Do you often find yourself caught up in working so hard at taking care of getting things done that at the end of the day, you wonder where your time went? If so, you have allowed yourself to become tactical. This happens when you become a doer and not a leader.
Often, small business owners get the feeling that because they know how to perform the key components of their business, such as being a great auto mechanic, plumber, landscaper, salesman, attorney, or CPA, they can run the business of an auto mechanic, plumber, landscaper, sales manager, attorney, or CPA successfully. The problem isn’t that they do not have the ability to become a good business owner. It is very common for people to start businesses based on something about which they have a great deal of technical knowledge and a degree of self-confidence that they know how to “just do it.” Then they start to feel that they should open their own business, because they’re good at what they do, without really considering that running a successful business requires a different set of skills than actually doing the job. They make the fatal assumption that because they’re good at doing the job, they can run a business in their field of expertise.
So what’s the solution? First, you must recognize the fact that, no matter how successful you are, just stepping back and thinking about every facet of your business allows you the opportunity to refine and continue to improve it. Wal-Mart did not become the largest retailer in the world just by selling items at lower prices. They developed systems that enabled them to reduce the cost and improve the efficiency of delivering their products to the consumer, which led to lower prices. Wal-Mart is constantly reviewing every aspect of how each function of operating their business is completed and striving to become more effective and efficient. Always working strategically on the company is what made them the largest retailer in the world.
Not every business owner wants to be like Wal-Mart. However, just by starting a business, every owner is thinking he wants his business to be successful and grow. This is accomplished by developing a strategic mindset and your own review process that enables you to work strategically on your business and not tactically in your business.
A strategic business owner embraces leverage – getting greater results in less time and with less effort and fewer headaches. You need to learn to work smarter and more effectively on your business, not just work harder. As a strategic business owner, you need to focus on the entire business, not just the technical work of your business. Learn to think and act like a CEO, not an employee. Develop a strategic mindset and a priority management system, and then use it on a regular basis.
Have you developed strategic business plans, defining the procedures needed for the successful operation of your business and establishing your company’s policies for dealing with employees, vendors, accounting, inventory, etc.? When you have established procedures and policies, communicate them to your employees. Help them to become good doers and then get out of their way and let them do what they were hired to do. Motivate them by becoming the leader.
By leveraging the time and talents of your staff, and learning to let go and trust your people and systems, you will have the time to start becoming a strategic business owner instead of being a technical, tactical business owner, and to start growing your business and living a more fulfilling life.
“The secret to productive goal setting is in establishing clearly defined goals, writing them down and then focusing on them several times a day with words, pictures and emotions as if we had already achieved them.” Denis Waitley, American motivational speaker and writer, consultant and best selling author.
Rick Brines is the owner of The Growth Coach of Chattanooga. He can be reached at 423-886-6095 or R.Brines@TheGrowthCoach.com.