a controller are usually two different jobs within a large company, but smaller companies may combine these two jobs into one job title. The CFO usually finds investors and other ways for the business to get money from outside sources, while the controller controls the company’s expenses and assets. When one person takes on both financial roles, they are in charge of both money coming in and money going out.
• Chief Marketing Officer (CMO): The chief marketing officer (CMO) oversees a company’s marketing campaigns, budgets, and the whole marketing department. This job may be in charge of multiple marketing teams, each with its own team leader or marketing manager. Also, the CMO usually makes the final decisions about how marketing projects are planned and carried out.
• Chief Technology Officer (CTO): The Chief Technology Officer (CTO) is in charge of the organization’s technology. They often use new technology trends and ensure that any new technology meets their company’s needs. The CTO oversees the most important tasks in companies with big IT departments.
• President: Some organizations don’t have a CEO but do have a president. Even though the president and the CEO have many of the same responsibilities, the president may also have other tasks that the CEO may not. They could do some of the things that a COO and a CFO do in bigger companies. As a company grows, the president may take on more specific responsibilities, such as making top-level decisions and leading the management teams, instead of a wide range of executive duties.
• Vice President: For the president, the vice president makes decisions and plans by telling mid-level managers and team leaders what to do. They can, among other things, be in charge of how a business runs and sets up its organizational structure.
• Executive Assistants: Most of the time, an executive assistant works directly for the CEO and does most of the CEO’s administrative work. A business often needs an executive assistant to keep the CEO’s schedule, agenda, and appointments in order.

2.  Managerial Business Roles And Responsibilities

The responsibilities of managerial business roles are discussed below-

• Marketing Manager: Depending on the company’s size, the marketing manager oversees the whole marketing department. In a large company, the marketing department might have more than one team, and each team might have its own marketing manager. Every manager reports directly to the CMO. In smaller companies, the marketing manager may be the only person at the top level who is in charge of marketing.
• Product Manager: Product managers research product markets and streamline product development processes. A product manager may spend most of their time researching customer markets, evaluating popular products, analyzing how products are made, and working with marketing teams to develop product promotion strategies.
• Project Manager: Project managers are in charge of much of the planning and making of business projects. These people are responsible for planning, designing, monitoring, controlling, and finishing projects. Project managers may examine and minimize risks on various projects. They often work with other department managers, like marketing and product managers, to plan and develop all parts of a project, such as its budget, resources, and timeline.
• Finance Manager: Finance managers often look at costs and income and use this information to make financial reports. In smaller businesses, this job may be in charge of a number of financial tasks, such as figuring out how much money is coming in and how much it will cost the company. In larger businesses, the finance manager may be in charge of the accountants and bookkeepers on staff, and they depend on their work to make accurate financial reports and forecasts.
• Human Resources Manager: Human resources managers oversee the department of human resources. In larger organizations, they may be in charge of a lot of people, but in smaller ones, they may only be in charge of a few people. This business role is important for operations because they look for, interview, hire, and start working with new employees. HR managers often talk to top-level executives to develop strategic plans and act as a link between top-level management and the rest of the company’s staff.

3.  Operational Roles And Responsibilities

• Marketing Specialist: The marketing specialist is an important part of the marketing team. Specialists do many different things, like gather customer information, research target demographics, and optimize content for SEO. In the marketing department of many companies, there is more than one marketing specialist, and this person usually reports directly to the marketing manager.
• Business Analyst: Many companies hire business analysts to evaluate how their businesses grow and change. This job analyzes market trends, predicts future revenue, and makes plans that help businesses track profitability, product viability, and the overall success of operations.
• Human Resource Personnel: Human resources personnel are an important part of any business, and the HR manager oversees them. Most of the time, the people in these business roles are in charge of payroll, employee schedules, performance reviews, and evaluations. In big companies, the HR department might have a few HR managers and a lot of staff who work under them.
• Accountant: A business’s day-to-day operations, such as sales, paying bills, and filing taxes–an accountant oversees all of these. Accountants in smaller businesses may have to do things that finance managers or chief financial officers (CFOs) do in large businesses.
• Sales Representative: Sales representatives talk to customers to sell the products or services of their company. Successful sales teams use good communication and people skills to build customer relationships and maintain loyalty. This has a direct effect on how much money the business makes.
• Customer Service Representative: Customer service representatives deal with returns and refunds, help customers figure out how to fix problems, and listen to customer complaints. These operational roles are important to the company’s reputation and building long-term customer relationships.
• Administrative Assistant: Customers and clients first talk to the receptionist, office assistant, or administrative assistant when they enter a business place or company. They might be responsible for important tasks like running the phone lines, coordinating communication between clients and partners, and setting up staff schedules. They might even be given tasks like data entry to help keep business documents correct and up-to-date.

What Are the Responsibilities of a Business Owner?

The owners of businesses do everything they can to ensure their businesses do well. This could mean doing things they’d rather not do, like filling out paperwork, taking orders to the post office, or making plans for marketing.

What business owner does daily depends on what kind of business they run and how they spend their time. Most of the time, though, they boil down to the following roles and responsibilities-

Creating and Managing Plans: As a business owner, you must consider what you need to do to make your business successful. This means planning how they will run their business, promoting their goods or services, and finding ways to keep their business profitable. To be successful, you need to do research and make good plans. Business owners must also be good at time management to meet deadlines and balance their work and personal lives.

Managing Finance: Managing money is important. To start a business, a person needs money, so they may need to get a loan or find investors. They must also pay for new products, advertising, and staff. It’s important to keep track of your bank accounts, taxes, and how much money you make and spend.

Compliance and Legal: A business owner must follow the laws and rules about how to run a business. This means getting the right licenses, registering their business as a legal entity, and knowing the rules about labor. A business owner should also have a lawyer on hand in case of problems with employees or customers.

Marketing and Sales: A business owner must ensure people know about their business and want to buy from it. This means making campaigns, approving ads, and promoting their business through social media and email. They also have to talk to people who might buy their products or services and make deals with them.

Regular Monitoring: The company owner needs to monitor how their employees are doing their jobs, how well the work is getting done, and how well their plans are working. They have to do this daily to quickly see where things are going wrong and fix them before they become big problems. This way, the owner can stay on top of any potential issues that may arise.

Supervising Customer Service: It is up to the business owner to ensure customers are happy with the service they get. This means making rules about how to treat customers and ensuring people think well of the business.

Hiring People According to the Company’s Rules: If you own a business, you must find and hire the right people to work with you. This means that the owner will decide what each person should do, give them feedback on how well they are doing, and decide how much they should be paid and what benefits they should get. The owner also helps them improve their jobs by providing training and support.

Liabilities of the Owner in a Business Plan

The liabilities of a business owner are the legal responsibilities and financial debts that the business owner is responsible for. Among these responsibilities are the following:

Business Debts: The owners of a business may have to pay for its debts themselves. If a business can’t pay its debts, the owner may have to use their own assets, like their home or savings, to pay them off.

To avoid this, business owners must separate their personal and business finances. They should keep their business transactions in a separate bank account and consider incorporating their business or making an LLC to limit liability.

Legal Claims: If a company owner’s business is sued for any reason, they could be held personally responsible for any damages given to the plaintiff. This can happen when someone hurts a worker, breaks a contract, or steals someone else’s idea.

To lower the chance of being sued, they should ensure their business follows all laws and rules and consider getting liability insurance to protect themselves in case they are sued.

Taxes: As business owners, they have to pay different taxes, such as income tax, payroll tax, and sales tax. If you don’t pay these taxes, you could face fines, penalties, or even be charged with a crime.

Maintaining accurate records of all business transactions, filing the owner’s tax returns on time, and considering hiring a qualified accountant or tax preparer can all help you avoid tax problems. 

Employee Obligations: If a business owner has employees, they may have legal and financial responsibilities like paying their salaries, giving them benefits like health insurance and retirement plans, and following employment laws and rules.

To ensure you follow all employment laws and rules, you might want to talk to an employment lawyer and assemble a handbook for employees explaining the owner’s company’s policies and procedures.

Liabilities of the Owner in a Business Plan Example

A liability is any debt that your business has to pay. And in a business plan, the owner’s liabilities mean the financial obligations or debts they are responsible for paying. These liabilities can vary depending on the business structure and the owner’s role and responsibilities. Some of the most common business liabilities for which a business owner may have to pay personally are:

• Personal investment
• Loans, mortgages, and other forms of debt
• Taxes on income and other taxes due
• Employee wages and salaries

Importance of Owner in a Business

The business owner is in charge of the big picture and is not involved in the day-to-day tasks of running the service. Instead, they look at the whole picture. They set goals and plans. They know how to make strategic decisions and have the power to get rid of political and financial roadblocks. They talk to the people who matter most and work closely with the service owner, who creates a roadmap that fits the vision.

But That’s Not All

We’ve reached the end of our blog, but that’s not all.

Remember that running a successful business takes a lot more than a good idea and a strong work ethic. As a business owner, you must know your legal and financial obligations and meet them. This means keeping good financial records, paying taxes, following rules and laws, and ensuring their business is properly insured.

By keeping their personal finances separate from their business finances, business owners can stay out of trouble with the law and protect themselves from liability. A business owner must also know their responsibilities to their employees, customers, and the community. For example, they have to follow health and safety rules and ensure the workplace is safe.

Lawyers, accountants, and insurance agents can help business owners understand their legal and financial obligations and ensure they are met. These experts can also advise them on making it less likely that they will have legal or financial problems.

Shortly, if you own a business or company, you need to work hard, take responsibility, and be willing to ask for help when you need it. By following these steps and doing what they need to do, business owners can build a successful business that helps their customers reach their goals and gives them value while avoiding liability issues.

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R unning a business comes with exciting opportunity, flexibility, and independence, but it’s also a major role to take on. Depending on your unique business situation, you’re probably doing much more than overseeing operations. Even when you’re involved in all the different everyday tasks, it’s important to remember your core responsibilities.

Why is it important to know the responsibilities of a small business owner?

Being a small business owner means wearing many hats and juggling many responsibilities each day. Understanding your responsibilities helps you stay organized and on the track to growth. Here’s why it’s important to know your responsibilities:

• Increased efficiency. Knowing that your responsibilities include the hiring and training process and overseeing your current employees means you’ll never neglect one group at the other’s expense. As a result, everyone will have all the resources they need to complete their work. With full resource access, your employees will get their work done more quickly, and your company will be more efficient.
• Less time wasted. When you sit atop the chain of command, your actions (or inaction) often affect your work environment and output. For example, if your development team can’t offer new goods or services without you approving the budget, your company loses precious time if you neglect your financial responsibilities. This possibility is far less likely if you know all your responsibilities.
• More knowledge. If you’re aware that business owners oversee customer service, marketing, finances, and all kinds of other tasks, you build knowledge in all kinds of areas. This means you have a stronger foundation to pull from when drafting a business plan for any new initiatives. It also means knowing what will and won’t work when executing your social media marketing strategy . For small business owners, knowledge is power.

12 responsibilities of a small business owner

Among the (many) responsibilities of a small business owner are the following:

1. Creating a business plan and strategy

As the owner of the small business, you decide the direction you’re heading and how you’ll get there. Setting benchmarks based on your long-term vision can help you understand what you need to achieve your dreams, whether that be time, resources, strategies, or a helping hand. If you do have a team supporting you, they’ll be empowered in their work when you’re transparent about your plan of action.

It can take a brainstorming session or two, or five, to narrow down what your most meaningful goals are and how they translate into actionable steps. Don’t hesitate to set aside time for high-level planning sessions where you measure progress, gather insights, and readjust the game plan if necessary.

2. Keeping track of finances and accounting

Most small businesses ( 81%, to be exact ) apply for a business loan or an SBA loan at some point. Depending on your needs and financial history, you’ll probably have to weigh your options when it comes to outside financing. Unless you’ve hired an accountant or bookkeeper, you’re also responsible for establishing and maintaining business bank accounts, payment processing systems, taxes, and day-to-day costs.

Not sure how you can apply the funds from a small business loan? Read our in-depth guide on the SmartBiz Resource Center: Determining Use of Proceeds .

3. Handling legal and compliance responsibilities

Running the ship comes with a new level of freedom, but it also means complying with rules and regulations. From the very beginning when you’re forming a business structure to the daily routines like drafting contracts and agreements, you should have at least some knowledge of the laws specific to your industry, location, and business type. When you need professional advice, it might be worth working with an attorney.

4. Managing marketing and sales

Even with a standout product or service, you’ll need to establish solid marketing strategies to bring customers through the door and drive your sales up. With so many available options out there, it’s up to you to decide the approach that fits best with your business goals. Some opportunities include social media, print advertising, PR, and event marketing.

5. Ensuring outstanding customer service

Next, once you’ve built a customer base, consider keeping them engaged throughout the sales process. Forming a relationship with the individuals who use your product or service is key to keep them coming back and even referring more customers. Whether you have a sales team or you’re wearing all the hats, there are plenty of tools out there that can help you manage and automate your processes. Looking into Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms is a great place to start. For inspiring customer service stories, check out this post: 6 Best Examples of Customer Service .

6. Identifying hiring and HR needs

As your small business grows, you might find that it’s time to hire help. Before you take the plunge and start placing ads, consider how much you’re willing to offer for potential candidates. Just like any other venture, this decision is probably a major turning point for your business so don’t underestimate the impact that hiring can have. Some of your responsibilities as the owner include identifying your company’s needs, crafting job descriptions, interviewing candidates, and making key hiring decisions.

7. Overseeing the team

The work doesn’t stop there—once you’ve hired the employees you think are a good fit, it’s your job to train, manage, and lead by example. When questions or concerns arise, you should be there for your team. Be sure to comply with local hiring laws to avoid any missteps that can result in big consequences. Visit the U.S. Department of Labor to learn what it takes to hire employees in your area.

8. Managing day-to-day operations

As a small business owner, you need to identify and manage all processes that keep your customers happy and support healthy growth, from manufacturing products to signing off on invoices. Although you don’t necessarily need to be hands-on in every process, you do need to make sure your team completes every step in a timely, thorough manner. Without this management, your products or services might not reach your standards.

9. Planning new initiatives

If your day-to-day operations aren’t getting you where you want to be, maybe it’s time to branch out. The responsibility for planning this expansion falls on you, though you can seek help from your employees or business partners. Market research will come in handy here, as will identifying other companies with which you can partner. So too will drafting a business plan for your new initiatives. Learn more via the SmartBiz Loans blog Ultimate Guide on How to Start A Business Plan .

10. Training your team

Employee training doesn’t stop after the initial onboarding process. Continued training is highly recommended, as it can minimize employee mistakes and prepare your team for any new paths your company might take. However, even if you task certain employees with executing your training program, it remains your responsibility to ensure everyone is receiving adequate instructions. After all, it’s your business – you wouldn’t want anyone working for you without being fully prepared.

11. Addressing technology issues

Small business owners like yourself should know the ins and outs of all the technology their company uses. This way, both new and longtime employees can go to you for quick, thorough answers. The result is a more efficient team that doesn’t fall behind when technological obstacles arise.

12. Staffing and management

As the owner of your company, you’re the final step for all human resources, customer service, and employee management concerns. Depending on the type of company you own, you may have sole discretion over these concerns. Alternatively, if you’re small enough that you’ve outsourced your HR to a third party, this entity may handle it. However, if you’re unhappy with how things are handled, you still get the final say.

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As you see continued business success, you’ll probably identify key areas where you can grow. A boost in cash flow means that you can expand your programs and build your operations. Interested in receiving personalized recommendations and tips that can help you take your business to the next level?

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Key Roles And Responsibilities Of A Small Business Owner

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Read this if you want to know what the key tasks, duties and responsibilities are of a small business owner.

The key roles and responsibilities of a small business owner is to maximize revenue, profit, cash flow, income and long-term net worth, by consistently producing greater results and performance from the same time, the same effort, the same activities, the same people, and the same money invested in your business. Secondly to continually reduce cost, and neutralize or eliminate weaknesses, risk and threats and develop a strategic competitive advantage to combat  increasing competition.

Focus on the 6 key business drivers .

The business owners' day to day responsibility and  success will come from your ability  to identify, analyze, plan, implement and manage the performance of these  simple but very important 6 business drivers or  top-key-success-factors.

• Management -  Manage yourself every day
• Money -  Financial Management
• Marketing and Sales -  Management sales, marketing and  customers service
• People -  Management of productivity, training and development of employees, suppliers and partners
• Product and Service - Your Operations.   Manage quality and quantity, price, packaging, display, stock, distribution ...
• Process and Systems - Management daily operations, Admin, bookkeeping

Every one of these 6 business drivers have their own numbers. It is your job and responsibility to identify them and measure them to be able to manage them.

"Great success and mastery in any field always go to those who are brilliant on the basics"

- Brian Tracy -

Strengthen the company on the inside

The key role  of a business owner is to contribute, looking for ways to become an ever more valuable person in every area of your business. Including to employees, partners, suppliers and your customers. Part of business owner job description   and responsibility   is to strengthen the business on the inside while expanding the business on the outside. 

Clearly define the mission, goals and vision of the company.

Find the best people for the job and train them into a great team.

Keep control over finances and focused on the fundamentals of business - making money and generating cash.

Improve bottom line and maximizing long term profitability

Keeping focused on the fundamentals of business - making money and generating cash.

Building a unique business model  that supports customer loyalty, trust, with a continuous stream of innovative products, added value and improved quality and quantity of service

Expand the company on the outside

Defending and maximizing market and wallet share

Focusing financial strategies on identifying sources of funds

Making investments to build company assets  and long-term net worth

Exploit existing resources and develop or acquire needed resources

Spot trends and opportunities and neutralize or eliminate threats and weaknesses

Developing competitive strategic advantage on established market niche to combat the increasing competition.

Key roles and responsibilities of a business owner

The 3 most important things

Some of them have a greater responsibility and a bigger impact on your business depending on where the business is in the growth cycle. For instance for a new start up business Money, Marketing/Sales and Product  is very important, As the business is growing and becoming bigger the other factors like developing the  Owner, Team and Systems  also becomes very important. Although every one of them is just as important as the other one, the most important ones in general will always be:

• Mone y -  Financial Management
• Marketing/Sales and
• Your Operations - Your Product/Service.

Marketing/Sales  and  Money is the small business biggest task and responsibility. But the one key success factor and responsible for most success and failure, and the main responsibility of a business owner is Money -  Financial Management. You can read the article " How To Eliminate Biggest Money Mistakes in Small Businesses" for full details.

In Brian Tracy's book - The 100 absolutely unbreakable laws of business success, the "Law of Three" says that there are only three things that you do each day that account for 90% of the value of everything that you do. There are only three things that account for 90% of your sales, profit, income and your success in the future. This Law of Three is applicable to every job, responsibility and area in your business.

In Sales, we now know that the three activities that account for 90% of your value are: Prospecting, Presenting, and Closing.

In business Profits, we know that the three most important things are: Sales, Cost and Profit margin %(or markup %) 

In business Revenue, we know that the three most important things are: Lead generation, The %, of Leads Converted into sales and the Average Amount customers spend every time they buy from you.

The three most important things In Marketing are: The right target, The right message, and The right Medium.

These are just a few basics and as a business owner it's your responsibility to identify and focus on the big three important things in your business. Your other activities are also important, but not as important as the big three.

Financial responsibilities of a business owner

In Financial Management,  the three areas are:  Financial Record keeping, Financial Controls, and Financial analysis , forecasting and planning

1. Financial Record Keeping

Bookkeeping – This includes maintaining your business financial records like invoices, delivery notes, customers details, accounts receivable & accounts payable, and keeping the accounting system up to date.  It also includes keeping records of  bank statements, legal documents and tax related documents.

2. Financial Controls

Financial controls are the rules, policies and procedures that are implemented to insure control over the in, and out flow of money in the business. The purpose is to eliminate theft, corruption, and misuse or unauthorized spending of money. It's also to control client credit approval, credit limits and collections from clients.

3. Financial Analysis, Forcasting and Planning

Business Financial analysis refers to a valuation of the current and future viability, stability, and profitability of a business. It includes the evaluation of the business financial performance to determine the overall health and business using information taken from its operational activities, accounting and historical financial statements.

Business financial performance is the overall financial measure of how well a business can achieve its financial objectives, using its assets to generate revenue and profit over a given period. Signs Of Poor Financial Performance in a business may indicate that the business may be under pressure, at risk, or in financial trouble and may be going out of business in the near future.   Signs of financial distress in business  are merely symptoms of different causes that are responsible for a business in financial trouble. 

Action steps

Take a close look at your business and divide it up in different areas of responsibilities and success factors.

Search for the three things that account for 90% of your success in the future in all the different areas like: growth, sales, profit, income, cash flow, employee satisfaction, customer service,  quality .....

Identify the 3 big areas  that will account for 90% of your success and make that your primary focus. Don't neglect the rest, they are all important, but most of your time should be focused o the BIG 3.

Related Articles:

• Visit our   Free Tools  section for more tools to help you
• Lead and Lag Indicators For Small Business: With Examples

About the Author Hans

Hans had 40 of his own businesses over the last 30 years and is famous for creating fast-growing businesses” He is an author, speaker, coach, and consultant and a specialist in business optimization and turnaround, helping smaller business owners eliminate business limitations, threats, and growth challenges in achieving their sales, profit, cash flow, and income goals with sniper precision.

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How to write the structure and ownership section of your business plan?

Business planning is vital to the success of any entrepreneur because it helps them secure funding and find competent business partners. The document itself contains a variety of key sections, including the presentation of the legal structure and ownership of the business.

This section details the legal structure of your business and helps interested parties such as lenders and investors understand who they will be doing business with if they decide to go ahead and finance your company.

In this guide, we’ll look at the objective of the structure and ownership section, deepdive into the information you should include, and cover the ideal length. We’ll also assess the tools that can help you write your business plan.

Ready? Let’s get started!

In this guide:

What is the objective of the structure and ownership section of your business plan?

What information should i include when presenting the legal structure and ownership of my company in my business plan.

• How long should the structure and ownership section of your business plan be?
• Example of structure and ownership in a business plan

What tools should I use to write my business plan?

The objective of this section is to provide potential investors, lenders, and strategic partners with a clear and transparent view of your business's legal form, ownership distribution, and registration details. 

It aims to build credibility and trust by showcasing your commitment to openness and compliance with regulations. Let's take a look at some of the key objectives:

Communicate the legal form and registration details

• You should explicitly state your business's legal form. For example, your business might be corporation, sole proprietorship, or limited liability company (LLC). 
• Clearly explaining your chosen legal form helps stakeholders understand your entity's liability, taxation, and management implications.
• It is also essential to disclose where your company is registered. This information is vital as it provides clarity on the jurisdiction under which your business operates. 
• It also helps investors and lenders assess any legal and regulatory implications specific to the location of registration.

Identify shareholders

• Potential investors and lenders need to know who owns the company and the percentage of ownership each party holds. 
• By providing this information, you instill confidence in your business and help identify what needs to be verified as part of Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (ALM) checks down the line.

Transparency is the cornerstone of credibility for businesses. By openly presenting the legal structure and ownership, you signal to potential investors that your business operates with integrity and adherence to regulations. 

Notably, anti-money laundering regulations require investors to verify the identity of all shareholders before committing funds. By providing a clear picture of the parties involved, you can facilitate this process and build trust with investors.

Venture capitalists (VC) firms and angel investors in particular, may have specific criteria such as location and ownership mandates governing the companies they can finance. Being transparent about your company's structure and ownership enables potential investors to assess whether your business aligns with their investment preferences and requirements.

Need a convincing business plan?

The Business Plan Shop makes it easy to create a financial forecast to assess the potential profitability of your projects, and write a business plan that’ll wow investors.

The structure and ownership subsection arrives quite early in your business plan as it is the first part of the company section which is the second section of the document (after the executive summary) if you are following a standard business plan outline .

At this stage, the reader is still in the process of getting familiar with your business, and this section serves as a crucial foundation for potential investors and partners and helps them understand the core aspects of your business’s structure.

Here's what you should include:

Company registration details and registered office address

Provide information about when and where your company was registered and its registration number. This enables readers to understand the jurisdiction under which your business is operating and helps verify its legal existence.

Also, mention the registration date to showcase the company's longevity or recent establishment.

Include the registered office address of your company. This is the official address where the company can be contacted, and legal notices can be served. Providing this address demonstrates your commitment to compliance and transparency.

The information above needs to repeated for each subsidiary or joint venture owned by your business in order to provide a clear map of the coporate structure.

Overview of ownership

Offer a concise overview of the ownership structure of the company. Identify the shareholders, and specify their ownership percentages or shares. 

If there are numerous shareholders, list individuals or entities owning 5% or more, and highlight those with a controlling interest in the company or on the board.

If the business is controlled by another business, such as a holding company for example, it is also useful to explain who controls that business as well.

Roles and responsibilities of shareholders

In case of multiple shareholders, explain their respective roles and responsibilities within the organization. 

Differentiate between passive investors, board members, and executive or non-executive directors. 

Shareholders' agreement (if applicable)

If the business plan is presented for investment purposes, it is useful to clarify if a shareholders' agreement is in place between the existing investors. 

This agreement outlines the rights and obligations of shareholders and adds an extra layer of legal protection for investors and shareholders.

Expertise of co-shareholders

Highlight any shareholders who contribute more than just financial capital to the company. 

If, for instance, a shareholder is an industry expert and brings valuable advice, contacts, and credibility, emphasize this aspect. 

Doing so demonstrates the added value these shareholders bring to the business.

Group or franchise structure

If your company operates as part of a group or franchise, provide this information for each individual company receiving funds. 

Clarify the relationship between the main company and the individual entities within the group and their respective legal structures.

Addressing geographical restrictions

If some investors have geographical restrictions on their investments, clearly indicate whether your company meets their eligibility criteria. 

This helps investors quickly assess whether your business aligns with their investment mandates or not.

How long should the structure and ownership section of your business plan be? 

The length of your business plan's structure and ownership section requires a delicate balance. 

While a general rule of thumb suggests that it should be about 2 to 3 paragraphs, the actual length depends on several factors, including the complexity of your corporate structure and the number of shareholders involved.

The complexity of your corporate structure 

• A concise presentation may be sufficient if your company's legal structure is relatively straightforward, with a single owner or a small number of co-founders. 
• In such cases, aim to provide the necessary information without overwhelming the reader with unnecessary details. A paragraph or two may convey the key points effectively, ensuring clarity and brevity. 
• However, if you have a complex business structure, aim to provide details about members who play a key role in business continuity and profitability. 

The number of shareholders involved

• If your business involves multiple shareholders, each with significant ownership percentages or unique roles, you may need to dedicate more space to this section. 
• Do this by providing a comprehensive breakdown of ownership distribution and outlining each shareholder's contributions. 
• This may take up more space as you need to add additional information. However, if you have a pretty straightforward ownership structure, a paragraph or two will be sufficient enough.

Regardless of the complexity, striking the right balance between providing sufficient detail and avoiding excessive technical jargon is crucial. The structure and ownership section should be reader-friendly, allowing potential investors and stakeholders to understand the core aspects of your company without feeling overwhelmed by intricate legalities.

Repetition can dilute the impact of your message and unnecessarily lengthen the section. Ensure that you don't reiterate information that has already been covered in other parts of the business plan. Instead, focus on providing unique insights and details that enhance the reader's understanding of your corporate structure and ownership.

When crafting this section, prioritize the most critical points that investors or partners need to know about your company's structure and ownership. 

Focus on aspects that directly impact decision-making, such as the majority shareholder's influence, board composition, different classes of shares in issue, or any unique arrangements that set your business apart.

Need inspiration for your business plan?

The Business Plan Shop has dozens of business plan templates that you can use to get a clear idea of what a complete business plan looks like.

Example of structure and ownership section in a business plan 

Below is an example of what the structure and ownership section of your business plan might look like. As you can see, it is part of the overall company section and precedes the location and management team subsections.

The structure and ownership section of a business plan provides a detailed overview of how your company is organized and who holds ownership stakes in the business.

This example was taken from one of  our business plan templates .

In this section, we will review three solutions for creating a business plan for your business: using Word and Excel, hiring a consultant to write the business plan, and utilizing an online business plan software.

Create your business plan using Word and Excel

This is the old-fashioned way of creating a business plan (1990s style) and using Word and Excel has both pros and cons.

On the one hand, using either of these two programs is cheap and they are widely available. 

However, creating an error-free financial forecast with Excel is only possible if you have expertise in accounting and financial modeling.

Because of that investors and lenders might not trust the accuracy of your forecast unless you have a degree in finance or accounting.

Also, writing a business plan using Word means starting from scratch and formatting the document yourself once written - a process that can be quite tedious - especially when the numbers change and you need to manually update all the tables and text.

Ultimately, it's up to the business owner to decide which program is right for them and whether they have the expertise or resources needed to make Excel work. 

Hire a consultant to write your business plan

Outsourcing your business plan to a consultant can be a viable option, but it also presents certain drawbacks. 

On the plus side, consultants are experienced in writing business plans and adept at creating financial forecasts without errors. Furthermore, hiring a consultant can save you time and allow you to focus on the day-to-day operations of your business.

However, hiring consultants is expensive: budget at least £1.5k ($2.0k) for a complete business plan, more if you need to make changes after the initial version (which happens frequently after the first meetings with lenders).

For these reasons, outsourcing the plan to a consultant or accountant should be considered carefully, weighing both the advantages and disadvantages of hiring outside help.

Ultimately, it may be the right decision for some businesses, while others may find it beneficial to write their own business plan using an online software.

Use an online business plan software for your business plan

Another alternative is to use online business plan software .

There are several advantages to using specialized software:

• You are guided through the writing process by detailed instructions and examples for each part of the plan
• You can be inspired by already written business plan templates
• You can easily make your financial forecast by letting the software take care of the financial calculations for you without errors
• You get a professional document, formatted and ready to be sent to your bank
• The software will enable you to easily track your actual financial performance against your forecast and update your forecast as time goes by

If you're interested in using this type of solution, you can try our software for free by signing up here .

To sum it up, a well-written structure and ownership subsection is key to ensuring that the reader is clear on who controls the business, and whether or not it fits their investment criterias.

Also on The Business Plan Shop

• How to do a market analysis for a business plan
• How to present your management team in your business plan?
• Where to write the conclusion of your business plan?

Know someone who needs help writing-up their business plan? Share this article with them and help them out!

Founder & CEO at The Business Plan Shop Ltd

Guillaume Le Brouster is a seasoned entrepreneur and financier.

Guillaume has been an entrepreneur for more than a decade and has first-hand experience of starting, running, and growing a successful business.

Prior to being a business owner, Guillaume worked in investment banking and private equity, where he spent most of his time creating complex financial forecasts, writing business plans, and analysing financial statements to make financing and investment decisions.

Guillaume holds a Master's Degree in Finance from ESCP Business School and a Bachelor of Science in Business & Management from Paris Dauphine University.

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The Roles of a Business Owner

by Steve Milano

Published on 1 Jan 2021

When you start a small business, you’re often forced to manage most of the functions of your company. As your business grows, you’ll benefit by hiring experts to run different areas of your company. Owners who refuse to delegate functions so that they can focus on the core business can dilute their overall effectiveness.

Product Development

A small business owner usually has the most product or service expertise of anyone at his company. If this is the case with your business, stay focused on maintaining and improving what you sell. This includes evaluating the competition, understanding your customers inside and out and maintaining or improving quality while controlling costs and adding new features or products to your line.

If you are not skilled at sales, it’s still important to work closely with your sales director. Someone motivated primarily by commissions might take shortcuts to selling and damage your brand. Keep control over how and where your sales team sells your product or service. Offering discounts to increase sales can make you look cheap, inferior or desperate. Selling on your website, through a big box or using fundraisers, rather that putting your product in boutiques or high-end retailers, might send the wrong message to your target customers.

Limit your involvement in the area of finance to preparing annual forecasts and budgets, reviewing monthly financial performance and conducting year-end audits. Let your accounting staff handle your day-to-day accounting, payroll, payables and receivables and check-writing. Always run your budgets and projections, especially those involving sales and income, by an objective third party who has access to at least one year’s financial records. Work with a qualified tax attorney to ensure you only take allowable deductions and pay all of your taxes when they are due.

If you’re not trained in marketing, including research, advertising, public relations and promotions, resist the temptation to get too involved. Many small business owners believe that marketing is primarily a creative endeavor and that a company’s advertising and promotions reflect personally on the owner. Don’t overrule a trained marketing professional on his recommendations if you simply have a gut feeling or opinion.

Human Resources

You will want to have the final say on hiring key employees, but once your staff is on board, don’t skip the chain of command and start managing employees who have supervisors. You will diminish the authority of your management team, increase turnover and frustrate employees. An owner’s role in HR should include creating an organization chart, discussing job descriptions and interviewing top-level candidates.

The Roles of a Business Owner

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Starting your own business means that you'll be taking on a project that requires you to wear many hats -- often at the same time. The smaller and newer your business is, the more roles you are likely to have to fill. As your business grows, you can gradually hire employees and contractors to assume some of these roles.

Business Planner

To get your business started, you must first take on the role of a business planner. The United States Small Business Administration suggests taking steps such as selecting a location, gaining financing, registering your business and getting all of the appropriate licenses and permits. The planning doesn't stop when you get your new business underway, however. You'll need to continue to adjust your business model to account for ever-changing factors such as trends and the economy.

Human Resouces Specialist

The people who work for you are your greatest resource, and you'll want to hire the best people you can. You'll also need to comply with federal laws regarding personnel management and have each employee fill out the appropriate paperwork. Many small businesses approach hiring and other human resource issues haphazardly. Read books on human resource management or take a course on the subject to familiarize yourself with this oft-neglected role.

Office Manager

In the beginning, chances are you'll serve as the office manager, taking phone calls, dealing with suppliers, keeping track of receipts and setting up a workable system to organize this hub of your company. You might find yourself making calls to collect late payments, troubleshooting computer and other technical problems, sending invoices, and handling customer complaints or requests. Consider hiring someone early on that you can train to assist you with these tasks, as they can quickly become overwhelming when trying to manage the other aspects of your business.

Marketing Expert

No matter how good your product or service is, if the public isn't aware of it, your business won't be a success. Every business owner must put time into developing effecting marketing and advertising campaigns. Often, these require a large investment of time in addition to money, as you'll want to research your target market to determine the most effective ways to reach them. You'll likely play the role of marketer for the duration of your business unless your company grows large enough to hire someone specifically for this position.

Bookkeeper and Accountant

To make the most of your business, keep meticulous track of your expenses and income. While performing the tasks of a bookkeeper, you also must play the role of a tax expert, learning the relevant tax laws so that your company doesn't inadvertently violate any of them -- a mistake that can result in hefty fines. In this role, watch for deductions that you can take, as this can save you a significant amount of money each year. Consider hiring an accountant to do your quarterly taxes if you believe your math skills are unequal to this role.

• U.S. Small Business Administration: Follow These Steps to Starting a Business
• "Small Business Management: Launching and Growing Entrepreneurial Ventures"; Justin Longenecker, et al.; 2009

Elise Wile has been a writer since 2003. Holding a master's degree in curriculum and Instruction, she has written training materials for three school districts. Her expertise includes mentoring, serving at-risk students and corporate training.

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What Is a Business Plan?

Understanding business plans, how to write a business plan, common elements of a business plan, how often should a business plan be updated, the bottom line, business plan: what it is, what's included, and how to write one.

Adam Hayes, Ph.D., CFA, is a financial writer with 15+ years Wall Street experience as a derivatives trader. Besides his extensive derivative trading expertise, Adam is an expert in economics and behavioral finance. Adam received his master's in economics from The New School for Social Research and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in sociology. He is a CFA charterholder as well as holding FINRA Series 7, 55 & 63 licenses. He currently researches and teaches economic sociology and the social studies of finance at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

A business plan is a document that details a company's goals and how it intends to achieve them. Business plans can be of benefit to both startups and well-established companies. For startups, a business plan can be essential for winning over potential lenders and investors. Established businesses can find one useful for staying on track and not losing sight of their goals. This article explains what an effective business plan needs to include and how to write one.

Key Takeaways

• A business plan is a document describing a company's business activities and how it plans to achieve its goals.
• Startup companies use business plans to get off the ground and attract outside investors.
• For established companies, a business plan can help keep the executive team focused on and working toward the company's short- and long-term objectives.
• There is no single format that a business plan must follow, but there are certain key elements that most companies will want to include.

Investopedia / Ryan Oakley

Any new business should have a business plan in place prior to beginning operations. In fact, banks and venture capital firms often want to see a business plan before they'll consider making a loan or providing capital to new businesses.

Even if a business isn't looking to raise additional money, a business plan can help it focus on its goals. A 2017 Harvard Business Review article reported that, "Entrepreneurs who write formal plans are 16% more likely to achieve viability than the otherwise identical nonplanning entrepreneurs."

Ideally, a business plan should be reviewed and updated periodically to reflect any goals that have been achieved or that may have changed. An established business that has decided to move in a new direction might create an entirely new business plan for itself.

There are numerous benefits to creating (and sticking to) a well-conceived business plan. These include being able to think through ideas before investing too much money in them and highlighting any potential obstacles to success. A company might also share its business plan with trusted outsiders to get their objective feedback. In addition, a business plan can help keep a company's executive team on the same page about strategic action items and priorities.

Business plans, even among competitors in the same industry, are rarely identical. However, they often have some of the same basic elements, as we describe below.

While it's a good idea to provide as much detail as necessary, it's also important that a business plan be concise enough to hold a reader's attention to the end.

While there are any number of templates that you can use to write a business plan, it's best to try to avoid producing a generic-looking one. Let your plan reflect the unique personality of your business.

Many business plans use some combination of the sections below, with varying levels of detail, depending on the company.

The length of a business plan can vary greatly from business to business. Regardless, it's best to fit the basic information into a 15- to 25-page document. Other crucial elements that take up a lot of space—such as applications for patents—can be referenced in the main document and attached as appendices.

These are some of the most common elements in many business plans:

• Executive summary: This section introduces the company and includes its mission statement along with relevant information about the company's leadership, employees, operations, and locations.
• Products and services: Here, the company should describe the products and services it offers or plans to introduce. That might include details on pricing, product lifespan, and unique benefits to the consumer. Other factors that could go into this section include production and manufacturing processes, any relevant patents the company may have, as well as proprietary technology . Information about research and development (R&D) can also be included here.
• Market analysis: A company needs to have a good handle on the current state of its industry and the existing competition. This section should explain where the company fits in, what types of customers it plans to target, and how easy or difficult it may be to take market share from incumbents.
• Marketing strategy: This section can describe how the company plans to attract and keep customers, including any anticipated advertising and marketing campaigns. It should also describe the distribution channel or channels it will use to get its products or services to consumers.
• Financial plans and projections: Established businesses can include financial statements, balance sheets, and other relevant financial information. New businesses can provide financial targets and estimates for the first few years. Your plan might also include any funding requests you're making.

The best business plans aren't generic ones created from easily accessed templates. A company should aim to entice readers with a plan that demonstrates its uniqueness and potential for success.

2 Types of Business Plans

Business plans can take many forms, but they are sometimes divided into two basic categories: traditional and lean startup. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) , the traditional business plan is the more common of the two.

• Traditional business plans : These plans tend to be much longer than lean startup plans and contain considerably more detail. As a result they require more work on the part of the business, but they can also be more persuasive (and reassuring) to potential investors.
• Lean startup business plans : These use an abbreviated structure that highlights key elements. These business plans are short—as short as one page—and provide only the most basic detail. If a company wants to use this kind of plan, it should be prepared to provide more detail if an investor or a lender requests it.

Why Do Business Plans Fail?

A business plan is not a surefire recipe for success. The plan may have been unrealistic in its assumptions and projections to begin with. Markets and the overall economy might change in ways that couldn't have been foreseen. A competitor might introduce a revolutionary new product or service. All of this calls for building some flexibility into your plan, so you can pivot to a new course if needed.

How frequently a business plan needs to be revised will depend on the nature of the business. A well-established business might want to review its plan once a year and make changes if necessary. A new or fast-growing business in a fiercely competitive market might want to revise it more often, such as quarterly.

What Does a Lean Startup Business Plan Include?

The lean startup business plan is an option when a company prefers to give a quick explanation of its business. For example, a brand-new company may feel that it doesn't have a lot of information to provide yet.

Sections can include: a value proposition ; the company's major activities and advantages; resources such as staff, intellectual property, and capital; a list of partnerships; customer segments; and revenue sources.

A business plan can be useful to companies of all kinds. But as a company grows and the world around it changes, so too should its business plan. So don't think of your business plan as carved in granite but as a living document designed to evolve with your business.

Harvard Business Review. " Research: Writing a Business Plan Makes Your Startup More Likely to Succeed ."

U.S. Small Business Administration. " Write Your Business Plan ."

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The 4 Roles of a Business Owner

Roles and responsibilities of a business owner.

The roles of a Business Owner can seem never-ending as you wear so many hats – mainly because all the responsibilities of the business ultimately rest with you.

These roles and responsibilities also change and develop as your business grows and develops. Whilst every business is different, there are some fairly common and predictable phases that business owners go through – and if you know what they are, then you can anticipate them – which means you can plan and prepare for them, keeping you in control of events.

I think there are four main roles of a business owner – let’s look at them in turn.

Business Owner Role No 1: Owning your business

“Profits are better than wages.” Jim Rohn

When we first think of starting a business, we each have our own reasons and motives. Whilst this will be personal to you, there are some common themes,

• you want to create something that’s yours – to say “I did this!”
• it’s a practical response to your current situation – such as needing something flexible to fit around family life that’s not possible as an employee – or you like the possibility to choose your own working hours, or to work from home, or to be location independent, able to work from anywhere.
• you want control over our own destiny – the choice and freedom that comes with your own business. This might be because you’re naturally independently-minded. Or working for someone else led to so many compromises that starting your own business meant that you could carry on what you enjoy but without the overbearing boss and office politics!
• maybe it’s financially driven – you want to create long term wealth and see starting your own business as the most effective route to it. Or you just want to generate a reasonable income doing what you know and enjoy with the potential for growth in the future.

Whatever your motives, one thing is for certain, it starts with YOU!

You have complete freedom on how to build your business.

Including what to do, how to do it, where to operate, what customers to attract, whether you’re selling service or products – there are so many choices. You can build it how you want.

So you have an idea, create a brand name and voila – you’ve started a business!

In reality all you’ve created at this point is an empty container. An empty space in which to create your business. But the point is, it’s your container! You’re an Owner at last.

It’s this ownership that gives you autonomy.

The Owner is the first of the four roles of a business owner.

Business Owner Role No 2: Doing the work

“Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” Theodore Roosevelt

Now you are an Owner, you now have your first choice to make – what to DO!

You start work, probably by yourself, getting things done as best you can.

The Do-er is the second role of the business owner.

This means actually doing the work for paying customers.

So if you’re an accountant, you start providing accounting services for people, if you’re a carpenter you start building tables and shelves for people, if you’re an electrician, you start installing cabling and sockets in buildings, if you’re a programmer you start writing code, if you’re a web designer you start building beautiful websites, and if you’re a beauty therapist you start providing various treatments for people.

You are the expert, the specialist in your field and you can now spend time doing what you’re good at without getting side-tracked by office politics, horrible bosses and all the rest of it.

However as the Do-er in chief, you rapidly discover that there are other things that you need to be doing as well, some marketing, bookkeeping, tax returns and accounts, making sales, customer service, finding suppliers, managing premises, keeping up to date with new regulations, choosing IT systems, chasing payments.

The list goes on.

O for Owner can quickly become O for Overwhelm.

And being independent can quickly become feeling alone.

You reach a crisis point and realise that you can no longer do it all by yourself.

Business Owner Role No 3: Managing others

“The secret to winning is constant, consistent management.” Tom Landry

So the doing needs to give way to something else. You need to get some help and so instead of doing everything yourself, you start managing other people who do some of the doing.

The Manager is the third role of the business owner.

Now this doesn’t mean just managing employees, it can include managing outsourced contractors – you’re not just buying a service, you’re managing a relationship – it can also mean managing systems that do some of the work for you – managing technology.

Either way you look at it, you are taking one step back from doing everything yourself and starting to manage people and systems.

So now you spend your time split between the two roles of Doing and Managing. Doing what you’re good at and specialise in, and managing others who are specialists in what they do.

So that works well and the business grows. It may be that over time you need to do more managing and as a result you do less doing, in fact you may become a pure manager.

You have gone from being a specialist, an expert in your field to being a generalist – a general manager with an overview of the many parts of your business.

Of course, you will still have specialist skills and knowledge in some areas. You will be still be required to turn your hand, when needed, to the more complicated issues that require the wealth of experience and expertise that only you have.

But fundamentally your main role is as a generalist, a general manager.

Business Owner Role No 4: Leading the business

“Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing.” Tom Peters

So the business grows and you get to another crisis point. The business has got more complicated again. You can no longer manage all the areas yourself, they are too time-consuming or too specialist. So you recruit some managers or heads of department and they manage the Do-ers and you manage the Managers.

The Leader is the fourth role of the business owner.

You’re managing managers and leading teams. You’re in charge of creating an environment and culture in which others can Do and Manage effectively. Maybe you’re even an inspiring leader!

So at the level of Doing and Managing, it’s all about running the business – making sure the day-to-day-stuff happens.

At this level you are leading the business. You’re more focused on longer term strategic issues and thinking about the growth and development of the business.

In many ways you’re now back to where you started with autonomy. You’re focused on strategic decision-making and helping formulate a clear direction for everyone to follow.

The level of Doing and Managing is about working IN the business whilst at this Leadership level it’s more about working ON the business.

From this leadership vantage point you can see the big picture. It’s sometimes described as the helicopter view. You can look down and see it as a whole. You’re one step removed from the daily urgency. In fact, you should be able to go on holiday and leave the business to operate without you. (How’s that working out for you??)

So, we end up with this triangle of Doing, Managing and Leading. Now the triangle is a highly stable shape and these three roles can create a highly stable business.

You as a business owner are going from doing to managing to leading – a series of mini-crises which prompt transitions – which is why you need to grow and develop as your business grows and develops.

Business Owner Role No 5: Is there a fifth role?

“The self-owned and -operated business is the freest life in the world.” Paul Hawken

So where do you go next after leading?

Well the final step takes you back to where you started!

You go back to Owning as a major concern.

If you’ve transitioned through the different phases from Doing to Managing to Leading, you are now succession planning. You are looking for someone to take over as Leader and maybe as Owner.

In this phase, Owning is about considering the value of the business. Hopefully you’ve now got an asset to sell as your final step. You’ve worked hard building and growing your business, hopefully now you’ve added a few zeros to the value!

As the Owner you’re now thinking like an investor and you look at the business differently – as an investment. It’s is a store of wealth which you can sell. Alternatively you can stay as the owner and the business becomes an asset which gives you an income.

So there we have it – the four roles of the business owner. They represent the transitions that you need to go through as the business grows.

Now in truth these four roles of the business owner are not sequential in the way I’ve described them, you’re probably always doing a combination of doing, managing and leading, but the emphasis and priorities change as the business develops.

Four Roles of a Business Owner Infographic Summary

So there we are – four roles of the business owner (or maybe five!)

Each role will have a different prominence for you right now. Some are more relevant at different times.

Developing your role

“Once you start a business, you have to grow it and grow with it. Starting a business is not just for Christmas.” Natalie Massenet

So which is your dominant role right now?

What is the next stage of development for you?

Are you ready for that next stage?

Have you got all that you need to make that next step a success?

Have you got the skills and competencies you need?

How well are you moving from being the technical specialist to being the generalist manager?

Have you got the right people doing the doing for you and are you managing them successfully?

Or are you still overwhelmed by your to do list?

And going back to the freedom that comes with the autonomy of Ownership – how well are you managing that?

Whichever role is the dominant one right now, being a business owner can be a lonely place. A business coach can act as a supportive professional, guiding you along the way. They can support you to grow and develop so that you can, in turn, grow and develop your business.

As a business coach, I’m a generalist in many ways, just as you are as a business owner. I’ve played all these roles myself. I’ve made the transition from technical specialist (the Do-er) to managing others (the Manager), to leading teams and organisations (the Leader) and of course as a business owner myself (the Owner).

If you would like to talk about the role you are playing in your business and the next stage of development for you, then get in touch and let’s arrange a short initial conversation to see whether I can help.

Sounds interesting? Then get in touch.

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What Does a Business Owner Do?

• Updated January 19, 2023
• Published January 18, 2023

As a business owner, you are responsible for the overall success and growth of your company. You wear many hats and are involved in every aspect of the business, from creating a product or service to marketing and sales to finance and administration.

It is a challenging and rewarding role that requires a combination of technical skills, business acumen, and leadership abilities.

In this article, we will explore the various roles and responsibilities of a business owner and provide tips for those considering starting their own business.

Business Owner Duties and Responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities of a business owner vary depending on the size and type of business, as well as the owner’s specific role within the organization. However, some common responsibilities of business owners include the following:

• Setting business goals and strategies : As a business owner, you are responsible for setting clear goals and objectives for your company and developing a plan to achieve them. This may involve identifying new markets to enter, developing new products or services, or expanding your customer base.
• Managing finances : As a business owner, you are responsible for managing the financial aspects of your company, including budgeting, forecasting, and tracking profits and losses. You may also be responsible for preparing financial reports, seeking funding, and making financial decisions.
• Overseeing operations : Business owners are responsible for ensuring that the company’s day-to-day operations run smoothly and efficiently. This may involve managing staff, coordinating with suppliers and partners, and making sure that products and services are delivered on time.
• Marketing and sales : Business owners are responsible for promoting their products and services and generating sales. This may involve creating marketing campaigns, identifying potential customers, and negotiating contracts.
• Legal and regulatory compliance : Business owners ensure that their company complies with all relevant laws and regulations. This may involve obtaining necessary licenses and permits, following employment laws, and adhering to industry-specific regulations.
• Customer service : As a business owner, you are responsible for ensuring that your customers are satisfied with your products and services. This may involve handling customer inquiries and complaints and working to resolve any issues that may arise.
• Staying up to date : Business owners must stay up to date with industry developments and trends and be willing to adapt and innovate in order to stay competitive. This may involve continuing education, networking, and staying informed about new technologies and strategies.

Related : Management interview questions and answers

Business Owner Job Requirements

The job requirements for a business owner vary depending on the size and type of business and the specific industry in which the business operates. However, some common requirements for business owners include the following:

• Education : Many business owners have a bachelor’s or master’s degree in a field related to their business, such as business administration, marketing, or finance. However, it is possible to start and run a successful business without a college degree.
• Experience : Many business owners have previous work experience in their industry, which can be helpful in understanding the market, developing strategies, and building a network of contacts. However, starting a business without prior experience is also possible, particularly if you are starting a small business or are entering a field that does not require specialized knowledge.
• Skills : Business owners should have a range of skills, including financial acumen, leadership, communication, problem-solving, and decision-making. They should also be adaptable and able to think on their feet, as the needs and challenges of a business can change quickly.
• Personal characteristics : Business owners should be self-motivated, confident, and resilient, as running a business can be demanding and may involve facing setbacks and challenges. They should also be able to handle stress and work under pressure.
• License and certification : Depending on the type of business and industry, business owners may need to obtain certain licenses and certifications in order to operate legally. For example, a business owner may need a license to serve alcohol or a certification to work in a regulated industry such as healthcare or construction.

Business Owner Skills

Business owners should have a range of skills in order to be successful in their roles. Some of the key job skills for a business owner include:

• Financial acumen : Business owners are responsible for managing the financial aspects of their company, so they should have a good understanding of financial concepts and be able to create and manage a budget, forecast profits and losses, and make financial decisions.
• Leadership : Business owners are responsible for leading and managing their teams, so they should have strong leadership skills and be able to delegate tasks, motivate and inspire their employees, and make difficult decisions.
• Communication : Business owners need to be able to communicate effectively with their team, customers, and partners. This includes being able to articulate ideas clearly, listen actively, and resolve conflicts.
• Problem-solving : Business owners should be able to identify and resolve problems as they arise, whether they are related to operations, finances, or customer service.
• Decision-making : Business owners are responsible for making important decisions that can impact the future of their company, so they should be able to analyze situations, weigh the pros and cons of different options, and make informed decisions.
• Adaptability : Business owners should be able to adapt to change and be open to new ideas and approaches. This may involve staying up to date with industry trends and being willing to try new strategies.
• Organization and time management : Business owners often have a lot of responsibilities, so it is important to be able to prioritize tasks, manage your time effectively, and stay organized.
• Strategic thinking : Business owners should be able to think strategically and develop long-term plans for the growth and success of their company. This may involve identifying new opportunities, analyzing market trends, and developing innovative solutions.

Related : Problem-solving interview questions and answers

Business Owner Salary

The salary and job outlook for a business owner vary widely depending on the size and type of business, as well as the industry in which the business operates. Some factors that can impact a business owner’s salary include the company’s revenue, profits, location, and the owner’s level of experience.

According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the median annual wage for a business owner is $80,000. However, this number can be higher or lower depending on the factors mentioned above. For example, business owners in the professional, scientific, and technical services industry tend to earn higher salaries, while those in the retail industry tend to earn lower salaries.

In terms of job outlook, the BLS projects that employment of business owners will grow 5% from 2020 to 2030, which is about as fast as the average for all occupations. The demand for business owners may be impacted by economic conditions and the overall health of the business environment. Starting a new business can be challenging, but those who are able to navigate the challenges and build a successful company successfully may enjoy strong job prospects.

Business Owner Work Environment

The work environment of a business owner can vary depending on the size and type of business, as well as the industry in which the business operates. Some business owners may work in an office setting, while others may work in a retail or manufacturing environment.

In general, business owners work long and irregular hours, as they are responsible for the overall success and growth of their company. They may need to be available to their team and customers at all times and may work weekends and holidays as needed.

Business owners also face a high level of stress and pressure, as they are responsible for making important decisions that can impact the future of their company. They may also face financial risk, as their personal assets may be tied to the success or failure of the business.

However, being a business owner can also be extremely rewarding, as you have the opportunity to create and grow a company that aligns with your values and goals. Many business owners enjoy the independence and flexibility that comes with being their own boss and the ability to make a positive impact in their community.

Business Owner Trends

It is difficult to predict specific trends that will impact business owners, as the business environment is constantly evolving. However, some general trends that may be relevant to business owners include the following:

• Digital transformation : Many businesses are adopting digital technologies in order to streamline operations, improve efficiency, and reach new customers. Business owners should be aware of the latest technologies and how they can be used to benefit their company.
• Sustainability and social responsibility : Consumers and investors are increasingly looking for businesses that prioritize sustainability and social responsibility. Business owners may need to consider the environmental and social impact of their operations and consider ways to reduce their carbon footprint and give back to their communities.
• Remote work : Business owners should be prepared to adapt to a hybrid work model or fully remote work if necessary.
• E-commerce : The growth of e-commerce has led to an increase in online sales, and this trend is likely to continue in the future. Business owners should consider how they can leverage online platforms to reach new customers and sell their products or services.
• Talent management : Business owners may need to adapt their talent management strategies in order to attract and retain top talent in a competitive job market. This may involve offering flexible work arrangements, providing professional development opportunities, and creating a positive company culture.

How to Become a Business Owner

There are several steps you can take to become a business owner:

• Identify your business idea : The first step in becoming a business owner is to identify a business idea that you are passionate about and meets a market need. This may involve researching your industry, identifying trends and opportunities, and testing your idea with potential customers.
• Create a business plan : A business plan is a document that outlines your business idea, target market, financial projections, and marketing and sales strategies. A business plan can help you clarify your vision and ensure that you have a roadmap for success.
• Secure funding : Depending on the size and scope of your business, you may need to secure funding to get your business off the ground. This may involve using personal savings, seeking a loan or investment from a bank or venture capital firm, or crowdfunding.
• Choose a business structure : There are several business structures to choose from, such as sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, or limited liability company (LLC). Each structure has its own advantages and disadvantages, so choosing the one that is right for your business is important.
• Register your business : You will need to register your business with the appropriate government agencies in order to operate legally. This may involve obtaining licenses, permits, and insurance and registering for taxes.
• Set up your business : Once your business is registered, you will need to set it up by creating a physical location, hiring staff (if applicable), and acquiring the necessary equipment and supplies.
• Launch your business : Once you have completed the above steps, you are ready to launch your business. This may involve marketing and promoting your products or services, establishing relationships with suppliers and partners, and building a customer base.

Starting a business can be a challenging and time-consuming process, but it can also be a rewarding and fulfilling career path. It is important to be persistent, adaptable, and willing to learn from your mistakes in order to succeed as a business owner.

Business Owner Advancement Prospects

As a business owner, you have the opportunity to advance your business and achieve success in a variety of ways. Some possible advancement prospects for business owners include:

• Growing your business : One way to advance as a business owner is to grow your business and increase its profits. This may involve expanding your customer base, entering new markets, or developing new products or services.
• Diversifying your business : Another way to advance as a business owner is to diversify your business by adding new lines of products or services, or by entering new industries. This can help to mitigate risk and increase the long-term stability of your business.
• Developing new skills : As a business owner, you have the opportunity to continuously learn and develop new skills that can help you to improve your business. This may involve taking courses or earning additional degrees, or seeking out mentorship and guidance from other business owners.
• Building a team : As your business grows, you may need to build a team of employees or partners to help you manage the day-to-day operations of your business. This can allow you to focus on strategic planning and decision-making, and can help to free up time for you to pursue other opportunities.
• Selling your business : Another advancement prospect for business owners is to sell their business for a profit. This can be a lucrative option for those who have built a successful company, and can allow you to retire or pursue other business ventures.

Business Owner Job Description Example

Job Title : Business Owner

Location : XYZ City, XYZ State

Job Type : Full-time, Self-employed

Pay : Dependent on business revenue and profits

As a Business Owner, you’re responsible for the overall success and growth of the company. This is a hands-on role that requires the ability to wear many hats and be involved in every aspect of the business, from creating a product or service, to marketing and sales, to finance and administration.

Responsibilities :

• Set business goals and strategies
• Manage finances, including budgeting, forecasting, and tracking profits and losses
• Oversee operations, including managing staff and coordinating with suppliers and partners
• Marketing and sales, including creating marketing campaigns and identifying potential customers
• Legal and regulatory compliance, including obtaining necessary licenses and permits
• Customer service, including handling customer inquiries and complaints
• Stay up to date with industry developments and trends

Requirements :

• Self-motivated, confident, and resilient
• Strong financial acumen, leadership, communication, problem-solving, and decision-making skills
• Adaptable and able to think on your feet
• Well-organized and able to manage time effectively
• Strong strategic thinking skills
• Education and experience may be beneficial but are not required

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• Five Key Roles Of A Business Plan

by James Burgess | Jun 10, 2020 | Business Planning | 0 comments

Business plans are like road maps or your GPS – they make your trip more efficient. Although you can proceed with your startup business without a business plan, there are high chances of getting lost along the way. On the other hand, if you have a road map or a plan to guide you, you will remember where you are headed and you can reach it faster with more effective strategies.

3.       Preparing for the big ones A lot of small and medium enterprises do not get to last for five years because they do not prepare for the big mistakes or the most common mistakes that cause the failure of a lot of businesses. These common reasons for failure are addressed in the business plan. Here are some of the most common mistakes:

•         There is no market need, which means nobody needs or wants what is being sold
•         There is a lack of capital or the company runs out of money
•         Your hired team or employees are not the right people for the business
•         Competition around you is rigid resulting in a very unprofitable situation
•         Prices for products or services are either too high or too low

4.       Recognizing viability A business plan will help you recognize if your vision is viable in the market. A business plan can ground your lofty business idea and acknowledge it as having sound business sense.

2. Use our FREE business planning program FOCUS Yourself; A 7 Module Business Plan Program . This is not a business plan template, it is a full business plan that is EASY and FAST , making your plan SUSTAINABLE and entirely PRACTICAL . Start your business plan NOW

3. Not sure why you need a small business plan? REGISTER for a FREE FOCUS Discovery Consultation where you will talk business, your business, with international best-selling author James Burgess

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It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong. —Thomas Sowell

Business Owners

Business Owners can be identified by asking the following questions:

• Who is ultimately responsible for business outcomes?
• Who can steer this ART to develop the right Solution ?
• Who can speak to the technical competence of the solution now and into the near future?
• Who should participate in planning, help eliminate impediments, and speak on behalf of development, the business, and the customer?
• Who can approve and defend a set of Program Increment (PI) plans, knowing full well that they will never satisfy everyone?
• Who can help coordinate the efforts with other departments and organizations within the Enterprise?

The answers to these questions will identify the Business Owners, who will play a key role in helping the ART deliver value. Among other duties, they have specific responsibilities during  PI Planning , where they participate in mission setting, planning, draft plan reviews, conducting management reviews, and problem-solving. They also assign business value to Team PI Objectives and approve the PI plan. But they don’t just disappear after planning. Active and continuous involvement throughout each PI by Business Owners is a determining factor in the success of each train.

Self-managing, self-organizing Agile Teams and Agile Release Trains (ARTs) are essential to the success of SAFe. This represents a significant change in the traditional management mindset. Managers no longer need to directly supervise work by assigning tasks and activities. Instead, they lead by establishing mission and Vision . They help the teams with coaching and skills development, but largely decentralize execution authority to the members of the ART. However, transformation to a Lean-Agile way of working does not relieve management of their ultimate responsibilities. They remain accountable for the growth of the organization and its people, operational excellence, and business outcomes.

To facilitate this goal, SAFe defines the responsibilities of Business Owners, the key managers who guide the ART to the appropriate outcomes. The recommended activities for Business Owners in SAFe enable them to fulfill their obligations to the enterprise while empowering the teams to do their best work. Business Owners are  Lean-Agile Leaders  who share accountability for the value delivered by a specific ART. They are responsible for understanding the Strategic Themes  that influence the train. They have knowledge of the current Enterprise , Portfolio , and  Value Stream  context, and they’re involved in driving or reviewing the program vision and Roadmap . The continuous involvement of the Business Owners throughout the PI serves as an important Guardrail to the budgetary spend of the ART.

Responsibilities

An effective Business Owner is an active and involved Business Owner, fulfilling SAFe responsibilities daily. The following sections describe their responsibilities from the perspective of incremental development and execution through Program Increments (PIs) .

Prior to PI Planning

The time before PI planning is a busy period for Business Owners, as they will:

• Provide input to backlog refinement activities
• Participate in Pre-PI Planning  as needed
• Understand and help ensure that business objectives are understood and agreed to by key stakeholders of the train, including the Release Train Engineer (RTE) , Product Management , and System Architects
• Prepare to communicate the business context, including Milestones and significant external dependencies, such as those of Suppliers

During PI Planning

The importance of the Business Owner’s role during PI planning cannot be overstated. They:

• Provide relevant elements of the business context in the defined PI planning agenda timebox
• Are ready and available to participate in key activities, including the presentation of vision, draft plan review, assigning business value to team PI objectives, and approving final plans
• Play a primary role in the draft plan review, understanding the bigger picture and how these plans, when taken together, do or do not fulfill the current business objectives
• Watch for significant external commitments and dependencies
• Actively circulate during planning, communicating business priorities to the teams, and maintaining agreement and alignment among the stakeholders regarding the key objectives of the train
• Participate in the management review and problem-solving meeting to review and adjust scope, resolve problems and compromise as necessary

Assigning Business Value

Assigning business value during PI planning provides an essential face-to-face dialogue between the team and their most important stakeholders, the Business Owners. This is an opportunity to develop personal relationships between Agile teams and Business Owners, identify common concerns which require mutual commitment, and to better understand the business objectives and their value. An example is provided in Figure 1.

When assigning business value, on a scale of 1 to 10, Business Owners will typically assign the user-facing Features the highest values. But they also should seek the advice of technical experts who know that architectural and other concerns will increase the team’s velocity in producing future business value. So placing suitable business value on Enablers helps drive velocity and shows support for the team’s legitimate technical challenges.

Because the road after PI planning takes its inevitable twists and turns, assigning business value to objectives guides the teams in making trade-offs and minor scope adjustments. In short, it allows them to deliver the maximum possible business benefit. These numbers also later inform the Program Predictability Measure , a key indicator of program performance and reliability.

At Inspect and Adapt

The Inspect and Adapt (I&A) event is the larger, cadence-based opportunity for the whole ART to come together to reflect on progress and identify the systemic impediments they’re facing—many of which cannot be addressed without the involvement of Business Owners. During the event, Business Owners help assess actual value achieved versus plan, and they participate in the problem-solving workshop that follows.

During PI Execution

The Business Owners’ job is not complete when PI planning is done; they have an ongoing role to help assure the success of the PI. Business Owners:

• Actively participate in maintaining business and development alignment as priorities and scope inevitably change
• Help validate the definition of Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) for Program Epics and guide the pivot-or-persevere decision based on delivery of the MVP
• Attend the  System Demo to view progress and provide feedback
• Attend Agile team Iteration Planning and Iteration Retrospective events, as required
• Participate in Release Management , focusing on scope, quality, deployment options, release, and market considerations

Other Responsibilities

Business Owners may have additional duties beyond those described above, including:

• Participate in Pre- and Post-PI Planning for the Solution Train and assist in adjusting the ART’s PI plans as needed
• Participate and provide feedback from the Solution Demo regarding the capabilities and subsystems being built by the ART
• Actively address impediments—especially those that escalate beyond the authority of the key stakeholders on the train
• Participate, in some cases, in Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) , Product Management, and System Architecture
• Help drive investment in the Continuous Delivery Pipeline to improve the responsiveness of the ART and quality of its solutions
• Help break silos to align development and operations to create a DevOps culture of shared responsibilities
• Serve as Epic Owners to guide major enterprise initiatives

It cannot be emphasized enough: Active participation of Business Owners is critical to the success of the train.   

Last update: 10 February 2021

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Leadership , Product management

• Business Owners

Provides strategic vision, financial, and market insight to guide roadmap prioritization. Product Glossary Business Owners Also called: Business Leaders, Business Managers, Business Executives, and Business Directors See also: Business Analyst , Business Intelligence , Business Owners , Business Model Archetypes Relevant metrics: Revenue, Profit, Customer Satisfaction, Conversion Rate, and Retention Rate In this article What is Business Owners

A business owner in the context of software product development refers to an individual who provides strategic vision, financial, and market insight to guide the prioritization of the product roadmap. They collaborate with an Agile Product Owner, who is responsible for managing the backlog and prioritizing features based on the goals and objectives of the business.

The Business Owner provides input on the direction of the product, including market trends, customer needs, and financial constraints, to ensure the product aligns with the overall business strategy and meets the desired outcomes. The collaboration between the Business Owner and Agile Product Owner helps to ensure that the product is developed with a focus on both market demands and business viability.

Where did the title “Business Owners” come from?

The concept of business ownership has been around since ancient times, with the earliest known examples of business owners being merchants in the Middle East and Asia. In the Middle Ages, business owners were typically members of the nobility or wealthy merchants who owned and operated their own businesses. By the 19th century, the concept of business ownership had become more widespread, with the rise of industrialization and the growth of the middle class. Today, business owners come from all walks of life and can range from small business owners to large corporations.

In the context of Agile and SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework), the role of the business owner is to represent the customer or end-user and to provide clear priorities and direction for the development team. In SAFe, Business Owners are a select group of stakeholders who hold primary business and technical responsibility for the governance, compliance, and return on investment (ROI). They play a crucial role by evaluating fitness for use and actively participating in bigger planning events.

The role of a Business Owner within the context of SAFe

Business Owners play a vital role in SAFe by serving as Lean-Agile leaders who share accountability for the value delivered by a specific Agile Release Train. Their responsibilities and duties include participating in Product Increment (PI) planning, assigning business value, and being actively involved in fulfilling their SAFe responsibilities. The continuous involvement of Business Owners throughout the PI serves as an important guardrail to the budgetary spend of the ART and is a determining factor in the success of each train.

The Business Owner role as defined by SAFe and the Scrum definition of a Product Owner have distinct responsibilities, although there may be some overlap. The Business Owner is responsible for overseeing the overall strategy and goals of the solution, while the Product Owner is responsible for defining and prioritizing the product backlog and making decisions about the direction of the product. However, in some cases, the same person may fulfill both roles, particularly in smaller organizations.

PI Planning

PI (Program Increment) Planning in SAFe is a time-boxed event that aligns the ART (Agile Release Train) to a shared vision, sets expectations, and lays out a continuous delivery plan. The Business Owner, as defined by SAFe, plays a critical role in the PI Planning by participating in both the pre- and post-planning phases. They assist in adjusting the ART’s PI plans as needed, provide feedback from the Solution Demo, actively address impediments, and help drive investment in the Continuous Delivery Pipeline. Through their involvement, the Business Owner helps to ensure the alignment of the ART’s goals with the overall vision and mission of the enterprise, while also promoting the responsiveness and quality of the solutions being developed.

Prior to PI Planning

Prior to Product Incremet (PI) planning in SAFe, Business Owners provide input to backlog refinement activities, participate in pre-PI planning, understand and ensure that business objectives are understood and agreed to by key stakeholders of the train, and prepare to communicate the business context, including milestones and significant external dependencies.

During PI Planning

During PI planning, the Business Owners’ role is crucial. They provide relevant elements of the business context, participate in key activities, play a primary role in the draft plan review, watch for significant external commitments and dependencies, communicate business priorities to the teams, participate in the management review and problem-solving meeting, and approve final plans.

Assigning business value during PI planning provides a valuable face-to-face dialogue between the teams and the Business Owners. This is an opportunity to build personal relationships, identify common concerns, and better understand business objectives and their value. Business Owners typically assign the highest values to user-facing features but also seek the advice of technical experts in assigning suitable business value to enablers to drive velocity and support the team’s technical challenges. The assigned business values inform the Program Predictability Measure, a key indicator of program performance and reliability.

Active Involvement

Business Owners must be active and involved in fulfilling their SAFe responsibilities daily. They should be ready and available to participate in key activities, actively circulate during planning, and maintain agreement and alignment among stakeholders regarding the key objectives of the train. The continuous involvement of Business Owners throughout the PI is a determining factor in the success of each train.

Responsibilities of a Business Owner in the context of agile SAFe

Within the context of the agile framework SAFe, business owers might have these responsibilities:

• Collaborate in Pre- and Post-PI Planning for Solution Implementation
• Offer guidance in fine-tuning long-term plans as required
• Share insights and provide insightful critique during Solution Demonstration
• Address obstructions of progress, particularly those requiring higher level intervention
• Contribute to Lean Portfolio Management, Product Stewardship, and System Design
• Champion investment in the Continuous Delivery Pipeline to enhance the long-term planning efficiency and solution quality
• Foster alignment between development and operations, promoting a shared accountability culture in DevOps
• Serve as Epic Steward, guiding pivotal enterprise-wide initiatives.

Potential conflicts between the agile Product Owner and the Business Owner role

Tensions between the Scrum definition of a Product Owner and the Business Owner role within SAFe can arise from differences in their respective responsibilities and priorities.

The Product Owner, as defined in Scrum, is primarily responsible for maximizing the value of the product being developed and prioritizing the product backlog. They make decisions about the functionality and features of the product and are the final authority on what is delivered.

In contrast, the Business Owner in SAFe is a broader role that encompasses the responsibilities of the Product Owner but also involves additional responsibilities such as participation in planning, feedback on capabilities and subsystems, and addressing impediments. They also play a role in Lean Portfolio Management, product management, system architecture, and driving investment in continuous delivery.

These differences in responsibilities and priorities can lead to tensions between the two roles, particularly when there are conflicting decisions to be made about the product backlog, investments, and priorities. The Business Owner may also have a broader organizational perspective and different goals than the Product Owner, which can lead to disagreements about the direction of the product and its development.

• Role clarity . The Product Owner and Business Owner may have different interpretations of their respective roles and responsibilities, leading to confusion and friction.
• Decision-making authority . There may be differences in the level of decision-making authority between the two roles, leading to disagreements on important issues.
• Prioritization . The Business Owner may prioritize initiatives that align with overall business goals, while the Product Owner focuses on delivering value to customers.
• Alignment of Priorities: The Business Owner may prioritize different objectives than the Scrum Product Owner, leading to misalignment in decision making.
• Authority Over Product Development . The Business Owner may exert greater influence over the product development process, creating tension with the Scrum Product Owner who is responsible for managing the backlog of the development team.
• Resource allocation . Allocating resources between the two roles may become a source of tension, especially if one feels that they are not receiving enough support to achieve their objectives.
• Balance between Business and Technical Objectives . The Business Owner may prioritize business objectives over technical considerations, while the Scrum Product Owner may prioritize the opposite.
• Dependence on Technical Decisions . The Business Owner may be dependent on the technical decisions made by the Scrum Product Owner, leading to frustration if the Scrum Product Owner’s decisions do not align with the Business Owner’s expectations.
• Budgeting . The Business Owner may have control over the budget and may prioritize spending differently than the Product Owner.
• Time constraints . The Product Owner may have time constraints that prevent them from delivering the solution at the pace desired by the Business Owner.
• Stakeholder alignment . The Business Owner may have to balance the interests of multiple stakeholders, while the Product Owner focuses on delivering value to a specific customer segment.

Advantages of having the Business Owner role SAFe overseeing the work of Product Owners

Having the Business Owner role as defined by SAFe overseeing the work of the Scrum definition of a Product Owner can benefit the progression of the product roadmap in several ways, including:

• Alignment of Business and Technical Goals . Having a Business Owner help ensure that the work being done aligns with the overall business objectives.
• Improved Decision-Making . The Business Owner brings a strategic perspective to the table, which helps make better decisions that drive the product’s success.
• Better Resource Allocation . The Business Owner helps allocate resources effectively to support the product development.
• Holistic View of the Enterprise . The Business Owner has a broader understanding of the enterprise, which helps them make informed decisions about the product development.
• Better Risk Management . The Business Owner helps manage risks that could impact the product’s success.
• Enhanced Collaboration . The Business Owner can help facilitate collaboration between different teams and stakeholders, improving communication and coordination.
• What are the goals of the business? Hint The goals of the business may include increasing sales, expanding into new markets, or improving customer service.

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Roles, Duties And Responsibilities Of A Business Owner And Manager

Small businesses need time to get established. The effort that goes into making a small business transform into a large enterprise is not easy. The contribution of the business owner and manager is crucial. They are the directors of the employees and correctly lead the business. So, it is vital to understand the on-job responsibilities and all other unsaid duties that every business owner and manager is expected to perform. 

Table of Contents

Is there a specified boundary for small business owners?

The answer to this question is tricky. Why? Because the practicalities of the business conditions, operations and size matter in defining what the roles are. A small business owner may have to perform anything and everything to run the business. In contrast, the owner of a large-scale business may only supervise certain business areas. 

So, it is tough to define the roles and responsibilities of a small business owner or manager accurately. But you can always derive an outline or overview of the on-job responsibilities and areas of action for the owners and managers. 

Responsibilities of a business manager 

A business manager is the business administrator and supervises the activities of the employees. The manager is responsible for increasing the efficiency of the employees. Besides developing core-business strategies and planning the implementation steps to achieve the goals, the manager also plays a pivotal role in other business aspects. 

• A manager actively helps in setting goals and objectives for the business.
• A business manager plans and deploys the resources to help in implementing the plans into action.
• Coordination and supervision are two key-activity areas of a business manager to bring out the best productivity. 
• Derive plans and strategies to improve the efficiency of the employees working in the company.

Besides these, a business manager needs to evaluate the existing business operations and give constructive feedback. A manager in a small business also needs to adhere to the regulations and legal norms, as there may not always be a separate department to review the compliances. 

The Defined Duties And Job Roles For Small Business Owners

A small business owner needs to divide their working schedule and prioritize the different areas that need their immediate attention. Overviewing all the responsibilities and duties, it seems a troublesome task to manage them all. But, with the right management skills, a business owner can manage the following duties conveniently. 

• Strengthening the company for future development : A small business owner or entrepreneur is the captain of the business and decides the course of development. Future expansion, planning and everything depend on the analyzing power and vision of the business owner. The owner decides the best path to follow to upscale the business and develop a strategy for operations. 
• Designing employee policies
• Payroll structuring and recognition programs
• Managing workplace safety and staffing
• Designing employee benefits and welfare programs
• Taking care of financial matters : Business owners during the initial stage of developing their small business into a large enterprise have to oversee the finances. They supervise the fund management to ensure optimal utilization of the limited resources. 

Starting from finding investors to how to utilize the funds, the business owner manages it all. A small business owner also plans the budget and keeps the account records to ensure transparency in all financial transactions.

• Analysis, planning and decision-making : All business decisions are taken by the business owner or manager. In small businesses, the owner performs the duties of the business manager and thus sets the goals for operation and business expansion. They help in creating a plan that will help in generating the best revenue and profits in the long run. 
• Planning and strategy for business:  Business operation requires proper planning and strategy. Deploying resources and assigning separate tasks to the employees is also a part of the duties of the owner. Besides that, analyzing the best market strategies and competitor moves is an essential job that the owner needs to perform diligently. It is the only way to stay one step ahead of the competitors and cope with the dynamicity of the business operations. 
• Daily monitoring and operation : Checking on the employee performance, operational productivity and efficacy of the operation strategies on a day-to-day basis are also responsibilities of the owner. It helps the business owner stay proactive about the shortcomings. They can easily recognize the operational risks.
• Marketing decisions and sales strategies : A business owner is also responsible for creating marketing strategies for sales increment. Small businesses do not have sufficient funds to manage the need for maintaining a separate department to review these business aspects. Hence, the owner has to meet the responsibilities and develop marketing plans for boosting sales. 
• Supervise customer services and policies : Ensuring an overall satisfactory customer service experience is also a duty of the business owner in a small enterprise. From developing client-oriented service policies to reputation management, a business owner has to cover it all. 

A blend of all that matters in running the business

All the discussed duties and responsibilities of a manager of a business or the owner require a clear vision that aims at resolving dynamic problems arising in the operations. Communicating with employees to ensure the best working environment for them to review the ways to amplify the sales, everything depends on how well you can blend all the responsibilities and carry them out efficiently. 

Closing note – Work on and in the business.

Work for the business and as part of the business to grow the small endeavour into a large-scale enterprise. Every responsibility of the business owner or manager is crucial for growth and needs a diligent approach. Do what the business necessitates and put your efforts to transform your business into a reputable brand in the long run. 

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Business Owner Role

In small IT organizations, staff frequently hold one or more service roles. One exception to this is the Business Owner role, which is typically fulfilled by a single individual. In Enterprise Technology, the Business Owner for enterprise services such as Oracle is frequently a senior level staff not in UIT. In the remainder of the UIT business units, the Business Owner is typically an Executive Director, Associate Vice President or Chief Technology Officer. Note that there are exceptions to these rules.

What does a Business Owner do?

The Business Owner plays a strategic role and is not engaged in the day-to-day activities of managing the service. Rather, they focus on the big picture. They define the vision and roadmap. They have the knowledge and authority to make strategic decisions and clear the path of political and financial obstacles. They communicate to key stakeholders and work closely with the Service Owner, who is responsible for developing a roadmap that aligns with the vision.

What are the general responsibilities of a Business Owner?

• Provides high-level business requirements and works closely with the service owner during the design phase. Prior to launch, they validate that the service meets the expected business outcomes.
• Ensures the service aligns with industry direction, standards, and best practices
• Represents the service in business strategy discussions and provides strategic advice to the service team
• Reviews and approves (if acceptable) identified service risks and mitigations
• Controls and prioritizes all business requests, such as those for feature enhancements, ensuring limited resources (both staff and dollars) are spent on high-value requests
• Reviews and approves communications for key stakeholders and the business during “Major” service incidents
• Owns the service roadmap

What ServiceNow tasks is the Business Owner responsible for?

• Change Management : The process responsible for controlling the lifecycle of all changes, enabling beneficial changes to be made with minimum disruption to IT services.
• Incident Management : An incident is an unplanned interruption or reduction in the quality of an IT service. Incident management is the process responsible for managing the lifecycle of all incidents. Incident management ensures that normal service operation is restored as quickly as possible and the business impact is minimized.
• Major Incident : A widespread, serious, major interruption or outage of a critical service that must be resolved with great urgency. They are classified as P1 and P2 incident tickets. The aim of the Major Incident Process is to quickly restore service with any means necessary, including workarounds.

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5 Kinds of Ownership Roles in a Family Business

• Nick Di Loreto

Sticking to “this is just how we do things around here” can have disastrous consequences, even for the closest family owner group.

One of the common unspoken tensions in a family business is the reality that different owners — and future owners — don’t all want to be involved in the same way. But too often those desires and expectations are not discussed or normalized. The author outlines five different types of family business owners, whose involvement ranges from passive to operational. He also shares a process to help families discuss their desired roles and evolve the business governance accordingly.

Sienna Amouri*, the 72-year-old chairwoman and founder of a high-end cosmetics enterprise, was distraught. A true owner-operator in the classic sense, familiar with all day-to-day details of her far-reaching business empire, Sienna had just watched her eldest sons Remo and Robert storm out of the monthly half-day business meeting in tears. Simultaneously shell-shocked, angry, and trying to console her mother was their sister, Quinn, the current CEO. How did their previously close-knit family come to this point, she wondered.

• Nick Di Loreto is a partner at BanyanGlobal Family Business Advisors. He advises the owners of some of the world’s largest private family businesses and offices on how to navigate the challenges of generational transition.

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The Owner's Role in Project Risk Management (2005)

Chapter: 2 owners’ roles and responsibilities, 2 owners’ roles and responsibilities, introduction.

Managing risk is one of an owner’s most important functions in making any major project successful. In general, the owner is initially responsible for all of the project risks, as it is usually the owner’s decision to execute the project or not. (Of course, the owner may not have a completely risk-free strategy, because not executing the project may entail risks to the successful implementation of the owner’s mission or business plan.) The owner has the ultimate responsibility for identifying, analyzing, mitigating, and controlling project risks, including acceptance of the project risks, or modification, or termination of the project—all of which are project risk management activities. This is true whether the project execution is managed directly by the owner or by contractors under the owner’s supervision.

Effective risk management begins with risk assessment. There are two primary purposes for a preproject risk assessment: (1) to decide whether to execute the project and accept the risks, or terminate it as unacceptably risky and (2) to identify the highest-priority risk factors that should receive the most attention by management.

One form of risk mitigation for the owner is to transfer some of the project risks by contract to others, presumably at a mutually acceptable price. For example, under a cost-plus-fee contract, the owner retains the cost risk; however, under a fixed-price contract, the owner seeks to transfer the cost risk to the contractor. Whether the fixed-price or cost-plus-fee approach is more beneficial to the owner depends on circumstances, such as whether the owner or the contractor is better able to manage the risks.

If the owner is going to have a cooperative, integrated project team, the entire team has to share the objective of risk reduction for every member of the project, rather than delegating the responsibility to one participant who may have incentives to impose risks on the other project members. Contractors and consultants may play major roles in identifying, analyzing, mitigating, and controlling project risks, but project risk management is not a function that the owner can completely delegate to contractors or to consultants with impunity. There are no paradigms for assigning responsibility for specific risk management activities to the members of the project team. The optimal delegation of responsibilities needs to be determined by the owner, then tracked and managed using the tools described in Chapter 7 . There remains an essential role for the owner that cannot be delegated—the responsibility for the management of the owner’s interests and the owner’s risks.

OWNER’S ROLE

Senior executives.

The Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) senior management has the responsibility for developing risk consciousness among all owner, contractor, and supplier personnel by educating them about the importance of explicit consideration of risks. Risk consciousness is the development of a viewpoint that continually examines how risks may occur and what their impact might be. It is analogous to the mindset of an experienced safety professional entering a construction work site; such a person would have developed a trained eye for risky situations and could automatically assess what could go wrong. In former years, some people opposed the introduction of integrated safety management on the basis that it would stop construction projects in their tracks or make them prohibitively expensive. These objections turned out to be false, and the value of safety programs is now unquestioned. Similarly, project risk management can be effectively carried out without stopping projects dead in their tracks or even slowing them down. Risk consciousness, like safety consciousness, has to flow from the top throughout the enterprise; in order to develop it in an organization, senior management must have it and they must constantly communicate the need for it to all program managers and project teams.

Program Managers

DOE program managers oversee the management of risks for multiple projects and should have the authority to ensure that the policies

and procedures established by senior owner executives are followed. They have the responsibility to transfer the risk consciousness established by senior executives to line project directors and managers. They also have the opportunity to manage risks across projects and to transfer lessons learned from one project to another. (See Chapter 8 regarding management of project portfolio risks.)

Project Directors

DOE project directors are the owner’s representatives responsible for implementing risk management policies and procedures. They have direct involvement and oversight of efforts to identify, analyze, mitigate, and control project risks from inception through completion. Project directors should have a thorough knowledge of project risks as well as of risk management tools and their implementation. They are responsible for leadership of the project management team, oversight of contractors and consultants, notification of senior management when significant risks arise, and management of risks during project execution.

Integrated Project Team

Risk identification is one of the most important functions of the project management team, and is one major reason the team should be formed early in the project (or even before) and should meet face-to-face as soon as possible. Members of the project management team should be selected on the basis of their breadth of experience and diverse viewpoints to make sure that all significant project risks are identified. Even if contractors execute the project, the owner’s project representative should be informed and actively involved in risk management.

Contractors and Consultants

In an environment where ongoing program and project management is delegated to contractors, the owner nonetheless retains the responsibility to ensure that the contractors employ qualified personnel and apply appropriate risk management practices. Because the owner maintains the burden of many irreducible project risks, it is essential that the owner’s representatives take an active role in all phases of risk management, including knowledgeable oversight and review of tasks undertaken by contractors and consultants.

Successful project execution begins with selection of the right contractor. Contractor proposals should demonstrate successful experience in

employing risk management methods in past performance on comparable projects. The weight given to risk management as a factor in contractor selection is one way for the owner to show a commitment to improving project performance through effective risk management.

As DOE relies more and more on performance-based approaches for acquiring services, in keeping with the President’s management objectives, it becomes critical that both contractor and government work in partnership to achieve the outcomes sought. With effective acquisition planning and a well-defined risk mitigation plan developed at the front end of the project, DOE and the contractor together are well positioned to deal with problems in execution as they arise. However, for these plans to be effective there has to be continuing communication between the department and the contractor once the work is under way. Both parties must be willing to adjust approaches as necessary to keep the project on track. Success depends on a flexible, coordinated approach for managing risks well before they have a significant negative impact on the project.

One way for owners to augment their ability to manage risk is to seek consulting support and technical assistance from firms that specialize in project risk management. This approach enables the owner to take advantage of the expertise of individuals who regularly deal with these types of problems and can help ensure that risk management concerns are fully addressed in the development of acquisition plans and work plans.

Objective and impartial external consultants and advisors can provide essential input on risk management. Evaluation of risk management functions, responsibilities, and plans should be specified as one of the major components of external independent reviews (EIRs) (NRC, 1999, 2001, 2003) and is a major reason why EIRs should be implemented. EIRs are typically performed prior to approval of the performance baseline (CD-2) and in some cases prior to approval of alternative selection and cost range (CD-1). Outside independent reviewers may identify potential risks that project personnel miss, so it is entirely in the owner’s interest to obtain these independent opinions for the reassurance they can provide. DOE managers should determine when EIRs should be used, the depth and breadth of coverage of the reviews, specific risks to be examined, and other issues relevant to the owner’s interests. Project management should be required to address all risks identified in EIRs in the same way as risks identified by the project team.

DEVELOPMENT OF RISK MANAGEMENT EXCELLENCE

All projects experience some degree of uncertainty, and some uncertainties can create risks to achieving the project objectives. The successful management of these risks is therefore critical to project success. Further-more, traditional project management tools, methods, and practices that are satisfactory for typical, conventional projects may be inadequate for project success on unusual or first-of-a-kind projects.

Risk management that follows typical industry good practices that have been developed on conventional projects, and that may be perceived as low-risk simply because they have been done many times, is not enough for projects that have more than the usual level of risk. Improved risk management abilities are needed if future projects are to be managed more successfully than those in the past. It is not sufficient to apply business-as-usual risk management techniques and expect to get good results. Even supposedly low-risk projects may be susceptible to unanticipated risks, just as many conventional projects were recently surprised by the run-up in steel prices, perhaps indicating that the lessons of the mid-1970s have been forgotten.

Improved risk management tools and methods are being actively developed by a number of organizations and can form the basis for the development of risk management excellence by DOE and contractors. Thus the intellectual, theoretical, computational, and other resources necessary to produce significant improvements in project risk management are available, but they need to be actively sought out and applied by managers at all levels. Owners’ representatives need to draw on these resources to develop expertise and excellence in actively managing project risks, and they need to ensure that this excellence is carried through by their contractors. Knowledgeable owners ensure that both their own personnel and their contractors are using the most appropriate risk management methods and that risk analysis is neither excessive nor too little. Owners with ongoing programs of multiple projects especially need to develop their own risk management expertise and excellence and should not expect contractors to look out for the owner’s risks unless they are specifically and properly directed to do so.

Project managers are inherently motivated to achieve the intended project goals and are therefore motivated to manage project risks effectively. Although this is generally the case, Flyvbjerg (2002) has argued that there are times, especially in large projects, when project managers are motivated to obscure or hide the risks inherent in a project. It is the responsibility of senior managers to ensure that project teams thoroughly identify, analyze, mitigate, and manage all project risks. Because the outcome of projects is influenced by many factors beyond the control of risk

management, the quality of project risk management is difficult to assess. Senior managers need to establish policies and procedures as well as a thorough understanding of risk management to ensure that all risks have been considered and properly addressed before allowing projects to proceed past critical decision points.

MANAGERIAL ATTITUDES TOWARD RISK AND UNCERTAINTY

Project risk may be defined simply as the possibility of an unintended future event with potential undesirable consequences. For precisely this reason, project risks are difficult to manage, because they relate to events that may or may not occur. Risk is a concept that encompasses things, forces, or circumstances that pose a threat to people or what they value (NRC, 1996). In the context of project management, risk has several dimensions, such as mission-related risk, cost or schedule risk, or risks to the environment, safety, or health. The development of effective and efficient project-specific risk management strategies requires the use of risk assessment, a decision technique that systematically incorporates consideration of adverse events, event probabilities, event consequences, and vulnerabilities.

Uncertainty, as it relates to project performance, cost, quality, and duration, comes from a lack of knowledge about the future. It is neither objective nor measurable but rather based on subjective assessments, which can differ between observers. Managers must therefore make decisions in an uncertain world and, in the absence of good historical databases, subjective probability estimates are the only available measures of uncertainty.

Decision Theory and Managerial Perspective

Projects continually face new risks, which must be identified, analyzed, and understood in order to develop a framework both for selecting the right projects to execute and for successfully executing them. Thus project owners, sponsors, and managers are increasingly concerned with ways to analyze risks and to mitigate them.

However, the term “risk” has different meanings to different people. In decision theory, risk is defined as variation in the distribution of possible outcomes, a definition that allows the risks of alternatives to be quantified, calculated, expressed numerically, and compared. But most project managers do not use the decision-theory definition of risk. That is, they do not evaluate it on the basis of uncertainty or probability distributions, as used in decision theory, but rather, as March and Shapira (1987) observed, on the basis of the following general characteristics:

Managers typically define risk as their exposure to loss.

Managers aren’t necessarily interested in reducing project risks to a single number. Instead, risks are considered multidimensional, with the maximum exposure considered for each risk dimension.

Managers are more likely to take risky actions when their jobs are threatened than when they feel safe. The risks taken on a project are relative to the alternative options and opportunities available. For example, contractors will take more risks (such as submitting very low bids to buy jobs) when business is bad and their survival is under threat than they are willing to take when they have ample backlogs.

Managers do not act as if risks were immutable properties of the physical world. Successful managers believe that they can control risks through their expertise; that is, they act as if risks are manageable. And the more successful managers have developed proven methods by which they can in fact more predictably control risks. Conversely, project managers may be unwilling to accept risks if they have not had experience successfully managing projects under similar conditions of technological challenges, public scrutiny, regulatory constraints, outside stakeholder influence, tight budgets, tight schedules, unusual quality requirements, fixed-price contracts, adversarial relations with contractors, and other factors that add risks to projects. But even successful project managers may not always be correct in their assumption that they can control risks, and making mistakes in this regard can have serious consequences. Therefore, even successful project managers need to know about risk management methodology in order to support the self-confidence they need to control risks.

In summary, the empirical, managerial approach to risk is as follows:

Break down the total risk into its components.

Analyze the risk for each component, in terms of its maximum exposure for loss.

If any risk is unacceptable, take steps to reduce it, mitigate it, or otherwise manage it.

Revise the project until the risks are acceptable or a plan is in place to actively reduce the risks to acceptable levels.

The decision-theory and managerial approaches to risk are compared in Table 2-1 .

TABLE 2-1 Two Complementary Approaches to Risk Management

Integrating Two Approaches to Risk

Although decision-theory and managerial viewpoints on risk are different, they are not mutually exclusive. Managers are better equipped to take risks when they have both effective tools to assess the nature of the risks involved and the information necessary to control and manage these risks. Experience shows that many projects have not been successful in containing risks because project managers used inappropriate methods and did not see the need to apply risk management methodologies. Learning risk management on the job can be an educational experience that is very expensive for the project’s owner.

A better solution lies in integrating the two approaches to risk described above. By identifying, objectifying, quantifying, and estimating risks, and by assessing individual risks through simulation, scenario analysis, decision analysis, and other techniques, project managers can do what engineers do—that is, compensate for lack of direct experimental evidence by means of thorough analysis and appropriate safety factors. By synthesizing the managerial approach to risk with analytical methods, project managers are better able to manage risks, because the analytical approach requires the risks to be quantified and allows the systematic evaluation of the best methods to control them.

Effective risk management is essential for the success of large projects built and operated by the Department of Energy (DOE), particularly for the one-of-a-kind projects that characterize much of its mission. To enhance DOE’s risk management efforts, the department asked the NRC to prepare a summary of the most effective practices used by leading owner organizations. The study’s primary objective was to provide DOE project managers with a basic understanding of both the project owner’s risk management role and effective oversight of those risk management activities delegated to contractors.

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What Is a Project Owner? Roles & Responsibilities

For a project to function properly and be delivered on time and within its budget, all the roles and responsibilities of everyone involved must be clearly defined and communicated. Everyone has their part to play in the process, which is orchestrated by the project manager acting on behalf of the project owner.

The project owner isn’t an unheard-of project management role , but it does have an air of mystery to it. What exactly is a project owner, what does the project owner do and so forth? These questions will be answered and in so doing we’ll reveal the critical importance of the project owner, their duties and responsibilities to the project and the skill sets that set them apart from the rest of the project team.

What Is a Project Owner?

The project owner is a leader who works with the project manager closely to drive the project to a successful conclusion. That relationship is so close that in some projects, the project owner is the project manager. However, there’s a difference and we’ll get to that later.

The project owner is the person who’s responsible for the vision of the project. They have the big picture and look at what the project is achieving and how it fits in with the larger strategy of the business or organization.

As their name says, a project owner owns the project. They’re accountable for the success or failure of the project. That’s why they’re the ones who set the high-level vision, and objectives and even get the funding from the project sponsors. However, their responsibilities don’t end with project approval. As it’s being executed, project owners are vigilant about identifying issues and, when found, resolving them.

To do their job and shepherd the project through its various life cycles, project owners rely on project management software to give them the data they need to make more insightful decisions. ProjectManager is award-winning software that gives project owners real-time data on the project to help them steer it to a successful end. One tool they can use is our reporting features that deliver customizable reports on status, portfolio and many more. Each report can be filtered to show only what you want to see and displays live data that leads to better decision-making. Plus, reports are easily shared in many formats to keep stakeholders updated. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.

What Does a Project Owner Do?

The project owner oversees the project from a high level. They’re often the head of the business or business unit involved with the product or service. Therefore, they have responsibility for the project and its successful delivery.

In terms of what they do, we’ll get to the duties and responsibilities in a moment, but you can think of the project owner as the champion of the project. They, with the project sponsor, are invested in the project’s success. The sponsor financially and the project owner in terms of delivering the project on time and within budget.

Sometimes the customer can be considered the project owner and have a different role to play in driving the project. For example, the customer will define the project’s scope , goals and objectives, while making sure that the project is on track to meet their needs.

While one of the most important people in a project, the project owner often must report to the C-suite executives in the organization. However, this depends on the size of the organization. If the organization is smaller, they might report directly to the CEO or business owner.

Why Are Project Owners Important?

The buck stops with the project owner. They’re vitally important to the project because the project is vitally important to them. They’re the ones who bear the business responsibility for implementing the project successfully. If it fails, they must take responsibility.

They’re leaders of the project to an even greater degree than the project manager in that they’re the project champions and the face of the project. All its weight is on their shoulders. It’s the project owner’s leadership and management skills that will be tested by the success or failure of the project.

While there are other stakeholders, the project owner can be considered the key stakeholder in the project and, therefore, of utmost importance. They are, after all, defining the project’s scope, objectives and requirements, plus working closely with the project manager to ensure the project is delivered on time, within budget and meeting quality standards.

What Are the Main Duties and Responsibilities of a Project Owner?

We’ve established why a project owner is important and defined who they are and what they do, but that’s only scratched the surface. A project owner isn’t merely a figurehead, but what exactly are their duties and responsibilities?

A project owner must be a leader. This isn’t a skill that you can become certified for, but it can be learned if one is open to advice and the guidance of experience. Leadership is one of those slippery qualities that’s hard to get a hold of but everyone knows when they’re in the presence of a leader.

Leaders lead, of course, but they also inspire. Therefore, the project owner leads the project team, including the project manager, though more about that relationship soon. They’ll oversee the project activities to ensure that they’re being done properly and in a timely manner.

As mentioned, the project owner is the champion of the project and works with the project sponsor to motivate and answer questions. This includes assisting the project manager in leading the project team to complete all the project tasks.

The project owner is also there to get buy-in from the project stakeholders . While all these duties and responsibilities feel a bit broad, they’re supposed to be. That’s because a project owner isn’t dealing in the day-to-day operations of the project, but is on a higher level.

Project Owner Skills

In terms of project owner skills, we’ve already mentioned that leadership qualities are essential, but that’s just one piece of what makes a good project owner. The skill sets of a project owner are the normal suspects, such as an advanced degree in project management, business or a related field, years of experience and even certification.

But all those pale in comparison to the soft skills that are less easily quantifiable. For example, you can’t get a degree in enthusiasm, but the project owner must be enthusiastic about the project, its value and its deliverables. This can carry the project team through hard times as well if not better than methodology.

The skills of a project owner can be all over the map, depending on the role of the project owner. We’ve already stated a customer can be a project owner, but some can be a business analyst, strategic architect or any other number of professional positions. The skills vary, but the enthusiasm to champion the project’s vision will always be paramount.

Project Owner vs. Project Manager

The project owner and the project manager are closely intertwined in the project. A project manager can even be a project owner so it’s important that we explain their similarities and where they differ.

The project owner is accountable for the project’s success or failure, while the project manager is managing the team and the daily operations of the project to deliver it on schedule, on budget and meeting quality expectations. Their objectives are the same, but the project owner is looking at the project from a high level and the project manager is in the weeds dealing with the day-to-day responsibilities of managing the project.

As noted, the project owner is setting the vision for the project. The project manager is executing the project to achieve that vision. The project owner is setting the objectives, the project manager is achieving the objectives through the planning and execution of that project plan. The project owner secures the funds from the project sponsor while the project manager estimates the budget to determine how much the project will cost.

Another way to look at it is that the project owner is setting up the project. However, once that project has been approved, the project manager takes over the responsibility of taking the project from planning to closure. The project manager is more involved in the details of identifying tasks, milestones , risks, workflow, methodologies, reporting procedures, etc. The project owner is updated and helps guide the project, but the project manager is driving it to the final delivery.

ProjectManager Is Ideal for Project Owners

That doesn’t mean the project owner disappears once the project has begun. Remember, they’re accountable for its success or failure and want to stay informed throughout the project’s life cycle. We already talked about how reports that the project manager makes and delivers to key stakeholders, such as the project owner, are one way to stay abreast of the project’s progress and performance. ProjectManager is award-winning project management software that offers a full suite of features that keep project owners involved.

Plan on Powerful Gantt Charts

To ensure that the big picture is reflected in the project plan, project owners will work with project managers to schedule on Gantt charts. Our tool allows them to get an overview of the entire project on a visual timeline that links all four task dependencies to avoid costly delays, filters for the critical path and sets a baseline for tracking variances in the schedule and budget in real time. Our Gantt charts are easy to edit and share with stakeholders. Project owners can even track progress by the shaded percentage of the taskbar.

Monitor Progress With Real-Time Dashboards

The project owner is accountable for the success or failure of the project, as noted above, which means they’ll want to have intimate knowledge of its progress and performance whenever they need it. While reports are another tool they use to get live data, the project owner can toggle to the real-time dashboard when they want a high-level view of the project. They can track six metrics including time, cost and the overall health of the project like an instant status report. Unlike lightweight tools, there’s no time-consuming setup required with our software. It’s plug-and-play.

The project owner works with the project manager to ensure the project is delivered on time and our software has all the features to help achieve that goal. There are multiple project views from Gantt charts to kanban boards , task lists and calendars. Resource management features help keep the team’s workload balanced and risk management tools identify and track risks until they’re resolved.

ProjectManager is online project management software that connects everyone on the project team no matter where they work or when they work. They can share files, comment on tasks and more to foster better collaboration. Join teams at companies such as Avis, Nestle and Siemens who are using our software to succeed. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.

Deliver your projects on time and under budget

Start planning your projects.

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Tax changes small business owners should be aware of as the tax deadline looms

FILE - A cash register is seen on the front counter at the Alpha Shoe Repair Corp., Feb. 3, 2023, in New York. As Tax Day, April 15, approaches, there are plenty of things small business owners should keep in mind when filing taxes this year. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

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As Tax Day approaches, there are plenty of things small business owners should keep in mind when filing taxes this year.

April 15 is still the annual tax deadline for many small businesses although, unlike individuals, small businesses can have varying deadlines depending on the type of company, the state the taxes are filed in, and other factors. Quarterly estimated tax payments are generally required throughout the year. And certain types of small businesses had to file by March 15.

Since business tax filing is complex, most experts recommend small business owners work with a professional tax adviser rather than trying to file on their own or even with tax-filing software.

“Taxes should not be scary, especially when you have a certified tax professional or someone who is your trusted adviser,” said Amber Kellogg, vice president of affiliate origination and management at business consultancy Occams Advisory. “I always say you don’t go to the dentist to get your oil changed, and you certainly shouldn’t do (taxes) yourself unless you’re an expert.”

But even if small business owners aren’t filing taxes themselves, it’s still important to stay informed about any tax changes during the year. Here are things small business owners should consider as the April 15 deadline looms.

Consider an extension

Because of some pending tax legislation in Congress this year, Mitch Gerstein, senior tax adviser at accounting firm Isdaner & Co., said it might be a good idea to file for an extension. When you file an extension you still pay estimated taxes, but final paperwork isn’t due until September.

This gives your tax provider adequate time to file a return. And it’s cheaper to file an extension than an amended return, which costs more in administrative fees.

One reason Gerstein recommends an extension this year: a bonus depreciation write-off used by many small businesses is set to decrease for 2023. The bonus depreciation allowance was designed to spur capital purchases and it let businesses write off 100% of certain new and used assets in 2022. But beginning in 2023, that will decrease to 80% for used assets, dropping another 20% each year thereafter. However, a tax bill pending in Congress could restore the write-off to 100%. It’s rare that there is such a significant tax bill pending in Congress when taxes are due, Gerstein said.

Optimize your retirement plan

The Secure Act 2.0 passed by Congress in late 2022 gives small businesses some tax advantages if they offer a retirement plan. There’s a tax credit for small businesses starting new employee plans. The credit is up to 100% of the startup costs for adopting and maintaining a new 401(k) plan, capped at $5,000. There’s also a tax credit based on employer contribution, up to $1,000 annually per employee, over the plan’s first five years.

Changes in research and development write-offs

Scott Orn, chief operating officer of Kruze Consulting, works with startups backed by venture capital. Orn said the number one concern his clients are calling about is “Section 174,” a part of the tax code that involves writing off research and development costs.

In the past, companies were able to deduct 100% of research and development expenses from their taxable income. That was helpful because often that deduction meant the company was operating at a loss and wouldn’t have to pay taxes.

But starting in 2022 due to new legislation, companies have had to “capitalize” the expense – or spread it out over several years. That means they must now write off the expenses over five years for U.S.-based R&D, or 15 years for foreign R&D expenses.

Large and small companies alike are affected by the change, but small businesses are hurt the most, Orn said.

“(Small businesses) are the ones who are swinging into profit where they thought they were like safely losing money and not ever going to pay taxes for a while,” Orn said. “And that’s why it’s such a big surprise for them. It’s hurting people, it’s like it’s a lot of money these companies don’t have.”

Avoid underpayment penalties

Yet another reason for small business owners to use a tax professional is the fact that underpaying will cost more this year. In the past, underpayment penalties hovered at around 3%, but this year they’re more than double at 8% . That’s because the penalties are based on the federal short term interest rate plus three points, said Danny Castro, Florida Market Tax Leader at BDO USA, part of BDO Global, a global accounting network.

“The cost of underpayment is as high as it’s been in a long time,” he said.

One credit to skip: the ERC

At one time, the pandemic-era Employee Retention Credit seemed like a boon for small businesses. Designed to help small businesses keep employees during pandemic-era shutdowns, the generous credit let businesses file amended tax returns to claim the credit.

But that led to a cottage industry of scammers trying to entice small businesses to help them file for the credit – for a fee – even if they didn’t qualify. The IRS has launched several initiatives to claw back some money improperly given to businesses. To date, the IRS said 500 taxpayers have given back $225 million via a voluntary disclosure program, which ended on March 22, that let small businesses who thought they received the credit in error give back the money and keep 20%. And 1,800 businesses have withdrawn unprocessed claims totaling $251 million.

Get organized, stay organized

The best thing small businesses can do to help their tax advisers file their taxes is stay organized. A shoe box full of receipts isn’t helpful when trying to file timely taxes. Owners should log receipts in an orderly database they can turn over to their adviser. And stay on top of quarterly estimated payments.

“(Small business owners) need to be able to keep accurate records throughout the year and not have to go back in April and go, gosh, what what was this receipt for,” said Occams Advisory’s Amber Kellogg, “Keeping those, accurate records is very, very important.”

This story has been corrected to show that BDO USA is part of BDO Global, not BBO Global.

Tax changes small business owners should be aware of as the tax deadline looms

As Tax Day approaches, there are plenty of things small business owners should keep in mind when filing taxes this year.

April 15 is still the annual tax deadline for many small businesses although, unlike individuals, small businesses can have varying deadlines depending on the type of company, the state the taxes are filed in, and other factors. Quarterly estimated tax payments are generally required throughout the year. And certain types of small businesses had to file by March 15.

Since business tax filing is complex, most experts recommend small business owners work with a professional tax adviser rather than trying to file on their own or even with tax-filing software.

“Taxes should not be scary, especially when you have a certified tax professional or someone who is your trusted adviser,” said Amber Kellogg, vice president of affiliate origination and management at business consultancy Occams Advisory. “I always say you don’t go to the dentist to get your oil changed, and you certainly shouldn’t do (taxes) yourself unless you’re an expert.”

But even if small business owners aren’t filing taxes themselves, it’s still important to stay informed about any tax changes during the year. Here are things small business owners should consider as the April 15 deadline looms.

Consider an extension

Because of some pending tax legislation in Congress this year, Mitch Gerstein, senior tax adviser at accounting firm Isdaner & Co., said it might be a good idea to file for an extension. When you file an extension you still pay estimated taxes, but final paperwork isn’t due until September.

This gives your tax provider adequate time to file a return. And it’s cheaper to file an extension than an amended return, which costs more in administrative fees.

One reason Gerstein recommends an extension this year: a bonus depreciation write-off used by many small businesses is set to decrease for 2023. The bonus depreciation allowance was designed to spur capital purchases and it let businesses write off 100% of certain new and used assets in 2022. But beginning in 2023, that will decrease to 80% for used assets, dropping another 20% each year thereafter. However, a tax bill pending in Congress could restore the write-off to 100%. It’s rare that there is such a significant tax bill pending in Congress when taxes are due, Gerstein said.

Optimize your retirement plan

The Secure Act 2.0 passed by Congress in late 2022 gives small businesses some tax advantages if they offer a retirement plan. There’s a tax credit for small businesses starting new employee plans. The credit is up to 100% of the startup costs for adopting and maintaining a new 401(k) plan, capped at $5,000. There’s also a tax credit based on employer contribution, up to $1,000 annually per employee, over the plan’s first five years.

Changes in research and development write-offs

Scott Orn, chief operating officer of Kruze Consulting, works with startups backed by venture capital. Orn said the number one concern his clients are calling about is “Section 174,” a part of the tax code that involves writing off research and development costs.

In the past, companies were able to deduct 100% of research and development expenses from their taxable income. That was helpful because often that deduction meant the company was operating at a loss and wouldn’t have to pay taxes.

But starting in 2022 due to new legislation, companies have had to “capitalize” the expense – or spread it out over several years. That means they must now write off the expenses over five years for U.S.-based R&D, or 15 years for foreign R&D expenses.

Large and small companies alike are affected by the change, but small businesses are hurt the most, Orn said.

“(Small businesses) are the ones who are swinging into profit where they thought they were like safely losing money and not ever going to pay taxes for a while,” Orn said. “And that’s why it’s such a big surprise for them. It’s hurting people, it’s like it’s a lot of money these companies don’t have.”

Avoid underpayment penalties

Yet another reason for small business owners to use a tax professional is the fact that underpaying will cost more this year. In the past, underpayment penalties hovered at around 3%, but this year they’re more than double at 8% . That’s because the penalties are based on the federal short term interest rate plus three points, said Danny Castro, Florida Market Tax Leader at BDO USA, part of BDO Global, a global accounting network.

“The cost of underpayment is as high as it’s been in a long time,” he said.

One credit to skip: the ERC

At one time, the pandemic-era Employee Retention Credit seemed like a boon for small businesses. Designed to help small businesses keep employees during pandemic-era shutdowns, the generous credit let businesses file amended tax returns to claim the credit.

But that led to a cottage industry of scammers trying to entice small businesses to help them file for the credit – for a fee – even if they didn’t qualify. The IRS has launched several initiatives to claw back some money improperly given to businesses. To date, the IRS said 500 taxpayers have given back $225 million via a voluntary disclosure program, which ended on March 22, that let small businesses who thought they received the credit in error give back the money and keep 20%. And 1,800 businesses have withdrawn unprocessed claims totaling $251 million.

Get organized, stay organized

The best thing small businesses can do to help their tax advisers file their taxes is stay organized. A shoe box full of receipts isn’t helpful when trying to file timely taxes. Owners should log receipts in an orderly database they can turn over to their adviser. And stay on top of quarterly estimated payments.

“(Small business owners) need to be able to keep accurate records throughout the year and not have to go back in April and go, gosh, what what was this receipt for,” said Occams Advisory’s Amber Kellogg, “Keeping those, accurate records is very, very important.”

This story has been corrected to show that BDO USA is part of BDO Global, not BBO Global.

'I want them to rethink': Crossroads property owner awaits fate of business ahead of stadium vote

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — With the future of the Crossroads at stake, the looming decision on the construction of the new Royals stadium has left many business owners on edge.

Sarah Hoffmann is one of many businesses that sit in the footprint of the stadium. Opening a business in the city has been years in the making for her.

"It was going to become especially important for us to show Kansas City what is special about our business, why it's worth preserving," said Hoffmann, owner of Green Dirt on Oak.

After much planning, like many other businesses in the Crossroads, Green Dirt could be impacted by the newly proposed Royals stadium. The news for Hoffmann was hard to comprehend.

“It was gut-wrenching. It was terrible. It was a really hard day, actually. And then we knew we had to do something about it," Hoffmann said.

For weeks, Hoffmann has been having conversations with the Royals to show them why her business should stay, while also giving the team a tour of the work that went into bringing her vision into reality; talks she did not expect to have ahead of the grand opening.

“I don't think it matters that much to them what our goals are. They have their goals, we have our goals," Hoffmann said.

Hoffmann sits in a unique position since she is the owner of her building. With all negotiations happening between the team and property owners, she said she intends to do whatever it takes to stay in the Crossroads.

VOICE FOR EVERYONE | Share your voice with KSHB 41’s Marlon Martinez

“We didn't come down here to build this business here and in this spot to be displaced," Hoffmann said. "I will definitely want to fight that.”

KSHB 41 News reached out to the Royals for a statement on what the teams plans to do with property owners who don't intend to sell their building. The Royals referred to the latest updates on their campaign's X handle.

With much uncertainty for many business owners in the Crossroads, many await the April 2 election day for further information on what the future holds for them and their business.

“I want them to rethink their plan to put the ballpark in the crossroads. I want them to take another look at the East Village. I want them to stay, but I don't want them to stay here," Hoffmann said. __

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