Dirty Secrets of Small Business
Making the decision to hire someone can be very stressful on a small business owner. What if we pick the wrong person? Can we truly afford to add someone else to the payroll? What will we do if we don’t hire someone? How soon will we know we hired the right person? These and many other questions roll through the heads of business owners looking to make hiring decisions.
Most people’s only experience with firing someone is watching Donald Trump say “You’re fired” on the TV shows The Apprentice. If you’re one of those people you may think it’s no big deal. I mean the person is being terminated for a reason, right?
One of the key success factors in running and growing a small business is surrounding yourself with good advisors. Talk with any small business owner and they are likely to have all or most of the following “advisors” helping their business: accountant, attorney, insurance, payroll/HR, banker, financial planner, marketing, and business coach/consultant. But how do you know if you have the right advisors for your business?
If we had to pick a movie to be the theme for a small business owner, it would likely be the 1993 classic Groundhog Day starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. Even if you’ve never seen the movie you can probably relate to what it feels like to have the same day over and over again. Unfortunately for too many small business owners this can be the case. So what’s a small business owner to do?
If you’re a business owner, chances are you’ve either been accused of being the bottleneck or you’ve recognized it in yourself. It’s tough when you’re the one who started the business and it was basically you doing everything at the start. As you grow and add more people to your team, it can be difficult to let things go and entrust your team to get things done. Especially to do things the way you’d do them. So what’s a business owner to do?
One of the most common frustrations we hear from small business owners is that they feel like they are tied to their business. Like they can’t leave for short or long periods of time without significant angst or stress as they wonder how things are going. So how do some business owners manage to be away from their business yet still have a good sense for what is going on while others are afraid to leave their business? Would you believe that much of it comes down to a few simple reports?
So have you run out of siblings, cousins, aunts, friends, and neighbors to hire? How do you find the best people? Perhaps more importantly, how do you screen and interview people so you don’t waste a bunch of time with people who aren’t going to be a good fit for your organization?
Do you ever feel overwhelmed as a small business owner? Like you have to do everything yourself, especially if you want it done right? But at the same time you’re not an expert in every aspect of your business, even though most folks expect you to have all the answers. So what’s a lonely business owner supposed to do?
Meetings often get a bad rap…and for good reason. Some of the most common problems we find are:
• There is no agenda (or the agenda isn’t followed)
• 1 or 2 people dominate
• Meeting doesn’t stay on time
• No one is in charge
One of the toughest decisions for many business owners is deciding when it’s time to get rid of someone. That “someone” could be an employee, contractor, customer, or even a vendor. One of the things we love most about small business is that it allows for a heart whereas big business usually comes down to a number.