Stepping up to CEO

You’ve created a beast!

Your business has grown, your basic business needs are met and now you want to scale and grow. Or you might want a bit of a breather and bask in the glory of this amazing business that you have built.

But how are you going to do that?

How are you going to scale?

How are you going to take your business to the next level?

How are you going to prevent losing motivation and keep that passion going when you are very quickly on a detour into Stressville?

You might think you know what my answer is going to be here. And for some of you, some of it is going to be a hugely unpopular opinion of mine.

But I think you’ll be surprised with the reasoning behind it. A lot of Business Owners think that the answer to scaling and stopping the overwhelm of a business that has run away from them is to expand their team.

Sometimes you do need that instant relief of help, but there is a bit of groundwork that needs to be done before you jump straight into outsourcing.

Adding people to a team of 1 isn’t as easy as you think it is going to be.

Your time is probably pretty sparse already. So the thought of onboarding and supporting a new team member is worse than continuing to fight the fire of success, and if you rush into hiring then you might not place people where you need them most.

So what on earth do you do?

First you are going to need to stop.

1. Block a day in your diary each week to work on your business.
2. Move client meetings if needed
3. Write down everything that you need to do, not the client work, what you need to do to run your business better.

Those are the very first things that you can do to get a bit of instant relief.

Oh, and stop marketing - told you it might be unpopular!

If your needs are met with current clients then a slowdown or a small pause in marketing isn’t going to hurt.

I’m not saying disappear completely, however, really looking at the purpose of your marketing and the time you are spending doing it should be looked at and reduced to represent what your current business needs are.?

If you have a full pipeline of clients and potentials and posting on social media 5 times a week and going to networking calls or events twice a week, do you need to do this much?

Would 1 post a week and one event/call a month still keep you in the headspace of people, but allow you to redirect your time and energy to an area that needs it more at the moment? If you have no money and no clients then yes you need to go full speed in on the marketing.

During my first 3 months in business, all I did was market my services, here, there and to anyone who would listen - and to some of those who didn’t want to listen, but I annoyed them anyway. As I got more clients and my business developed in different directions I changed again where I was showing up digitally and in person. Getting clear about the marketing needs of your business and the impact they could have on the current situation within your business can release time and energy to focus elsewhere.

Looking at where your time is being spent and the purpose of why the time is being spent in that direction will help you big time.

Commenting alone on others' content is still showing up and having a presence on social.

We can all find the time, if we look hard enough.

People, myself included, are too quick to use the “ I haven’t got the time” excuse, we can find the time if we make what we are trying to do a priority.

If you are still using the excuse that you have no time, reach out to someone in your network to book a virtual coworking session or even better book a meeting with yourself!?

If you have one (and if you don’t please get one), use your scheduling link and physically book a meeting with yourself.

Block out an hour in your diary each week for 6 weeks and hold a meeting with you!

It will very much help with motivation to get cracking on working on your beloved business again and sorting all the tasks that need doing.

Once you have etched out your time, you can then really look at what the issues of overwhelm are and what you might need support with. You still aren’t ready for a team though. You then need to look at your internal systems.

What are your processes?

Everyone has a process, a way of how you do things.

Even if they are in your head, what are they? How do you do all the things in your business to make it tick? Get these out of your head, record your screen whilst you do these things, voice note and dictate what you are doing, write them down, draw a flowchart - just get them out! Stepping your processes out will let you (or a process streamliner) see if there is anything that can be automated and make everything a little bit easier for you. If there are repetitive tasks that don’t need the human touch, automate them. No one likes doing these tasks, not even VAs. By automating some steps in the workload this can again give you some time back.

I hear your thoughts, but I’ll need time to implement the setup and automate the process - well you could outsource, but make sure you understand how it works. One main issue Business Owners have is that once they have outsourced areas of their business, they then don’t understand how part of their business works. You need to know how to do it or at least how it works in your business. And you also need it documented. When the world went mad in 2020 and businesses suddenly stopped, there was a huge drop of work for VAs, the Business Owners who had not invested time to document processes within the business then struggled. Their VAs were running parts of their business that the Business Owner had no interest in knowing how to do. I think VAs need to advise clients that this is part of the package to keep SOPs updated and offer it for every single client. But Business Owners need to be onboard and respect that this takes time and they need to make an effort to learn and understand.

To make life all a bit easier for you here’s a downloadable document that you can use to start Your Business Manual . The manual is bespoke to your business and should be so clear with step-by-step guides or videos on how to do things in your business that anyone can pick it up and implement it. If you want to go one step further and once you have built a bigger team, you might want to move your SOPs over to something like Airtable for the whole organisation to access relevant training, policies and assets. So you’ve made your time, you’ve figured out and streamlined your process, and now you either have loads more time and think that you can survive by yourself a bit longer, or you are now ready to grow your team.

So how do you do that?

Well, it depends on what support you need from that person.?

But let me give you some tips on if that team member is going to deliver Virtual Assistance.

?- Don’t post on social media that you need a VA. This is going to cause you way more work you will probably need a VA to help you find a VA. If you do post on socials then make sure you have a clear budget, software skill requirements and hours you want. Use your breakdown of processes to figure out areas that need a quick instant focus.

- Do ask your inner circle, who do others use? Get recommendations from those that you trust.

- Be proactive. If you want a proactive VA then show that you are proactive too. Make the effort! If there is no one in your network then be proactive on socials, follow several VAs and get to know them. Learn their vibe,? you need to find someone you can communicate with and also work with.

- Know your budget. The average rate of a UK VA is now ￡30+ per hour when purchasing retainer packages, however, this is the average and depending on what you are asking them to support you with, you need to look at how much you value the support and impact that they can have on your business.

- Be open and flexible with what you think you need and what the VA suggests. You’ve got your list of things that you need help with in your process, however, VAs are business owners just like you, so respect that they know how you feel, and what you are going through and that they too are running a successful business and might have suggestions that could work better for you.

- Trust. Start with trust and then it can go either way. But you have to let it go.

- Recognise that you are going to have to invest time in your team to train them in the way you do things. Both parties need to be clear on their expectations of working together, how communication will work and acknowledge that a slow start is not a bad thing, it’s making sure a good working relationship is instilled from the very beginning. I know how hard it is to find the right people. I’ve gotten it wrong in the past, quite a few times to be honest, I’ve lost money, I’ve luckily retained contracts, but I’ve beaten myself up about it, but it is all about learning and navigating this path to CEO. I’ve recently increased my team again. However, I changed the way I found them. I chose them all because I got to know them via The VA Lounge, I got on with them, there were parts of their story that resonated with me, and most importantly they were eager to learn new skills and to expand their businesses.?

I’m investing my time in training them in the way I do things, how I communicate and delegate and how they work and how they like to learn. It is on me to learn how to communicate with them to get the best out of them and be there for them when they need me. My expectations of them are high, however, I also have higher expectations of myself on how to delegate properly, communicate what to do if they don’t understand and that nothing is ever an issue.

You can’t teach work ethic, you can teach practical skills and services, but effort and energy and that want to do your best, that is the gold dust that is sometimes hard to find.

Find a human that you can invest in, who is going to support and grow with you, and build a mutually respectful working relationship. The right team, creating time and streamlining your process can help you to tame your beast of a business, if you do it properly!

How are you taming your business Beast?

(If you are looking for some software recommendations to suit small business owners and to tame the beast then check out my LinkedIn Live next week .)

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