Business owners and managers are busier than ever. As their businesses grow and become more complex, they find that they don't have the time to be all things to all people. In the early stages of a business, the owner or manager waits on customers, does the buying, collects past due accounts, supervises just about everyone on staff and may even stay late to stuff the monthly statements.
At each stage of business growth, managers must muster the discipline to delegate more and personally perform fewer and fewer job functions to give them time to think and plan. This is not easy. After all, the business is their baby. They oftentimes gave birth to it and have nurtured it to this point, so trusting someone else to assume accountability for key jobs can often feel somewhat like separation anxiety.
The problem in life is that it's too short to be good at a lot of different things. How many things can you be really good at? If you're great at sales, odds are you are not terrific at collecting. If you're entrepreneurial, odds are that you're not attentive enough to detail to be really good at administrative tasks. And so on.
An observation I have made from performing over a hundred consulting assignments is that most owners, managers and salespeople are quite good at the things that they're the most passionate about.
If managers are passionate about profitability, I've noticed that they almost always generate a top-notch bottom line.
If salespeople are passionate about new business, they bring a lot of new accounts. Or if they are passionate about producing above average gross margins, they find a way to effectively deal with pricing issues.
When executives and salespeople are passionate about golf, skiing, tennis, travel, community or church-related activities, then they tend to excel in those areas, and sometimes to the detriment of their accountabilities on the job.
If you are serious about excelling at something - at anything -- the main question you need to ask yourself is: "Where does my passion lie?"
I have one client whom I especially admire. He is extremely passionate about two things: his business and his family. He spends the great majority of his waking hours dedicated to these two passions.
Like many owners and general managers, he often puts in ten-to-twelve-hour days. But he rarely misses any of his kid's activities. Whenever possible, he manages his business appointments around his family and their needs. On several occasions, I've heard him make appointments around hockey games, school plays, Little League baseball games, etc.
But when it comes to business, he is incredibly passionate about earning a satisfactory return on his investment. To show you just how profitable he has been, over the past five years he has funded the assets required to support a substantial sales increase -- well in excess of 20% compounded annual growth -- out of internally generated profits. WOW! Quite an accomplishment, wouldn't you say? Let me give you a couple of other examples of how this owner's passion for success has resulted in so many achievements.
1. Each of the years I have worked with this entrepreneur, he has asked me to recommend several businesses in his industry that I believe do an overall better job than he does. He runs such a good operation that this was always a tough assignment, but he always budgeted the travel time to gain exposure to highly profitable businesses. "I want to visit operations that can teach me a better and more profitable way to service our customers," he will always say.
2. One year, he told me that he thought he could benefit from gaining more exposure to businesses outside our industry. I recommended that he join a local TEC (The Executive Committee) chapter. He allocates one day each month to meet with his TEC group. Then last year, he joined Young Presidents Organization (YPO) to even further expand his exposure.
3. A couple of years ago, he invested in a right hand man to take over the operations end of his business so he could concentrate on another of his passions - sales. While he would admit that he found it difficult to relinquish control over operations, he knew that his business could not continue to grow if he resisted delegating authority.
The moral of this story is to concentrate on doing primarily what you love to do - which is usually what you do best - and delegate the rest.
Bill Lee is a consultant who works with owners who want to improve their bottom line and author of Gross Margin: 26 Factors Affecting Your Bottom Line. $29.95 + $5 S&H. http://www.mygrossmargin.com
Email: blee@mygrossmargin.com
You can boil down the difference between successful businesses and... Read More
We go to meetings to share information, to report on... Read More
If you have company delivery vehicles at your small or... Read More
It's hard to believe the year will be half over... Read More
Part One of Creating Well-Defined Processes SeriesWhat if your sales... Read More
While there exist several useful definitions of motivation, for our... Read More
Using all of your senses, to help you test how... Read More
1. What is an Issue?An issue is an incident, circumstance,... Read More
The quickest way to cancel out all the thought, work,... Read More
Project management is a very important business concept because it... Read More
The industrial age is over. Organizations still stuck in the... Read More
The first step in planning an agenda is to identify... Read More
Teamwork is a process that can be experienced outdoors and... Read More
I'm too busy; I'd love to but I'm very busy;... Read More
Someone can say, 'Why do you oppose this?' So I'd... Read More
The Number One problem in business is poor communication: between... Read More
In these days of restricted head count and tight budgets,... Read More
Each year many people create a list of resolutions designed... Read More
Now that it is January, many of you are putting... Read More
Budgets! There I've said it. For some the most hated... Read More
When you know you need to shift up a gear,... Read More
In the fitness room the other day, I caught a... Read More
Your use of voice mail tells others a lot about... Read More
Let's begin by singing the jingle from an old US... Read More
This article relates to the Coworkers competency, commonly evaluated in... Read More
The Cash to Cash Cycle Part Four of SeriesNext: Complete... Read More
MSDS SHEETSMSDS stands for Material Safety Data Sheets. MSDS sheets... Read More
Many organizations have an approach for identifying and recording lessons... Read More
Yesterday I look at my calendar and saw that my... Read More
Outsourcing is the delegation of a business process to an... Read More
For good reason, practically every endeavor in life is rated.... Read More
Today's successful organizations are the ones which carry on open... Read More
Keeping the cost of doing business down, yet providing a... Read More
Many business owners are sabotaging their business without even realizing... Read More
Six Ways to Keep Things Simple We can have greater... Read More
Why are people changing jobs so quickly these days?Here are... Read More
Unfortunately, there are managers who define public relations by its... Read More
Writing an award winning business plan is a great skill,... Read More
It is sometimes valuable to bring the sales manager into... Read More
I recently flew from Seattle to Atlanta, I realized, just... Read More
Here's a scary statistic. According to four prominent research firms,... Read More
Why risk the embarassment when with a little basic PR... Read More
Hiring the first personal business assistant is an exciting time... Read More
Management guru Tom Peters says white collar workers and managers... Read More
This week I was asked to speak at an internal... Read More
As your website grows in terms of attracting more footfalls,... Read More
Ah, the wretched pain of delegation. It comes easy to... Read More
One of the hardest things I had discovered running my... Read More
Many retailers do not have good internal controls in place... Read More
"What do you mean you need to push back the... Read More
Following on from the last edition of The Organised Times... Read More
JUGGLING DEMANDS: All leaders constantly juggle a multifarious array of... Read More
Managers should avoid the tendency to constantly delegate to the... Read More
There are many reasons why good employees quit and go... Read More
In my book Talking Points: 25 Tips for Clear, Credible... Read More
Becoming a manager for the first time can be an... Read More
Several years ago, I took over the supervision of a... Read More
A year or so ago, I met Allan Kempert. Allan... Read More
Make Sure You Understand Your Motivation for SellingAre you thinking... Read More
Want to bring out the best in people?Edward W. Smith,... Read More
The company decided to develop and implement an improvement program.... Read More
Life has always been full of uncertainties. Over the last... Read More
As you look around your office, is everyone just like... Read More
Most of us have found ourselves working on a team... Read More
The failures we have seen in the quality and integrity... Read More
The good news is that a new hire orientation program... Read More
Business Management |