Awaken the talents within your small business

Managing the many tasks of a small business, from start-up through to resource maturity requires multiple talents and strategies. Oftentimes in the early stages, financial circumstances can dictate the need for many of the tasks to be handled by one or a few employees, meaning each individual needs to be adaptable and innovative with their abilities. Employees are the most valuable resource within a small business, as they can make all the difference between failure and success. If you are an Owner/Operator, your multi-talented skill sets need to be valued just as much. Designing the right systems and developing your people can help streamline activities and make a big improvement to the success of the business.

Some examples of the many activities required include recording data and other administrative requirements, networking, marketing, booking clients, product development, market research, stock ordering, accounts payable, accounts receivable, business planning, customer acquisition, customer retention, sourcing investors, and managing systems through to beginning the recruitment process. There are a lot of hours of work here, not to mention the skill sets required to complete each of these activities successfully. Trying to complete all of these activities on your own, or within a very small team can you leave you feeling like a bit of a Swiss Army Knife, one tool, many purposes. Sometimes running a small business can be challenging, when you feel you are required to develop your talents across many areas in a short time frame.

First things to consider when challenges arise within these activities is the time allocated to each activity. A simple excel spreadsheet can help identify which areas are taking the highest percentage of the time. Categories such as daily tasks, time allocated per task, time taken per task, tasks completed, and tasks outstanding will help to outline patterns. You may already know instinctively the activities you or your people procrastinate most, however, there will be some key learnings you gain from this undertaking that will help you to pinpoint best actions moving forward and make better use of your business operating hours. You may also be surprised by how long some activities are actually taking.

 After looking at how much time each activity is designated, and reviewing how long each one is actually taking, begin to look at the reasons activities are taking longer than planned or longer than you can allocate to them. Investing time in this critical reflection is crucial for business systems improvement.

The matrix below will help outline the activities of your business that may require new strategies to complete these tasks efficiently and effectively. 

You may find you can upskill in some of these areas, giving you back some of your precious hours. Or, in the event that you are neither good at, nor enjoy the activity, it is time to start considering outsourcing that errand. (Activities outlined in the blue quadrant) 

Ask yourself these questions.

What skills may be required to achieve the best outcomes with regards to each individual task?

Are the skills you would be interested in learning for yourself, or skills that an employee may be interested in developing?

Who might have these desired skills?

Who might enjoy these activities?

What could I do to develop skills in these areas?

When contemplating these questions, you may find it useful to categorise your excel spreadsheet of activities into these groups.

• Administrative and HR
• Research Tasks
• Bookkeeping, Accounting and Payroll
• Design 
• Marketing
• Sales

A clear vision can help to make wise and timely business decisions, which are in line with your business model, current goals and relevant activities. Making decisions with this confidence helps to reduce stress, improves business performance, and enhances job satisfaction.

These five steps will assist in developing an action plan to awaken the talents within your business and achieve your long and short term objectives.

1.      Review your Business Model and Operations/ Organisation flow chart. Compile a list of requirements which are currently not being completed effectively and consider strategies to address these issues. There are many different ways to structure a business, and a blend of critical and creative thinking will help you to find the unique approach that fits your business during this stage. An example of alternate options you have within your disposal may be as follows: would the job description and activities required to suit the role of one full-time employee, or potentially two part-time employees with very different skill sets. Who is currently responsible for these activities and who would like the opportunity to take on new tasks?

2.      Identify which assignments would best be outsourced and research into which subcontract options would ideally suit your scenario. You can start this process with simple questions on small business networking groups. As the saying goes, two heads are better than one. Make the most of the fountain of knowledge at your fingertips. Fiverr is one option to find subcontractors to outsource work with, however, I advocate finding local operators, as not only is the customer service often more adequate, you also gain the satisfaction of knowing you are supporting another small business, who may find the need for your services down the track.

3.      Invest in a management system to streamline your business operations, there are many options out there in today’s age of apps and E.R.P. A management system that suits your style and aids your day to day activities can make a massive difference to your overall outcomes. Also, SMEs can't always compete with larger organisations, but they can invest in IT which recognises individual's working preferences, so examine which systems would work best not only for your business, but also for the people within your employ, or the type of employees you are going to want to attract in the future. Calendly, Hubspot, Zoho, Active Campaign and Acuity Scheduling are some examples of scheduling systems and CRM Platforms that can streamline customer interactions. These systems will also assist workflows for employees and allow you to better manage remote working arrangements. Providing this level of flexibility for your employees can have multiple benefits for both your business and your employees.

4.      Upskill where needed and create an environment that fosters learning and growth. Discover the right courses, webinars or books that will help build knowledge and skills to enhance business outcomes. The relief of completing tasks with time to spare will be a worthy return on the investment in these development activities. The other benefit to investing in upskilling is that it shows your employees you are willing to invest in their growth, and when an employee feels valued and respected, they will always do more for the business. Awakening talents within the business is always a WIN/WIN.

5.      Reward the improvements of your people and their efforts, recognise the progress.  Sometimes results can take a little longer to surface, but that doesn’t mean the positive actions need to stop, it just means it’s important to recognise the efforts along the way, and champion the courage it takes to learn new skill sets. Recognising both lead and lag measurements will help to encourage the positive behaviours you want to foster within your business and inspire your people to achieve more.

Finally, it starts with you. As a small business operator, many of the daily activities required land squarely in your hands. Building your skills, and giving yourself the space to recognise and enhance on your own unique talents can make a huge difference not only to the success of your business but also to your personal enjoyment of the tasks at hand. Dividing activities in a way that gives your employees the freedom to focus more of their time on the activities they enjoy most, will inspire their innovative sides and lead to higher productivity. However, often Owner/Operators forget to recognise their own achievements and value their own work. So give yourself a pat on the back too, and remember, you make the rules for your own business, so get out there and create the business model that works best for you. 

"Talent management is the systematic process of creating and sustaining individual competencies that will help the business delivery strategy" Dave Ulrich