Hacker News Reader

Comment by accrual | Hacker News Reader

I wonder if there's an element of self-selection. The type of people to own a business could be more likely to put up a fight when things don't go their way (e.g. to protect the business and their investments), whereas the typical consumer is more likely to accept things as they are and not fight the business ("whatever, I'll just use another service").

View on HN

I think the selection may run the other way (or both ways). The population of small business owner-operators is disproportionately stocked with people who don't get along well with other people, who selected themselves out of having to deal with an organization of peers.

Damn this hits. My dream is a solo firm where I deal with nobody. I’ll never get there of course because the world runs on relationships.

Businesses actually require even more relationships than standard wage slaves. Consultants need to be even more of a "people person." The main difference is that, for an owner, they "have no boss." (In quotes, because customers tend to be even more demanding "bosses," than managers).

My experience, from knowing quite a few business owners, is that they are always "angling for the edge." They want to squeeze every bit of advantage, out of every relationship/deal they have. Almost every relationship is adversarial and competitive. Lawyers can be the same way. The best ones, consider every interaction to be combat.

I'm not wired that way, so I'm not a particularly effective business owner.

A business owner has lots of bosses: basically every customer.

That's true, but as business owner you can also fire your boss.

Employees can quit too.

In both scenarios, it really depends on how many alternative options for income you have available.

Sure, but as a business you're ideally already somewhat diversified in clients.

As employee, it's all or nothing.

How many small business owners do you know?

All the ones I have dealt with have survived precisely because of their ability to get along with people.

If you have no people skills your small business will fail.

I think they get along with people but don't like being told what to do, or be told "how things are".

Maybe a better framing is “business owners are comfortable and accustomed to having conflicts in professional environments”

An employee doesn’t show up for work a few days in a row, you have to fire them the next day. Every day they’re pushing against the grain.

A vendor isn’t behaving? A business owner isn’t scared of using conflict to resolve the situation.

Yeah, the phrase “the buck stops here” is literally true with a business owner. Employees have the privilege to fantasize—the owner uniquely does not.

I don’t know it’s a toss up for me. I would say anecdotally about 1/4 of business owners I know are community pillars and truly get along with most everyone. The other 3/4 are forced into business ownership because they struggle to take direction from anyone else.

In my experience contractors are the most likely to be friendly, and small retail the most likely to be unfriendly.

> If you have no people skills your small business will fail.

In fact a lot of them do fail, maybe not coincidence. Also, "people skills" in some cases means being a manipulative sociopath.

I think it's simpler than that. The business owner is spending their own money. When they feel (rightly or wrongly) that they are not getting what they paid for, they will feel ripped-off and angry.

The employee is spending someone else's money - they are more likely to be rational or even blasé about losses when it is not their money.

Someone who doesn’t get along well with other people is going to have a difficult time operating a business beyond a simple 1-person shop.

Relationship management is everything in running a small business. You have to get along with clients, employees, suppliers, customers, and do a good job so all of them continue wanting to work with you.

When you’re paying someone’s bill/salary, it changes the dynamic.

Just like someone in customer service might act differently with coworkers vs customers.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com