The Secret to being a successful entrepreneur is not being the best at your craft.
Just because you are good at your craft does not mean you are the right person to lead your business. Let me tell you why.
Harry started his IT support business from his kitchen table. He is brilliant at everything to do with computers. He is a genuine IT genius. And he has become an excellent leader by building the right team around him.
But it was not always that way.
Like many start-up businesses owners, Harry had a great idea. He wanted to offer a different way to support computer users from domestic users right the way up to the top end of the SME market. He provides a high-end technical support service that covers all of the issues.
At first, Harry did everything. He was running around like a blue arsed fly trying to keep everybody happy, and it began to take its toll. Like most ‘technician entrepreneurs’, Harry was relying on his craft.
But Harry had been smart. He had joined a local business group that met once a week, which is where we met. Every week Harry would ask me and other ambassadors to the group how he could improve. And improve he did.
He niched down his business, focused on the right customers, developed solutions that met their needs and solved their problems. And slowly he started to grow. Then his company began to grow very quickly. He was getting a bit freaked out by the growth.
He still sought out advice. And then he did something brilliant.
He hired some great people.
Specifically, he hired people who were much better than he was in different parts of his business.
He is now running a seven-figure business and has nine employees (soon to be 10) because he worked out how to do three things:
1. Delegation.
Harry stopped trying to be all things to all people. He focused on what he was great at doing, his superpower. Then he found equally great people to take on the roles where he was not the best.
Not only that he quickly mastered the art of delegation so that everyone who works with him understood what they were expected to contribute. He built a peak performance working environment where everybody was empowered to be their best.
That meant that he was no longer frustrated by people not pulling their weight. He was free to focus on what he did best.
He feels proud of his business, and his team and his customers have started talking about him for all of the right reasons.
2. Follow-up.
Harry stopped assuming that everyone knew what was expected of them, they knew what they had to do and the results they had to produce.
This meant that Harry could check-in with the team, not formally in some meeting room, but in passing.
He adopted the ‘management by walking approach’ to nurturing, inspiring, challenging and empowering his team. Because everyone knew what was going on and clearly understood their role in the business, he could manage the team effectively with a few words without tedious meetings. Freeing up his time to work on his business.
Having these quick interactions gave him confidence that everyone was on the same page and he got to do more of his superpower and wow his customers. The result was that he was not stressed or frustrated when he went home at the end of the day. His business is supporting the lifestyle he wants both for him and his growing family.
3. Building the top team
When you run a small business, hiring new staff can be scary. What if they don’t work out? What if they are not good enough? What if they cause more problems than they solve? All of these are possible, but you can avoid the pitfalls.
Just because you need some new staff does not mean you should increase your headcount. Harry was courageous and cautious in equal measure and made sure that he selected people who were going to contribute to his business as it grew.
He made sure that he had ways of measuring his people’s performance and reviewed each employee regularly, not once a year. That meant he was not worried that good people might leave and he made sure that poor performance was unacceptable.
Today Harry’s business is growing from strength to strength because he took the right action at the right time. He got help, had mentors, and he listened to them.
He has a range of customers, from a single user at home to ones with hundreds of users in different countries, and all of his customers love the service they get.
Here’s the thing. There is a myriad of different ways to do all of these things, but the key is knowing WHAT to do first and what to do next, and next and next.
The process is sequential and to make it will require that you put the correct foot in front of the other.
Not enough time to work on your business? Are you struggling to lead?
There’s a transformation waiting to be found inside your management. All you’ve got to do is have the faith you can make it happen.
Not enough time to work on your business? Are you struggling to lead your team?
There’s a transformation waiting to be found inside your management. All you’ve got to do is have the faith you can make it happen.
If that’s you, send me a message.
