As one of the world’s leading entrepreneurial small business consultants, Dr. Ernesto Sirolli writes about what electrical contractors can do the build their small business into a consistent asset.

Small businesses are the heart of the economy, yet so many don’t achieve their potential. So many never bring the dreams of their founders to life.

As a professor of economic development, I’m one of the world’s leading consultants on the topic of entrepreneurship in small and micro-businesses and have written the book How To Start A Business And Ignite Your Life.

In May 2022, I ran a three-day workshop in Adelaide, sharing entrepreneurial know-how to electrical professionals out there. I was on the panel of a Voltex Facebook Live session to discuss theories and success stories on micro and small businesses before running several training sessions on my Enterprise Facilitation program with the Voltex Customer Service team.

In my professional career, I’ve worked with a myriad of different communities from landmark early based in Esperance, WA to communities across the globe. Initially based out of Sacramento, California, I’ve developed a unique approach to entrepreneurship and local economic development.

I’m passionate about championing the underdog, every struggling entrepreneur that no one believes will amount to anything. These business owners are beautiful people, who if they want to learn how to can bring their dream to life and I can help

Believing in entrepreneurs

The entrepreneur has vision and courage, but they rarely make serious money. They usually don’t make any money beyond wages. They see the opportunity, but that’s not what makes you any money. Many of us can relate to that scenario.

The core of my system is what I call the ‘Trinity of Management’.

This views a company as a union of three complementary skillsets. One person is never good at all three skill sets because the competencies amount to different personalities.

The now-famous businesses like Apple, Tesla, McDonalds, were never started by a lone operator, always two or three people, even in that first garage.

Enzo Ferrari is a perfect case study. From the beginning of his business, he was working with his mother’s help; she was an accountant. She could do beautifully the essential parts of business he didn’t like.

Nobody succeeds alone in scaling a business; success takes a team of passionate people with these complementary skills, even if one or two of them are very part-time.

P = Someone with the passion and determination to get a good product out there.

M = Someone who loves to Market, promote, cold call and keep the pipeline full.

FM = Someone who understands Financial Management- money, cash flow, business ratios and so on.

When this ‘Trinity of Management’ comes together, you have a successful business. But leave out even one ‘leg’ of this three-legged stool, and the enterprise is compromised— you’ll waste lots of energy trying to make it behave like a stool!

Conventional approaches lead to the death of the entrepreneurial spirit

This ‘Trinity of Management’ way of seeing business is as powerful and profound as it is simple.

Without it, the majority wind up no longer doing what they love, no longer happy at their work, and struggling on in quiet desperation towards the time when they can no longer spend their days on the tools, staring at the inevitable approaching ending, and the ‘death’ of the ‘entrepreneur’ in them.

I don’t believe in the ‘Lie of The Sole Trader’ either, because it’s rarely the reality, especially if the sparky is married. There’s a woman standing with him, two beautiful people who’ve put everything on the line to make this thing go.

In one of my lectures at Voltex Electrical, I went over how demeaning it is to be struggling to make enough money, eventually starting to feel inadequate, even worthless. But it’s not about being a worthless person, it’s because no one had ever shared these real secrets of entrepreneurship.

I’m fully supportive of the Voltex mission to help transform solitary sparkies into the owners of profitable small businesses which accrue value. It was a great privilege to work on those three solid days and understand that small business owners are the backbone of the electrical contracting industry.