I wonder how many would-be entrepreneurs consider—while they’re thinking about running a successful business—that ultimate success means not running that business?
Building a business that has you stuck in the middle of it isn’t much better than working for someone else under their terms. It gets to the point where you look up one day and you find that you might make some money, but now you have no life! You’re a slave to your business. Money with no life, or vice versa, is brutal.
When you are the one running your business, you are at the very center of it. YOU make all the key decisions. YOU manage all the key relationships with all the key customers. You have to deal with the key suppliers and every key problem in your business. You’re the only one who you really trust, and the pressure just keeps mounting. And there’s not much of a way out because you’ve built a business that’s based on experience and expertise.
Every new customer requires more work. Results are inconsistent and sometimes you don’t even know why. Your customer service may be kind of iffy because you’re the only one who really does a great job of it.
And when you’re away, you’re anxious about what’ll happen when you’re gone. You don’t have time for anything as it is, and when you do, you feel like you probably should be working on the business. And then it’s hard to get good people, yes? That’s especially true if you’re trying to hire superstars to cover you when you’re gone.
Think of the difference between hiring someone who’s honest rather than teaching them to be honest, or hiring someone that’s enthusiastic rather than teaching enthusiasm. Imagine you had a staff where you hire them with the values that you share, and they are capable of doing what you need them to do while you actually do what you want to do and should be doing—which is focusing on keeping that business on the success track.
The definition of a successful business is simple: when it works with or without you. It doesn’t depend on you and that translates into increased growth, increased profits, and most importantly, increased satisfaction.
It delivers consistent, predictable, and superior results. There’s a good team in place doing what it needs to do without uncertainty or undue pressures on you to make decisions that they should be making.
The only way this is possible is to have systems in place that speak for you and your business. If you have a system, you smooth out the ups and downs. You’re able to have predictability in your results, and you’re not held hostage to yourself by needing to ‘over-the-shoulder’ manage. Systems free you from the day to day. It allows you to work on developing the future.
Over the next couple of weeks we’ll take a look at some of the different aspects of systemizing so that if you choose, you can sell it for much more money than you would have without having those systems in place.
Remember: what did we get into this for? To have another job?
What do you think? Has the power of systemizing affected the growth or success of your business? If so, how? We want to hear from you!!!
