What kind of business owner or executive are you? Are you the one who works tirelessly on growing and building the business, spends time increasing your knowledge of business in general and your field specifically? Do you continuously look for ways to improve your staff, offer new training experiences and improve the technology used in your business? Or are you the other guy?
You know the one. He 's the hardest worker, who shows up, digs in deep, gets side by side with everyone else, stays late to clean up and get s ready for the next day and then shows up and does it all over again tomorrow. Just like groundhog day!
Let’s call the first one an ambitious entrepreneur and the latter a hard working job owner. They both own their business, make money and they both would likely enjoy seeing their hard work pay off through higher profits and greater overall success. But after that, the similarities split. Who is more likely to succeed? Everyone who pays attention knows that you have to spend time working on your business in order for it to grow. If you can't do it, or simply don’t want to, then hire a general manager to do it for you. But if your strategy is to work in the business and expect it to grow all on it's own, you need a wakeup call.
Not only that, but you're doing your employees a huge disservice. If you have a small business with more than just a few employees then your job is to grow and improve the business so you make more money and so they have more guarantee of stability and long-term employment. That means you have to spend time developing and improving processes, finding and hiring great people and aligning them with your vision.
You have to be the coach and cheerleader from the sidelines. You have to go find new places to sell your wares or services, make sure your customers leave as raving fans and then keep them engaged so they tell the world how awesome you are , and as your business grows you have to get others to do all that for you. You have to be the ambitious entrepreneur who cares for the business on a holistic level and let your employees handle the daily in-the-business stuff. As Jeffrey Gitomer would say, "You have to kick your own ass!”
Here's why. Would you want to work in a business that's going nowhere? Would you want a job where you have no likelihood of promotion, pay raises, personal or professional growth?
Should you pin the quality of life of your family on a business like that? You owe it to the people who keep your business alive, to your family and to yourself to be more than just another employee in your business. If what keeps you from doing that is fear or lack of knowledge, then find yourself a business coach or mentor. Get some help. Do it today for your own peace of mind and that of everyone who depends on you to be better and do better. Get moving on improving and be the change you want to have in your business.
Fire yourself today, and be the owner tomorrow. No more groundhog day.