Be A Team Player. Orange Schroeder is a team player. She immediately hired employees; and, after being in business only one year, her husband joined the company.

Topic for Discussion: How does she create a team spirit?

Answer: Her employees are all critical to the decision making process. She runs her business, she says, as a participative democracy. This means the team makes these decisions. She is also a team player outside of her business. She started the Monroe Street Merchants Association. This means the shopkeepers are working together to bring shoppers into the area and to revitalize the entire business district.

Orange is smart enough to know that you can't build a business by yourself and you certainly can't build an entire shopping area alone. Many of us are working ourselves into a frazzle because we're trying to do everything alone and we're not playing on a team because we haven't built a team.

After 22 years, Orange isn't tired. She's ready to do another 22 years with Dean and her staff. If you're tired, frustrated, frazzled -- stop doing everything alone and start building a team.

Being a team player is not a quality often found in most small business owners and entrepreneurs. It is more the exception than the rule. Most people start their own business for freedom. They are fiercely independent and have often spent years working for other people who never recognized their talents, much less looked for ways to unleash their potential.

Business owners like to be in charge, call the shots, and they have little patience working with people who may take a long time to process decisions and reach conclusions.

If you can learn to be a team player there are benefits! You don’t have to do everything by yourself or feel as if you’re by yourself. When you hire the right people and let them do their work, they will take on the responsibility for the area they’ve been assigned.