How to manage with success
by Kelly Schwedland
If you, your employees and your customers want more life out of your business, then look at your business with a fresh perspective.
In the eyes of the US government, a small business is generally less than 100 employees. To most of us who own a small business this sounds pretty big. According to statistics, it is. About 90% of small businesses have less than 20 employees and 80 % of those have less than 10 employees. Less than 10 to 20 people? Now, that sounds about the size that most of us view as a small business. Most small businesses, however, aren’t, small businesses at all. More than half of “small businesses” have less than $500,000 in sales and less than 5 employees. Now, some of you are thinking; “well, that is a small business.” The reality is that these are not small businesses. They are nothing more than self employment for the owner.
Because most of us are technicians, we got into business because we knew how to do something, and “wouldn’t it be great to do it for ourselves rather than someone else.” So by design we were an expert at one area of the business, usually the work that needs to be done, rather than a true entrepreneur with a balanced view of the business. We went to work creating a business that relies on us rather than works without us.
While being self employed may sound all right on the surface, we are now responsible for every aspect of the business, every frustrating part of it. We are now responsible for the leadership, marketing, money, operations, people, getting and keeping customers. Not to mention the personal issues of getting results or not and the impact that has on our families.
All of this can be overwhelming even for the best of us. We go in day after day and slog it out. We answer the same questions over and over and to make matters worse, almost every person I have ever met who is self employed has every bit of his business in his (or her) head. Meaning, that if the owner does not show up tomorrow there is no business.
So, if you made it this far you are probably saying, “What does this have to do with getting more life?” The answer is, ‘everything!’ The point I am getting to is that you need to look at your business, as a business, if you want to create something the means more to you than just work. By that I mean, let’s begin to create a business that works, if we show up, or not.
To do that, we need to systematically look at every aspect, every position, every function in the business. Then document it in such a way that any ordinary person can recreate the results that the owner is getting. Because, what you want to create in your business is consistency, for the customer, the employees and the owner. You want to be able to say, “This is the way we do it here,” so that it will be done exactly the way that works every single time.
Then we teach that employee the way it’s done here. Because, we know it works! That’s not to say we don’t change that way when we find a better way. Because we will. But by creating a documented way of getting everything done we eliminate the frustration that the customers have, the employees have and the owner has. Hence, giving everyone more life.
Kelly Schwedland is president of American Business Dynamics, a small business consulting firm focused on issues related to growing companies.