Dear Entrepreneur,
Businesses are like vehicles and your job as the business owner is to set the course and provide leadership. It is understandable, if at the start you are forced to wear many hats based on limited resources, however as the business grows, you will be doing a great disservice to the business if you do not limit your involvement in the operational details. You will feel like you never have a moment to make the all-important leadership decisions and manage your teams. You will probably end up in that vicious circle of firefighting, reacting to the urgent rather than proactively managing the important. To avoid this scenario, you must take a step back to develop the tools that are going to free you up from managing the minutiae whilst still maintaining overall control of the business destiny.
Instead of concentrating on the day-to-day, the owner of the business should be in charge of creating and optimising the systems and procedures that will ensure that operations are moving in the right direction. To be able to do this effectively. It is important that you empower your team and create a self-managing business so that you can keep your finger on the pulse of the day-to-day momentum but find sacred time to work on the business. Here are two crucial steps to help your company transition to self-management and free up valuable time to concentrate on strategic growth rather than day-to-day activities.
Delegation.
The thought of delegating to your staff can be scary. The fear of losing control of the detail is the key factor that normally shackles you into the operational details that should normally be left to your team. Delegation can be achieved by coaching your staff, transferring your knowledge and experience, whilst allowing them the autonomy to bring their own skills and capabilities to the job. You never know, they may be better at it than you, and you shouldn’t feel threatened by that – embrace it. By delegating, you can start to free up your time and let your staff focus on the task at hand while you go out and concentrate on the long-term viability and future of your company.
Automation
The definition of automation, according to the dictionary, is a technique, method, or system of operating or regulating a process using tools or equipment that minimise human participation. In a nutshell, automating a business process means using technology to perform a task that was previously performed by a human e.g. rather than having someone input data into a computer or call customers on your behalf, automation can be used to perform all of these functions. Automation will lead to increased efficiency which would ultimately lead to improved productivity and better profit margins. No matter what industry you’re in, there are general automation benefits that apply to you. While it’s true that the specific automation details can vary significantly from one industry to the other, the benefits apply to everyone. Automating business processes is good for you and your employees. It frees up time so you can focus on higher-level tasks and helps you get your work done faster and more efficiently, thereby saving money and time, which you can then invest in other things.
Parting Thoughts
Your Company needs a leader and for you to lead effectively you need to take a step back to enable you chart a proper direction. We have highlighted two ways to start you on the journey towards building a self-managing business. Implementing any of these is a great way to prevent being bogged down with the details and enable you maintain overall control of the business destiny.
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