Is your business running you or are you running your business?

I have a confession to make that during the busiest seasons in business, my business began to drive me, rather than me driving our business. Symptoms of this were I felt overwhelmed, problems that should have been resolved with employees were ignored and we were treading water just trying to keep up with the workload. I also didn't have time to proactively stay on top of reviewing our monthly financials to make wise business decisions. I felt tired, stressed and frustrated, maybe like some of you.

Just as I've experienced this at times during our last 25 years in business, the biggest issue I see among small business owners today is they are the hub in which all of the spokes of their business wheel are attached. Without their hub, meaning the centrality of their day-to-day work and oversight, their wheel of business wouldn't turn.? But it shouldn't be that way, because in a business where most everything relies on you, you have a job, rather than owning a business. And why did you start out in business, to own a job? No, because you desired freedom from a job, freedom to call your own shots, to grow the business and increase your wealth while impacting the marketplace and your employee's lives by doing things better. If you started, bought or inherited a business with those intentions, how in the world did you get to a place where you own a job? How did this happen?

The primary reason why this happens is because many of us who started out in business are good technicians at the work of our business. We spent years learning our trades of accounting, architecture, consulting, engineering, insurance, law, printing, recruiting, skilled trades (electrical, framing, plumbing, roofing), software development or wealth advisory. We have the knowhow, perspective and experience that customers need and employees require. As a result, this leads to being operationally driven and an over reliance of the business on us, at the sake of our health, mental wellness, and increased risk to our businesses.

What is the antidote to a business that relies on a good technician at its heart? Begin developing the muscle of thinking like a business owner, rather than a good technician with supervisory traits. One of the best ways to do this is realizing your business is likely one of your largest assets, if not your largest asset. By seeing your business as an asset, rather than something you just operate, it can open the door to understanding that you need to proactively care for it and protect it in order for your asset to grow. How can you care for and protect your asset when you don't have time? You can't. To care for and protect your business means you'll need to spend time proactively doing so because it's more important to you than your latest emergency of urgency. In other words, to regain the freedom in your business from overwork, stress and frustration, you must make an investment of time and focus to develop your business. If not, you'll remain stuck.

Usually the best place to begin developing your business is in one of the following three areas, spending one hour a week. By spending one hour a week, or roughly 2.5% of your weekly time, you'll make traction in these areas and begin to lessen your workload, stress and frustration over the coming months. The three following areas are planning, finance and management.

Planning - "A wise man thinks ahead (Proverbs 13:16). It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark."

Most small businesses are doing business without a plan. Don't be one of them. Planning is critical to preventing the problems that create the fires in your business you're constantly fighting. Planning will result in you accomplishing things that have been on your to do list for years and will help develop your business into what you desire it to be. At Lordstone and with our clients, we plan strategically by establishing long term (3-5 years), annual and quarterly plans. We also meet monthly to monitor and ensure progress is being made towards each quarterly plan and to make any necessary adjustments. Additionally, if an owner is within 5-10 years of retirement or will be seeking to sell the business to a family member or outside buyer, succession planning is imperative to a successful exit from the business. In a nutshell, planning leads to profits and should take you an hour or two each month.

Finance - "Know well the condition of your flocks, And pay attention to your herds; For riches are not forever, Nor does a crown endure to all generations. (Proverbs 27:23-24)"

Many small business owners don't know the conditions of their flocks (finances) and have a less than favorable view of accounting. That's okay because you can outsource it to your accountant/CPA or hire a bookkeeper. What's not okay is running your business based on how much cash you have in your bank accounts and ignoring the true financial condition of your business. At Lordstone and our fractional CFO clients, we review 3 reports each month to help an owner understand the state of their business; a profit and loss statement (to understand how much money was made or lost in the month), a cash flow statement (to understand where cash came from for the month, eg. debt or savings or sales) and a balance sheet. Additionally, the most powerful tool we use looks forward in the business called a 12 month cash flow projection. It's powerful because it enables an owner to see the effects of their desired hiring, asset purchases or investment in the business at a future date. During challenging economic times a cash flow forecast can also enable an owner to see the effects of their cost savings initiatives at future dates. In summary, reviewing your 4-5 monthly reports each month will help you stay on top of the true financial condition of your company and help you make wise, data backed business decisions.

Management - "Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. (Ecclesiastes 4::9-10)"

Developing a team of competent managers, who are in the right roles, supporting your vision and mission for your business is one of the most important things you can do for your business and your sanity. To lessen your workload and increase the time you have to work on developing your business, good management is imperative. However, two things need to be in place before hiring from the outside or developing an existing employee into a manager. First, your finances need to be in order to afford and support a good manager. Outside of their salary, there will likely be a bonus, profit sharing, training & development costs, legal costs (non-compete and confidentiality agreements, etc). These need to be factored into any new hire and plugged into your cash flow forecast to ensure affordability. Second, an onboarding and management system needs to be in place to indoctrinate the manager into your way of leading, thinking and managing. By hiring competent managers, you will be able to regain some sense of control in your schedule, but you will also need to invest in your management team regularly in order to see them grow, along with your business.

In summary, to regain a sense of control in your business, begin by setting aside regular time (1 hour per week) to work on improving your business. By focusing on planning, finances and management and improving each of those, you will begin moving from feeling overwhelmed, stressed and frustrated to having more time, better finances and managers who can share the load. Additionally, by focusing on and improving these three areas, you'll increase the value of your business, thereby increasing your wealth.

Jeff Ketchum is an entrepreneur and owner of five businesses, including Lordstone Corporation , Dieck Executive Search, Inc. and Lordstone Business Advisors, Inc. that focus on helping businesses owners & boards plan, manage and grow the value of their businesses.