Many entrepreneurs find that as their company grows and they spend more time working on their business, they feel they are losing touch and the business is starting to suffer because of it. They realize they are no longer clear on the crucial elements of the business, have lost sight of where they want their business to go and have a hard time communicating with those they’ve hired to work IN their business.
If this sounds familiar, you CAN work in your business while you work on it. The first step is a major organizational overhaul of where you spend your time. Many business owners work only as managers. Once they take a closer look, they find that a lot of this time is wasted. After all, just how much time can you spend managing? Do the extra hours actually show anything for the effort you have put in?
By working in your business more than you have and spending time with your employees, you may find that they have many creative ideas that you weren’t aware of. Because small business is constantly evolving and also extremely competitive, keeping up on new industry ideas and techniques may fall by the wayside while you are expanding. Others find that as they spend less time working in the business, their enjoyment level drops accordingly. What they once loved to do has just become another job. By once again engaging themselves in day to day marketing and hands on work, the spark that first interested them in entrepreneurship reappears.
Feedback from your team is important. Immersing yourself, at least part of the time, in the same tasks as they perform, gives the business owner a hands on idea of where his business actually stands at the time. It also may help you delegate tasks more efficiently and become more aware of your team’s genius abilities. Supporting your employees by being more accessible means better productivity and more room for growth.
Become part of your team. It will keep you more involved in what is going on and where your industry is headed. Balancing both parts of the business may not be for everyone. One size doesn’t fit all, but for a huge percentage of small business owners, it gives them back the part of being a business owner that they miss the most.
© Chris Draper, DemGen 2013
