Thursday
Mar132008
Priorities for business owners
Thursday, March 13, 2008 at 10:00AM
I have this conversation so often I sometimes feel like Bill Murray in the movie Ground Hog Day. It goes something like this...
Client: I'm tired. I'm frustrated. We're so busy but at the end of each month it doesn't seem like we're any closer to getting ahead. We need help.
Me: That's why we're here. We can help you realize your vision for your business, achieve your personal goals and get more out of life. But there's a catch. This is hard work and I'm going to be hard on you. I'm going to hold your feet to the fire. When you don't do what you say you're going to do I'm going to let you have it. There is no substitute for accountability and for this to work you have to give me permission to hold you accountable.
Client: Well...how much work?
Me: A lot. You didn't get into this mess overnight and you're not going to get out of it any faster.
Client: Let's wait to get started until I have some more time. I'm afraid I just won't be able to make the commitment to do all the things you're going to ask of me and still get my regular job done too.
And so it goes. I used to try to talk to these people but I gave up. They just aren't ready yet. Here's the problem...they shouldn't be doing the regular job in the first place! Whether the business is grossing $20 million or $20,000 the story is the same..."but I have to do all these other things...no one else is going to do them." They pay their own bills, they sweep their own floors, they change their own light bulbs, and on and on the list goes. I'm not against thrift but I recognize a poor investment of one's time when I see it. Most business owners are horrible allocators of their time.
Here's a simple rule of thumb I call the half-time principle. When you have enough business to stay busy half time serving customers hire a janitor to sweep your floors for you. When you have enough work to keep an assistant busy 20 hours a week hire one for 40 hours per week. When you have enough new accounts to fill half a territory hire a new salesperson. This is the formula for growing a business.
Running a successful business takes time, but it takes the right kind of time. It takes time spent on building the business, on developing customers, on crafting effective marketing plans, on training and mentoring employees. There's no time for sweeping floors, changing light bulbs, sorting bills or anything else not tied to the LONG TERM growth of the business. Successful business owners know this. Unsuccessful business owners continue to spend their time on low value tasks that just about anyone could perform.
Client: I'm tired. I'm frustrated. We're so busy but at the end of each month it doesn't seem like we're any closer to getting ahead. We need help.
Me: That's why we're here. We can help you realize your vision for your business, achieve your personal goals and get more out of life. But there's a catch. This is hard work and I'm going to be hard on you. I'm going to hold your feet to the fire. When you don't do what you say you're going to do I'm going to let you have it. There is no substitute for accountability and for this to work you have to give me permission to hold you accountable.
Client: Well...how much work?
Me: A lot. You didn't get into this mess overnight and you're not going to get out of it any faster.
Client: Let's wait to get started until I have some more time. I'm afraid I just won't be able to make the commitment to do all the things you're going to ask of me and still get my regular job done too.
And so it goes. I used to try to talk to these people but I gave up. They just aren't ready yet. Here's the problem...they shouldn't be doing the regular job in the first place! Whether the business is grossing $20 million or $20,000 the story is the same..."but I have to do all these other things...no one else is going to do them." They pay their own bills, they sweep their own floors, they change their own light bulbs, and on and on the list goes. I'm not against thrift but I recognize a poor investment of one's time when I see it. Most business owners are horrible allocators of their time.
Here's a simple rule of thumb I call the half-time principle. When you have enough business to stay busy half time serving customers hire a janitor to sweep your floors for you. When you have enough work to keep an assistant busy 20 hours a week hire one for 40 hours per week. When you have enough new accounts to fill half a territory hire a new salesperson. This is the formula for growing a business.
Running a successful business takes time, but it takes the right kind of time. It takes time spent on building the business, on developing customers, on crafting effective marketing plans, on training and mentoring employees. There's no time for sweeping floors, changing light bulbs, sorting bills or anything else not tied to the LONG TERM growth of the business. Successful business owners know this. Unsuccessful business owners continue to spend their time on low value tasks that just about anyone could perform.
Reader Comments (1)
Great advice here. We will be taking immediate action based on this posting. Thanks for your sage advice.
Ian