How to Become a Business Owner Instead of Just Being Self-Employed.
Lets face it, as small business owners, we would like to be able to take a vacation here or there without having the wheels fall off back at the shop. I know plenty of you who haven’t taken more than 5 days off in a row, EVER. Some of you are too afraid to leave early on a Friday in fear of what may happen while you are gone. Why do some owners seem to live a care-free life, full of making money while others seem tied to their shop, unable to leave early on a Friday for fear of some disaster happening? The differences are direction, structure, and empowerment.
3 Differences between a “Business Owner” and being “Self-Employed”
- A Business Owner Sets Clear Expectations and Procedures for Employees- While running a granite shop is a demanding job, it can be made much easier when employees understand what they are supposed to do, when they should do it, and the goals of their job. The majority of employees are looking for direction on what you want, but they don’t really want you micro-managing them every step of the way. In order to take a step away, you need to set some basic operating procedures, and you need to let everyone in your company know what your business goals are. A great way to start is to make a position description of every job in your company. The fastest way to get this done is to make each employee write down his own understanding of the job duties. You will find out very quickly where the holes are. Then you can fill out the missing items.
- A Business Owner Makes Use of “Captains” – After identifying all the job duties, you need to make sure each person knows who they report to. The way to visualize this is by using an organization chart. Make sure each person in the company reports to someone. Identify 1 or 2 responsible leaders that you can depend on and elevate them so they have people reporting to them. It is important to do this at least 6 months prior to your vacation so there isn’t crazy infighting while you are gone. Sometimes after doing this, you will find that some employees are not on board with the program. You have to let them go. Once you have this structure in place and your Captains trained, you can go on vacation. You will only have to make daily follow-up calls with 1 or 2 people to make sure everything is ok and then get on with enjoying yourself.
- A Business Owner Empowers His Employees – In order to empower your employees, you need to instill in your employees the idea that everyone is here to make money, but if the company doesn’t succeed, everyone is out on the street. Everyone in your company needs to make sure whatever they are doing, they are doing it to benefit the company, not anyone else. They need to know that they need to use their best efforts to solve their own problems and not come to you unless the problem is worth x dollars. You need to create an environment where if an employee is making a genuine effort to help the company, but makes a mistake, they aren’t punished. Only corrected and taught the best way to handle the situation.
Some employees are so scared to think for themselves, they will only do exactly what you ask.
I know a guy who told one of his employees to go out and get some “Duncan Donuts” for their employee meeting one morning. In my friend’s mind, Duncan Donuts meant any generic donut. “Should be a 15 minute errand”, he thought. After 3 hours, when his employee returned with the Duncan Donuts, my friend yelled at him trying to figure out what took so long. The employee replied, ” well I drove past Krispy Kreme, Fresh Donuts, Bill’s Donuts….., until I found Duncan Donuts” My friend was irate that the employee didn’t make the executive decision to just get whatever donuts. I reminded my friend that he had conditioned his employees to only do exactly what was asked, because when they tried to solve a problem in a different way, he would yell at them.
These tricks are super easy, and can be implemented in under two weeks for a shop of less than 10 people. The benefits are countless, but one of the biggest ones may be returning you to sanity.