If you have already made the transition to starting your business or are at this time thinking about it, you will definitely want to remember this one piece… It is a way to overcome one of the greatest challenges for most business owners especially when starting a business!
Before we dive in, it should be stated that the greatest benefit of working for someone else, especially for a large corporation is that everything is already set up.
If you think back to one of your first jobs you likely recall having a desk, going through training, having someone who could guide you to what you were supposed to be doing. You could speak with Human Resources about issues occurring between you and your employer or colleagues, you could speak with accounts payable about your paycheque, and you likely had all of the equipment you needed such as a computer, a phone, etc.
As a business owner however, you have to create all of that yourself: some type of organizational system, marketing system, files, financial planning, tracking inventory, paying employees including yourself, etc. It is evident that one does not typically simply create a successful business overnight. It can and usually does take a while to establish all of these new parameters, schedules, hardware, and software.
As that was one of the best parts of working for someone else – that it was all provided for you, this leads us to one of the greatest challenges for business owners when starting a business – Becoming used to being the one responsible for EVERYTHING.
If there is an issue with accounts payable, you would contact… YOU!
If there is an issue with scheduling… you would contact… YOU!
You can see where we are headed with this. And likely every business owner of both small and medium sized businesses would agree with me, this is the most challenging aspect of owning and running a business and the sooner you come to accept it, embrace it and dive into, the sooner your business with build and thrive.
Usually, the greatest challenge, is with scheduling and wondering, ‘what the heck should I be doing right now?’!
As much as this is likely the greatest initial and on-going challenge of running a business, it is also one of the greatest payoffs and benefits of running your own company. YOU decide what you do, when YOU wish to do it and in how much time YOU want to do it in.
When getting started, the best thing you can do as an entrepreneur is to set up some parameters as if you are working for someone else.
Although you may feel like you develop multiple-personalities when you do this, give this a go:
Put on your manager’s hat as if you were working directly for the President, and create an agenda for a staff member (that staff member also happens to be you… but we are not paying attention to that quite yet).
Create a weekly schedule of what is expected and needed of this employee who is essentially responsible for the many different aspects of the business, such as marketing, public relations, sales, admin, organization, and e-mails, etc.
Once you have created the schedule, switch hats and play the role of employee who has just been given this list and now needs to develop these different areas! You can pretend and even say to yourself, ‘this is why I get paid the big bucks here at this company’… that is the idea!… that you will be receiving the big bucks and a great income for doing what you are doing!
For most business owners, one of the greatest benefits of running your own business, if it is not the number one reason, is that you create your own schedule. You decide how much time to put into each area of your business, you decide how much to budget for advertising and marketing, you decide who you hire and how your business will develop.
In most cases there is a steep learning curve involved in the running of a business that flattens out as your business grows.
After running my own business now full-time since 2002, I still learn new ways of becoming more effective and efficient, etc. With technology moving at the speed it is, and being an international business coach, helping others with their websites and with their marketing strategy, I am always staying as up-to-date as possible so that I can help you, my client, to grow more smoothly, efficiently, and quickly.
I now have systems in place, part-time help, and so on, along with different marketing measures that allow me to move to higher levels of running my business, expansion, and working on new projects!
So now that you are hopefully a bit more prepared for what is to come, the HR manager told me he/she wanted to see you ;).
Here is to your business’ success!
Your Business Coach,
Joshua
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