Does Your Business Run You? (Part 1)

Most entrepreneurs got pretty good at something while working for someone else, and then figured they could run a better business than their current bosses. Author Michael Gerber (E-Myth Revisited) calls this an ‘entrepreneurial seizure.’ Each of these individuals think they can make more money and have more time flexibility. So they start out in their own business and they plow all their money into the business, so they have none. They have to work feverishly and longer hours than when they worked for someone else. So they have very little time to themselves. Each one thinks, “If only I could manage my time better, or work a little harder or make a few more sales.” So s/he works even harder and gets caught up on his or her own gerbil wheel. Have you ever seen one of those soft little rodent pets with an exercise wheel? He gets on and runs and runs and gets no where. Am I doing these activities and going no where or am I really making progress? Didn’t I start this business so I could enjoy life? Am I getting exhausted and exasperated with nothing to show at the end of the day?

Business owners who have reached this point have come to the chicken or the egg conundrum. They need to hire help and delegate some of the work. But they feel they can’t afford it. But if they don’t do it, they’ll never be able to afford it because their business won’t grow. This is business risk. Where the rubber meets the road, each one has to examine his/her comfort zone. If your comfort zone includes handling risk, you’ll go for it. If your comfort zone doesn’t include risk, you will probably fail or stay very small, with you doing all the work and running yourself ragged.

So how does the business owner mitigate the risk? In other words how does she know or assure herself that hiring someone and delegating the work will result in the extra revenue necessary to afford that expenditure and then some? Can she hire the right person to do the right things to grow the business according to the right plan? Of course that’s where business coaches come in and hold your hand while you make that leap of faith.

Here is something I can recommend. You wear a lot of hats as a small business owner, a visionary with an idea, a salesperson and marketer, product or service fulfillment person, office administration, etc. You can’t be good at all of them. You probably don’t love all of them. So the best thing to do first is to plan to delegate to others things you don’t like to do and aren’t good at.

So you’ll want to create a chart like the following, with your preferences ratings across the top and competency levels down the side and the numbers where they intersect. Now write down as you go through your day all the activities you do. Also, write down all the things you foresee that will need to be done even if you’re not doing them now. Assign them numbers according to your preference rating and competency level.

You’ll probably keep all the things in boxes 1-4. Write those down as your job description. Now write a job description for the activities that fall into boxes 5-9, especially 9. Decide if the position that includes those activities will require a full or part time person, a hired position or an outsourced position. Perhaps the jobs don’t all fall into one position. You made need two outsourced freelancers or two part-time employees. You can go onto a website like www.elance.com and get bids on the freelance virtual work. The sooner you put the jobs in boxes 5-9 in someone else’s hands, the sooner your business will flourish. The person(s) you hire will get it done better and faster and you’ll be happier doing the things you like to do. Your customers will be happier, too, because they’ll get better outcomes.

In next week’s posting I will follow up with a few more recommendations. These are the initial steps if you want to run your business (instead of having it run you). 1) Expand your comfort zone to include business risk. 2) Create your competency/preferences chart. 3) Hire or outsource someone else to do the things you don’t like or don’t have the skills to do (boxes # 5-9).

I’d love to hear what you’ve learned when completing this exercise. Most of my clients come up with some new realizations. Does it work for you?

Jeri