Position Yourself for Success - Avoid My Mistakes!

Don’t you hate gurus, they make it look so damn easy!

You know the ones, peppering their Instagram account or Facebook page with pictures from some exotic beach with a patronising by-line about “work hard, play harder”, or similar hollow words.

Let’s face it, with the exception of the lucky few people, starting and running a business can be a grind.

Side note: I’m writing this missive because I’ve received a number of messages of late with the above sentiment ringing through them. These messages are from people running businesses of all shapes and sizes, sharing their frustrations with me.

I've made my share of mistakes over the years.

Here's how I went about fixing them so that, unlike me, you can head them off before they become a real problem...

FACTS NOT FICTION

Running a business of any size is tricky – it's tough and it’s certainly no walk in the park.

The gurus paint a perfect picture of some luxurious life and easy overnight success. Take it with a pinch of salt. In fact, consider it a distraction.

These illusions are brushing under the carpet some big omissions, merely rubbing out the realities from the canvas.

Every business person and entrepreneur at some point goes from feast to famine and back again. Many times over, sometimes in a single day!

They doubt themselves, they fret and they fear what’s around the corner.

FLASHBACK

When I was just 13 years of age, you'd find me in my parent's garage building personal computers and selling them in the local paper’s free ads section.

Okay, so I’m bending the truth a little, I was ALSO playing computer games like Quake and Doom, blasting stuff on screen with my BFG… my healthy obsession with computer technology was divided between the two!

After school my parents would chaperone me from house to house, to drop off expensive new hardware for my customers. The look on someone’s face as a then (very blond) 13-year-old boy turned up for their money was well, priceless.

Fast-forward 20 years, and I’ve been running a successful marketing agency for over 6 years now.

And yet, it all seemed a lot easier when I was 13 – why is that?

Perhaps my naivety made me simplify many aspects of my micro business that ironically, made the business at that time much easier to run.

Nowadays I have to handle staff requirements, the finances, phone calls, countless emails, all my social channels, writing content, training and mentoring team members, the sales process, marketing strategy, general business operations and well, you get it – the list goes on!

TODAY’S REALITY

In 2016 we are surrounded by distractions that take our eye off the prize – a successful well-oiled business.

The internet, social media, email by the dozen, phone calls, mobile at your side 24/7 and so on.

Distractions are the quickest route to stalling your business and lead to mental exhaustion too.

I typically work 7 days a week, 12-15 hours most days and sometimes I feel like I’ve not achieved enough for my time.

If I can help even one person learn from where I went wrong, then I’ll be happy.

LEARN FROM MY YEARS OF MISTAKES

Starting from the top…

1)  What’s Your Biggest Roadblock Right Now?

Diagnose it, identify the cause and hire to fix it.

In other words - get it off your plate as fast as you can.

The technique I used was to write a list, find the one thing that never gets done, delegate or outsource if you don’t have staff. The truth is, this thing, left in your hands will never get done!

For me, it ended up being general finance and account management tasks.

Finances in the respect of bookkeeping, accounting and credit control (chasing debtors).

I now pay 3 people to look after these roles for me. Yes, the cost has gone up with time, however, I estimate it relieves me of at least 40 hours per month. That’s fast approaching 2 working MONTHS of time regained, each year!

Too many small business owners tackle their books themselves, often late at night in the small hours. This really is painful. When I delegated this work I never looked back.

Secondly, in our business there are account management overheads. Ensuring projects start and roll forwards in a timely manner, with all bases checked is important. Account management is a bit like a cross between customer service and technical support, with task/time keeping thrown in.

You can probably imagine from that description it’s a busy role. It is. In fact, it would have previously taken up nearly half of my daily working hours, yes – HALF MY WEEK!

Spending so much time on projects and accounts was stalling my own business, it took me away from the bigger picture stuff – the strategy, sales and marketing.

So you guessed it, I hired for it.

2) Demand Your Quiet Time

Distractions turn into procrastination, and that turns into self-pity or the feeling of being on the hamster wheel!

I hate it, that’s a horrible place to be.

To avoid it - ask your team for quiet time. Set out a period, preferably in the morning, when you aren’t allowed to be disturbed – unless of course, it’s a real emergency.

I like to get my emails out the way before I even get to work, deal with them and clear them out fast.

That leaves me unburdened for the rest of the morning, aside from my coffee break of course!

In one hour of quiet time, you should be able to achieve a lot.

A few other pointers:

- set your emails to collect on the hour, or better still only check them at the start, middle and end of day.

- turn your phone off for periods of time, particularly when you’re working on your priority task.

- work on one thing until done. Don’t take that out of context, I don’t mean to the detriment of everyone and everything else.

I mean when you have your priority time, stick to it until you complete it. Trying to do many priority tasks justs puts you back in that hamster wheel!

3)  Truly Embrace The Power Of Delegation

I found this hard and still do today.

I was resistant because I knew I could do it, I could do it well and so why didn’t I just do that thing?

As the business owner, you need to avoid the mundane low-value tasks, you pay people for good reason – to free up your time to enable you to put energy into the most valuable areas.

If you bog yourself down in the wrong ‘busy work’ then you’ll just look back and kick yourself that you allowed it to happen.

Delegation is really difficult, the mindset is that if you can do it, you do it - but you really need to tie your hands up and leave well alone.

Delegate the responsibility, if that person struggles, teach them with your process (see below). If they keep failing then revise your advice - or as harsh as it may sound – consider that they may be the wrong person for the job.

4) Document YOUR Knowledge

Boring perhaps, taking up more of your time short term, but vital in any growing business is the activity of documenting processes.

This is another area I spoke about to my team but rarely did I action it – or - make it a requirement!

Typically with startups and smaller businesses, whilst new hires might be more skilled and experienced in specific areas,  the founder and owner is the person with the knowledge of the service or product.

Therefore it’s really easy for the business owner to become the sticky cog in the machine. If you don’t impart your know-how, you will forever be used as the font of knowledge – your team will bend your ear and pick your brains until you put a solution in place.

Therefore, every time someone asks you a question, make a note of it.

The questions that are not simple to answer, or represent a vital step in what you do, should be documented. This could be as simple as you writing a checklist, or better still in our business doing a screen recording with vocal instruction.

It doesn’t have to be pretty or represent a high production value, it just has to be precise.

Yes, it takes more time – but it’s time you commit ONCE, because once it’s done that question should never be raised again.

If the question rears it’s head again, then you simply point that person to your documentation.

It gives you the confidence to delegate, it gives your staff the confidence they’re doing it to your exacting standard and it gives you back your time.

Documenting process pays dividends… and all business owners like dividends!

CONFIDENCE IS CRUCIAL

The truth is that effective business owners absolutely ‘own’ their time management.

By that I mean they avoid spending a little time on a lot of things, instead they prioritise their time on eliminating the single biggest hurdle to the growth of their business.

- When you free up your time you gain the confidence you’ll achieve your business goals.

- When you delegate to the right people you gain confidence the business is running smoother without your finger in every pie.

- When you document your knowledge, you’ll be confident that work is done the right way.

Therefore, confidence in what you’re doing is both working and the right thing is key to your success. Enabling yourself to pursue those avenues that represent confidence is crucial. Time management done right is a massive confidence booster.

So position yourself for confidence because with it comes success.