An entrepreneur typically leaves an established corporate job to start something that he wishes to do. However, as the market reality catches, he realises he has to do many more 'routine' things just to stay afloat. As time moves on, he is surprised to find himself spending most of the time doing 'routine little things'. He gets caught in a vicious cycle. On the one hand, he cannot stop doing 'routine' things because he needs money. On the other hand, because he keeps on doing routine things, he finds little time to start doing 'things he likes to do'.

A professional during his career gets caught in this typical dilemma of struggling to find the balance of 'work he likes to do' and 'earn enough from that work'. This is the dilemma he wanted to avoid facing. Even though he has become a 'boss' as an entrepreneur, he faces  the same 'constraints' of an 'employee'. Career-constraints do not change ! 

So how does an entrepreneur or a corporate employee get out of this vicious cycle?  How does he break the vicious cycle? Both face different constraints and options. If you are still planning to start on your own, you have time to review your situation and find another approach to resolve this dilemma. However, if you are an established entrepreneur facing this dilemma, what can you do?

As an established entrepreneur of 3-5 years facing this vicious cycle, he can take four steps. First step is to understand his current 'business model' to find his options of extending himself. Second step is to find 'what he is really good at and what he wants to do'. Third step is to prepare a transition plan that will help him achieve this objective of 'doing what he loves to do'. Fourth step is to execute the transition plan while course-correcting yourself all the time! ( Sorry for being 'male-biased', but this is applicable to 'females' also!)