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employees Archives | Paul Terry & Associates
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Defining success

No matter how we define success — our business skills must align with our business’ needs at each stage of growth.  The skills needed initially for an emerging business must deepen and expand as the business grows.  We must consistently and continually increase our management capacity to meet our business’ complexity.  And this can be a constant juggling act!

There is a lot we can learn from other small business owners.

I recently shared six key considerations for matching business skills with the complexity of a business. Then I shared advice from Heidi Gibson of The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen.  Now, here is some advice from another successful small business owner…

Rachel Saunders
Blue Chair Fruit

success

Rachel Saunders would describe herself as a complete neophyte when she started Blue Chair Fruit.  But, “what I lacked in experience, I had in determination.  Also, I had several bosses who were terrible managers and their negative examples helped orient me towards how I did NOT want to be!”

As Rachel’s business grew she realized that she had to pay attention to her business structure.  Instead of thinking about her business just in terms of herself or the people who worked for her at the moment, she started to focus on key roles and how they functioned together to support the business.  “Once I was able to step back and look at the staffing structure of my business, I was able to manage in a way that made more sense.”

Learning how to stream-line the business’ operations in general was also an important learning for Rachel.  “Big corporations can afford to have extra staff or waste, but a small or micro business cannot!  Over time, I was able to streamline things dramatically.  A leaner business is a stronger business, as long as everything is getting done!”

At one point Blue Chair Fruit Company was selling at eight farmers’ markets a week.  This was great exposure but ultimately not the most profitable sales channel.  “I realized that selling more product through a wholesale distributor, despite the lower profit margin, was actually a much cleaner, easier way to do business.  Since we scaled down to our three best farmers’ markets, our bottom line has improved!”

Rachel’s advice for success:

Take a step back and ask yourself if everything you are doing in your business is really necessary.

Determine what is actually working and worth the effort.  Scaling up is not always the answer.  Sometimes your business should be scaled back to increase profitability.  Look at your staffing.  Be clear about when and where you need the help.  How can jobs be structured to maximize efficiency?

Keep track and analyze your data.

Understand what activities lead to better returns.  Don’t commit yourself to a sales channel where you aren’t making any money.  Exposure alone isn’t good enough!


For Rachel and many other small business owners, business growth isn’t just about getting bigger.  It’s about developing the right business model and scale for success.  What does business success mean to you?

Check out Heidi Gibson’s advice for small business owners and my six tips for matching business skills to business complexity.

Motivating Others

If you are like most small business owners, you are self-motivated. You are passionate about your service or product and you are always focused on your business – attending to your customers or clients, fixing problems, thinking about how to grow your business, etc. You always want to provide impeccable service and impress clients and customers with your work.

motivating others

But if you have employees, how do you motivate them to feel as passionately about the business as you do? How can you encourage them to “act like owners”, too?

Eight Tips on Motivating Your Team:

  1. Create a culture of trust. People want to work hard for people they respect and trust. If they feel confident in their relationship with you (and with other employees) it will free them to focus on the work, instead of worrying about inter-personal work-place dynamics.
  2. Share praise. When your employees are doing a great job, let them know. And let others know, too! It can be highly motivating to have one’s work acknowledged and appreciated publicly. Also, giving employees opportunities to take on more responsibility can be a great form of recognition, too.
  3. Be more transparent. Openness is essential for any small business. Your employees need to know what is going on in the business so that they have the information they need to do their jobs well. They should also be getting regular feedback on how they are doing their job. It is particularly important to be transparent if there is going to be a change in the business that will affect your employees. People need to know how the change will affect them personally. Once that is understood, they may be much more likely to work with you through the challenge or transition.
  4. Share decision-making. It is both respectful and practical to involve your employees in key decisions, especially decisions that directly impact their jobs. Often it is the people closest to the problem that have the best insight into possible solutions.
  5. Give people space. It is important to let people accomplish tasks and make decisions independently within their area of the business. No one likes to be micro-managed. Focus on results instead of how the work gets done. (Your way may not be the only way… or the best way.)
  6. Take time to talk and to listen. People feel more confident and energized to do their work when they fully understand what is expected of them, and know that you are available if a problem arises. If you give someone authority over a task, take time for training, communicate the constraints and boundaries of his or her responsibility, and the process for asking questions and getting assistance.
  7. Take the long view — delegate. In the moment when something needs doing, it might seem easier (and faster) to just do it yourself. It can take a lot of up-front effort to explain the task and then that person might work slowly or make mistakes. But giving employees opportunities to take on new and challenging tasks will help them reach their full potential and will ultimately create a much stronger team for your business.
  8. Keep things interesting! No one wants to do the same thing over and over. Every job has repetitive tasks but a part of everyone’s job should involve something interesting. Think about how employees’ tasks align with their experience, knowledge and skill-level, as well as their long-term goals and interests.

If you have employees, they are an essential part of your business – you cannot be a success without them. By creating a more transparent enterprise, sharing praise and decision making, and taking the time to listen and to delegate, you will create a positive business culture that will help both you and your business thrive. When you encourage employees to develop skills and stay engaged with the business, you will be making the best use of your time and skill level, too!

Step in, step up, step out: learning to lead

In the first years of life we learn to roll over and then crawl, we learn to toddle and then walk, and we learn to mumble, repeat sounds and then talk.  We develop new skills by watching, listening and practicing, by falling down and getting up… over and over.  As we grow, we build our strength, self-confidence, skills and understanding about other people and ourselves.

learning to lead

Becoming the leader of a business can be a similar process.  We step into the role (sometimes before we are ready) and we step up to the opportunity (even if we stumble along the way).  Finally, we learn to step out of day-to-day management and into a leadership role.  We develop the personal perspective and skills to take our businesses to the next level.

TIMING IS EVERYTHING
Your business will have different needs at different times.  As a new start-up or a home-based business, you need to figure out what you are doing, convince others to buy from you, and close the sale.  As you expand, you can go after more clients and customers and adjust your services and products to fit the market.  As your businesses matures, you as the owner need to mature as well.  You need to know when it is time to step away from the day-to-day running of the business and bring in additional support.  This becomes a leadership opportunity.

LETTING GO
Giving up control over certain aspects of your business is one of the hardest things to do as a business owner.  Yet it is essential if you want to grow your business.  To be successful, your time needs to be spent on the future of your business, not just the day-to-day needs.

GETTING READY
But how do you recognize the gaps that you need to fill?  How to define the complexity of your business and bring your business skills into alignment?  How do you know you are ready to hire people and train them to operate the business the way that you have proven is successful?

As a small businesses owner, you may be forced to make quick decisions, reacting to opportunities as they appear instead of strategically setting your course.  And, you may have to make things up as you go along, essentially “building the plane as you fly it”.  Yet when it comes to hiring people, good preparation is key.  It is critical to to first ask yourself why you need help, what type of person or skill set is best suited for the job, and how you will train, direct and assess new hires so that you can incorporate them smoothly into your business.

learning to leadJUMPING IN
Here are six important tips to consider when planning to hire employees and step into a position of leadership.

1.  Understand the financial impact
Before jumping into a hiring process, you need to be able to afford it.  Financial costs and revenues forecasting comes first.  Hiring the right person comes second.

2.  Look for people who complement your skill sets
It is important to hire people who can do the type of work that is important to the business but that you don’t do well.  Do you struggle to track your expenditures or manage your budget?  Bring in someone with strong money management skills.  Do you love making the product but shy away from reaching out to potential customers?  Hire someone with great people skills and a sales or marketing background.

3.  Spend time on training and then get out of the way
You might be eager to get a new person working as soon as possible but it’s important to put energy into training so the new hire not only understands how to do things the right way but also understands why it’s important to do them that way.  Once a new person is trained, it’s time to get out of the way.  The business is your “baby” and you may have been responsible for all tasks until now.  But the only way a new hire can be motivated, loyal to the business and successful, is if you let him or her own some of the work, too.

4.  Set the right tone and others will follow
You, as the owner, set the business culture.  If you are motivated and happy in your role, if you are transparent, open, consistent and fair, then others will follow your lead.  As the owner, you must be a good communicator and in particular, you must communicate your vision and goals with the people who work for you.  Without clear business goals, it’s easy for everyone to get lost in the details and lose sight of the big picture.  You all need to be on the same page.

5.  Continually take the pulse of your team
A good leader takes time to give clear directions, solicit feedback and listen to suggestions.  By scheduling regular check-ins, team meetings and performance reviews with your employees, you create a productive space for communicating goals, addressing concerns and answering questions.  Your employees can then feel confident that they know what is expected of them, and you can feel free to give them the space they need to do their jobs well.  How you communicate with your employees (and how your employees communicate with each other) makes all the difference!

6.  Get help through the process
You don’t have to figure it all out on your own.  We help small business clients all the time to assess their needs, make the right hires, create training programs to build strong teams, and implement better management systems.  Your support network of advisers and other small business owners can be a guide or sounding board as you develop leadership skills and systems for better management.

It is important to invest time, money and attention in your people.  They are key to your business success!


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