There are three personalities Michael Gerber discusses in his book, E-Myth Revisited: the entrepreneur, the manager and the technician.
When you started your business which were you? Today which are you? Most of us go into business because we have an entrepreneurial dream and we have a technical skill to build that dream on.
So you may have begun as an entrepreneur and a technician.
As the years go by, you continue to do all three, but are all of the personalities getting a fair share of your time? Or do you find there's a huge imbalance? Most of us get caught in the technician mode because, let's face it, can anyone do the job as good as we do? But it's hard to build a successful business when you're the only technician.
You become a slave to your business - or J-O-B! Yikes! That's not why you went in business for yourself, is it? You didn't want a job!! Don't panic! There are things you can do to create the business of your dreams and, thereby, creating the freedom and independence you had dreamed of when you started your business.
First off, you can't do it all alone! That's right.
You cannot be all three personalities (entrepreneur, manager and technician) within your company.
You need to bring dependable people on board.
But don't just go out and hire willy-nilly.
Use your managerial personality (the organizer) and first create a company infrastructure.
What are the different positions your company has? What are the responsibilities for each position? Who currently fills those positions? Now, if you're a solopreneur, you've probably already been handling most - if not all - of these positions.
That's okay - put your name in there.
Perhaps you currently do outsource some of the work, put that person's name there.
If you're in a partnership with someone, write down who has been handling what jobs.
Next create a system for each of those positions.
How do you handle product complaints? How do you handle new sales? What's the follow-up system? What's the protocol? Keep track of it.
What are your expectations? After all, you can't train new hires to your own standards if they're not in writing, can you? Then decide what positions you could hire someone else to either handle or help you with.
Some of these positions could be taking care of the technical part of the business.
Other positions could be the managerial part of your business.
And if something's not working, don't bury your head in the sand! Fix it immediately! Bring in the right people and create the systems to help those people do their jobs! If you need help, give me a call and we'll see what we can come up with together.