Every business owner wants to build their company with big profits and good cash flow. But when it comes to how, many owners don’t know where to start or what to do leaving them confused, frustrated, and sometimes overwhelmed. There are only so many hours in the day. Every CEO/business owner deserves a growing business that secures their financial future.
If real estate is about location, location, location, then business is about management, management, management. It seems counterintuitive but for many business owners, delegating constitutes the most personally challenging transition. Primarily, they fear losing control of a firm they built from the ground up. Yet, delegating to a senior management team is the only way to gain back control.
I work with a wholesaler who has been successful, but their revenue has been flat for 3 years. The owners are very busy working in the business daily. They do have a small team of sales and operations help, but most of that responsibility falls to the owners. We have tried to prioritize their work. But I believe the reality is that management is having difficulty delegating tasks to others for the reasons outlined above. Until they find a management person or team to delegation sales, marketing, operations, and finance tasks, they will likely stay at their current revenue level.
A couple of signs that management maybe under strain:
- Do all decisions rely on you?
- Do you feel weary and stretched too thin?
- Is your business asking you questions that you can’t answer?
As CEOs/business owners, we must play to our strengths and staff our weaknesses. If you’re strong in sales but weak in finance, hire an accountant or controller. If you’re strong in operations but weak in sales, hire a salesperson.
With new people in the organization, this gives us an outside perspective and we may find there are unresolved issues among the existing staff. Often, the firm can’t move forward until these issues are resolved. It’s easy to go along to get along. But as CEOs/owners, the buck stops with us and our employees are looking to us for leadership on these unresolved issues. To move forward, don’t stick your head in the sand hoping the problem will go away. It won’t. Pay the upfront price to resolve your management issues so the company can take the giant leap forward you want it to.
