Growth is something that I would think we are all striving for. I’ve been in business for a very long time primarily because I don’t “wait” for business to come my way. When I speak to other owners in the business I have discovered that I have a larger pipeline than most.
It might be because I have been in business so long that I am more aware of the many ways you can lose business and I want to make sure that I am always bringing in new business. I admit that it’s a challenge keeping all those pipeline balls in the air.
I was speaking with one owner last week that has only been in business about 2 years and he is struggling trying to manage it all. He’s a one-man shop and trying to make his sales calls, prospect, finalize proposals, do the PO, billing, collecting and it is overwhelming him and his pipeline is suffering as a result.
I think it overwhelms us all at one time or another. And although I have staff, I try to keep my support staff to a minimum.
I’ve had an assistant for a number of years (in addition to a salesperson and CSR for my largest accounts) but recently I decided to take a hard look at my business and evaluate the various duties.
While my assistant tries hard (and she’s been with me for 3 years) I find that some of the tasks that I need her to do she struggles with. And I realized I had been trying to “force” her basically into a new job. One she really isn’t suited for.
My frustration kept growing with her not being able to step up to the tasks. Then I realized it’s not her fault at all. It’s mine. I was changing her job and expecting her to “get it” and step up. But the tasks are different, the skills set needed are different.
Then I remembered the book I read from Jim Collins, “Good to Great”. In this book he discusses how you must always be evaluating your processes and the people performing those tasks. He talks about having the right people on the bus (your business) and at the same time having the people in the right seats (jobs) on the bus.
It made me realize that while she was the right hire 3 years ago, the job has changed as my business has changed.
I think we all get set in our ways about our business. Taking on more because we’re afraid of making the commitment to hire someone or even more afraid of losing that cash we pay them. But think about all the time saved that could be spent on an extensive pipeline to grow your business.
That’s what got me to re-evaluate my busload of people. I find myself doing way too much backend operations for the business because my assistant can’t grasp the concepts of what is needed. I have great plans for our growth but they are constantly being pushed to the background because I can’t get to them. I am in the wrong seat on my own bus!!
It’s a struggle we all have. What comes first? How long do we wait to add staff or change the staff we have? It’s a personal and sometimes difficult decision to make.
So, I’ve made the decision to hire a new operations manager and change the job description of my assistant. I think she’s going to be on special projects. We have a number of online stores that need to be maintained and updated regularly and I think her skills will fit just fine.
Once you make the decision to hire, you then have to find the right person for that seat on the bus. And that’s not easy either. I’ve had people that I thought would be a good addition to the team and they lasted 6 days. I’ve used employment firms and done the search myself. Neither option resulted in success all the time.
Now I’m working on the job description for my operations manager and plan to first share it with my network with the hope that someone will say, I know just the person for you! Fingers crossed.
To grow, you’ve got to delegate and get the right people on the bus and to make sure you are in the right seat as well. The problem is, the seats keep changing and I’ve let my bus run too long with many of us in the wrong seats.
Are you in the right seat on the right bus?
Danette Gossett is the founder of Gossett Marketing, co-founder of Promotions Rescource LLC and co-author of the best-selling book “Transform” with Brian Tracy. Danette utilizes her more than 30 years of advertising agency and corporate marketing experience to develop effective promotional campaigns and products for her clients. Visit GossettMktg.com or SalesPromo.org and follow us on twitter @MarketngTidbits.