The Entrepreneurial Engineer (Earn More With Your Technical Skills)

In 2019 I moved from The Netherlands to New Zealand.

In the Netherlands, I worked as a project leader for a big greenhouse supplier (120-person team). In New Zealand, I joined a much smaller irrigation installer (8-person team) as a project engineer.

After making that move I realised I lacked a range of skills and experience. Mainly related to business.

In a large company, you have dedicated roles for various areas of the business like a dedicated:

Planner
Engineer
Estimator
Draftsman
Sales person
Project manager
Financial controller
Operations manager

And the list goes on. Each role will have its own set of tasks with little overlap with other areas.

In a smaller business, you don't have that. All these roles are spread across fewer people. Individuals often need to wear many hats and handle diverse responsibilities.

What They Do Not Teach Enough in School

I studied mechanical engineering. My classes focused mostly on hands-on technical skills like welding, drilling, and using design software.

This knowledge and experience was very useful. But it was challenging when I started working for a smaller business. There, I had to take on many roles, including sales, estimating costs, and managing project finances. It caught me heavily off guard with business terms and economics I hadn't come across before.

Terms like:

Closing (finalising a sale)
Margins (profit as a percentage of revenue)
Markup (amount added to cost to determine selling price)
Net profit (money left after all expenses)
Balance sheet (financial statement showing assets, liabilities, and equity)
Cash flow (money moving in and out of a business)
Depreciation (decrease in value of assets over time)
Accounts receivable (money owed to a business)
Return on investment (ROI) (profit compared to cost of an investment)

These terms were all new to me.

Of course, I knew math. And it makes sense that a business needs to make more money than it spends. Like in your own life. But more than that, I did not really know.

If you're reading this, you likely have a technical education background. I'm guessing you didn't learn much about sales and business during your studies either.

But not having learned business skills is heavily limiting us technical folks. Here's how:

Limited business skills slows down career growth
Brilliant technical solutions can go unused due to ineffective "selling" of ideas
Without business skills, engineers miss opportunities to monetise their technical innovations
Limited understanding of economics can lead to poor financial decision making during projects
Engineers often struggle to communicate technical solutions to non-technical decision-makers

Think about it.

How many technical professionals feel stuck in their careers? Because they don't know how to market themselves to land better opportunities. (skill: marketing)

How many great technical ideas have died? Because engineers couldn't explain why they were worth investing in? (skill: sales)

How much money is wasted? Because of overlooked cost-saving opportunities during the project lifecycle? (skill: business economics)

These are real problems that come from not having a good grasp of business skills.

Stack Skills

When I realised I was missing key business skills, I took action. My action was fuelled by losing quotes I presented. Likely due to poor sales and presentation skills.

Not having these skills was getting more painful by the day.

Self-education on business topics (to learn) and starting side projects (to implement what I learned) became my go-to strategy. That completely changed my career path for the better.

You don’t need to turn away from your technical skill, you just need to add business know-how to your skill set.

If you commit to learning business skills alongside your technical ones, you will experience big benefits like:

You will earn more because you can spot ways to earn more for the business.
You will get better career opportunities because you become more valuable for a business.
You will experience greater fulfilment because operating in a business will feel like play to you.

When you stack business skills on top of your technical skills, you can solve technical problems in ways that help the company makes more money.

This is super valuable to companies and clients.

The Entrepreneurial Engineer

Become an entrepreneurial engineer.

You might have technical skills but are not an engineer. You can slot whatever technical role after "Entrepreneurial" to create your own title, such as:

The Entrepreneurial Designer
The Entrepreneurial Technician
The Entrepreneurial Builder

The key is combining your technical expertise with business know-how to become a more valuable asset in your field. I'm an engineer, so I will use that term, but the principle applies to any technical profession.

If you are technical, you are in a great position to become entrepreneurial. Because you have traits that align well with business needs.

Your analytical thinking, problem-solving abilities and attention to detail are already powerful assets. They become even more powerful when applied to business challenges. This can lead to creating unique (and very profitable) solutions in the marketplace.

Traits are hard to learn or unlearn. Those are normally deeply ingrained in our personalities. That topic is for another article. But skills can be learned fairly easily with focus and consistent practice.

The business skills technical professionals normally lack are sales, marketing and business economics.

These skills are key for turning technical know-how into high earnings. Focus on learning those first.

Here are three powerful combinations of engineering and business skills:

Problem-solving + Sales: Use your engineering brain to identify customer pain points and create tailored solutions. Then, apply sales skills to communicate these solutions to potential clients.
Analytical thinking + Business economics: Use your analytical thinking to understand financial reports and make informed business decisions. This combination helps in budgeting, quoting and optimising resource allocation.
Technical expertise + Marketing: Use your technical knowledge to create content that educates and attracts potential clients. AutoCAD features are similar to Canva features for example. You can learn content creation quickly, build trust and position yourself as an industry expert.

I'm hoping you are starting to see the power of this. It’s a great (and profitable) way to set yourself apart from other technical professionals.

How to Get Started

You don’t need to go back to school to learn business. There are other, better, cheaper and faster ways to learn business skills:

Self-educate through business books, online courses or YouTube videos.
Start a side-hustle to earn extra money. Build a course, coach others or sell a product.
Ask if you can help another department you work in at your current business to gain experience.

Becoming an entrepreneurial engineer is a journey. It will be overwhelming at the start. But if you stick with it, you can expect big rewards for your hard work.

I've been through that journey. I learned business skills through self-education and starting a side hustle. Learning + implementing is the key, not one or the other. It taught me so much. And I'm now happily a self-employed engineer!

Start learning. Start implementing what you learn. Adjust if needed. Set yourself apart from the rest. Earn more.

Action Points

Here are steps you can take to start your journey as an entrepreneurial engineer:

Read business books or take online courses to learn basic business concepts
Learn key business economics terms like margins, cash flow, ROI, etc.
Start applying business thinking to your engineering projects
Start a small side project to practice business skills
Ask for business-related tasks at your current business
Practice explaining technical ideas in simple and persuasive ways
Network with entrepreneurs and business professionals to learn from them

If you need help, reach out! I love this topic.