What is your most important role?

Business owners wear many hats.  We’re often the visionary, financial wizard, chief marketer, HR manager, IT person and producer of goods and services.  Early in the life of the business, we often have little choice about handling all of these functions.  But at some point in the life of the business, it makes sense to determine our most important role and focus our efforts and attention.

Figuring out how to do that can be a challenge.  Here are a few ways to approach it.

1.  What do you enjoy?  We tend to enjoy things we’re good at, and we tend to be good at things we enjoy.  (Go figure!)  If you enjoy marketing and hate finance, you’re going to choose to do more marketing than budgeting.  That doesn’t make budgeting any less important–it just gets less attention.  Know what you enjoy and think about whether or not it makes sense for you to focus your attention there.

2.  What can someone else do just as well or better than you?  Business owners can be a little controlling.  Sometimes its hard for us to believe that anyone can do things as well or better than we can, but they can, and we should take advantage of that.  Maybe the actual consulting you do is difficult to teach someone else to do, or you have particular expertise and experience that you can’t duplicate easily.  Fine, then think about those things that you can teach:  billing and financial record keeping, standard marketing activities, clerical tasks, and so on.  If someone else can learn how to do it, let them.  That will free you up for the things no one else can do as well as you.

3.  Where do you add the most value?  We each get 24 hours a day — that’s it.  If you want to maximize the value of your business, you have to spend your time on those areas where you add the most value.  If that’s selling, focus there.  If its delivering services, focus there.  Time is a perishable resource.  Every minute you spend doing something that doesn’t add significant value is a minute lost.

If you’re a small company or a one-person company, you may be thinking, “sure, I’d like to hand off some things, but who can I hand them off to?”  There are lots of options today.  Many small companies have sprung up to handle the tasks you shouldn’t.  Companies like Mattson Business Services can handle many of your administrative tasks and keep you organized.  Companies like Web Business Freedom can help manage your social media challenges.  Daniel Ratliff & Company can help with your accounting challenges.  And Altman Initiative Group can help with many of your HR challenges.

Take a little time to think about your most important role.  Your business’s future may depend on it.

It’s lonely at the top…

Hey, Mr. or Mrs. Business Owner, have you ever felt isolated in your position?  Have you found yourself considering decisions, wishing you had someone to talk to who would understand what you’re dealing with and address it from your perspective? 

Many of you may have found resources to help you through those times, and that’s good.  For those of you who haven’t, let me talk to you.

They say “two heads are better than one,” and I think that’s usually true.  Having someone you can bounce ideas around with, talk over options and get real, honest feedback is invaluable.  As business owners, you need other business owners you can talk with.  Nobody feels your pain like someone else who has to meet payroll every Friday, or someone whose house is on the line as collateral for the business’s line of credit.  Another business owner can speak from real experience, not just about theory.

There are a number of ways for you to connect with other business owners.  Industry groups are an excellent resource.  Many industries have regular conferences or owner panels that meet by phone.  If the others in the group aren’t competing in your market, you can be very open and frank and get excellent feedback.

Informal alliances can also be beneficial.  If you have other friends who are business owners, and there are some that you respect and trust, meet for coffee or lunch on a regular basis to talk over business issues.  Keep each other’s phone numbers handy so you can brainstorm as needed.

There are also groups like our Business Success Institute who organize business owners and hold regular meetings to discuss specific topics and brainstorm solutions.  The relationships you develop in groups like these reach beyond the meeting times and can be a real benefit.

 Whatever your business, remember that you don’t have to go it alone.  There are others who are willing to share their experiences, insights and ideas.  Find a resource.  Connect with others.  It doesn’t have to be lonely at the top.

“Keywords” may be key to problems…

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I recently looked up “keywords” that business people searched most often in Google.  I was surprised at the words that didn’t land near the top.  Here are two that left me scratching my head:

Strategy – apparently not a lot of focus on strategy these days.  Maybe we’re all just hanging on, waiting for the recession to end — for real.  “How can you set a strategy when things are so uncertain,” I’ve heard people ask.  I guess my question would be “how can you NOT?”

Profit – now, I thought this was what kept businesses going, but maybe that’s just the CPA in me talking.  Maximizing profit is a key to long-term business success.  Whether it’s driven by increasing sales or decreasing expenses, the equation is one that requires attention–in every economic cycle. 

Two that DID hit the top of the list were “business loans”  and “cash flow.”  I understand that “cash is king,” but perhaps we need to spend more time and attention on the generators of cash (strategy and profit) so that we have more cash to manage.

One keyword that wasn’t a surprise at the top of the list was “business success.”  That’s what we all want, right?  At the Business Success Institute, we provide practical information to help you achieve that.  We also know the value of sharing with one another, and we hope that’s what will happen with this blog site.  Share your comments–we want to know what you’re thinking.