What does it mean to be an Entrepreneur? Part 2: How to stop doing the things that hurt your business.
Jason Vance
Passionate Entrepreneur | Founder- windowbrothers.com | Regional Window Cleaning Service | Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan
Redefine your role. In the beginning, every business owner must take on many tasks, from setting your strategy to sweeping the floor. But as the operation grows and matures, hiring others to take on responsibilities becomes critical to healthy growth.
Trap: You fail to continuously redefine your changing role in the organization. When that happens, you end up with much more than you’re able to accomplish efficiently. If the process continues, physical symptoms such as stress, high blood pressure and depression can develop.
Solution: Take an honest look at your workload and identify tasks that you don’t do well. You may be digitally gifted but possess little financial savvy.
Or, you may be an excellent "people person" but hopelessly disorganized. The real measure of a successful business owner is in knowing when to complement his/her own skills by hiring others who can take over certain key roles.
Example: An acquaintance who founded a newsletter for bankers saw the newsletter grow to the point where he had 12 full-time employees. As time went on, he found himself increasingly frustrated because the demands of being editor and publisher left him virtually no time to spend on sales and marketing. After rethinking the needs of the business and in order to assure the publication’s future, he decided to turn the editorial duties over to a trusted associate and concentrate his own time on sales and marketing.
That move immediately cleared the logjam of work on his desk. It freed his mind from constant worry about getting everything done and ultimately led to a growth spurt fueled by new, highly successful marketing campaigns.
Does this example sound familiar? When is the last time that you redefined your role and delegated some of your less valuable tasks?
For more insight about what it means to be an entrepreneur, check out last month's blog, "What does it mean to be an entrepreneur? Part 1: It's not what your Mom thinks."