Are you in the way of your small business growing? Let me phrase it another way: are you in your own way in your small business? If you answered: no I am the best at everything and therefore I do everything... then yes you are in your own way. All too often a small business hits a growth plateau and they don't understand why. Quite often the owner is in the way of the business taking off and growing.
Stop Doing Everything
If you are working 12+ hours a day running around crazy you are doing it all wrong. Stop right now! Do me a favor and take an hour out of your day and write down all of the tasks you handle. Holy crap that's a lot huh?
Now let's separate the tasks out that you are doing into various categories. What do you enjoy doing? What do you hate doing? What are you not good at? What is making you money? What can be outsourced effectively? What is a complete waste of time?
Wouldn't you rather just focus on tasks that you enjoy, that you are good at, and those that make you money? Good, next step.
Delegate, Outsource and Eliminate
This step is where many business owners falter because they don't know how to let go. No doubt it can be scary and downright difficult to get rid of some tasks, but you simply can't do everything if you expect to grow a successful business. First start ticking off tasks that can be delegated internally to your team. Set up a business process and train your employees to get it done the way you want it done. Review the work give feedback and keep the process going.
Next look at some tasks that are better of outsourced. Let's face it some tasks can't be handled by you or your current staff. Look to outsourced solutions for certain aspects that you may not be good at such as marketing, bookkeeping, HR and the like.
Then look at the rest of the crap you are dealing with. Some of the stuff you are doing each day is a complete waste of time. Eliminate it.
Get Focused On What Matters
After you have followed the above exercise get focused on what really matters in your business. Do you know how easy it is to get distracted in your business if you are not focused with a plan? Oh here is an email. The phone is ringing. Someone is at the door. Uh oh another fire to put out. Next thing you know it is 2 pm and you haven't done a thing on your to do list. Sound familiar? Get your priorities straight. Make a to do list and stick to it. Email, phone calls etc can wait. Have you ever given them a break for 4 hours, a day, or two days? Did anything happen that was truly a disaster that you couldn't recover from. Get in a habit of being super disciplined on getting things done that matter and attending to the small stuff at predetermined periods during the week or workday.
Are You Holding The Business Back?
I was at a networking event once and our VP of sales was there was well. When it was his turn to give his elevator pitch it was pretty simple, to the point and very effective. He said, "We help small business owners get out of their own way." I looked around the room and watched heads nodding up and down. Why? Because a lot of people know that they are in the way of the business taking off. They are the problem. Successful business owners realize this and then do something about it.
Want to get out of your own way?
