And You Shouldn’t Have too Grow Your Business Alone

 

Now (wo)man is an island unto herself. Who said that?

What does it mean?

 

If you wait a lifetime to learn and develop all of the skills you could ever possibly need to operate any business you would never operate any business.

 

It’s better to know the full understanding of what it takes to run your business than to know how to do every task needed in your business yourself. You need to learn to delegate!

 

Think about it. Do successful business owners of leading and popular businesses you know perform every function of their business themselves? Absolutely not! They have others perform necessary tasks that keep the business operating, others who handle the technical details of tasks like, web design, others who are devoted entirely to social media management.

 

So what is your job in your business? Which responsibilities should you be spending your time on? That will depend on your skills and talents. If your good at it and you like doing it ~ Do it! As long as it doesn’t keep you from doing what it is that is your Money Maker – the service that you offer, the product content you create that only you can do. The IT FACTOR of your business, the thing that your all about. If you can do operating tasks of your business and still devote enough time and energy to produce and provide your products and services and satisfy your clients and customers then you can afford to do those task.

 

However, if doing non IT FACTOR tasks in your business keeps you from being the it factor in your business you can’t afford to do them.  So get clear on what you want to do and what you do best and what you need to do to make your business successful. Ask yourself, what would you be happy doing everyday and what is the IT FACTOR that only you can do for your business. Do that and find ways to get others to do everything else your business need to run.

 

So how can you do that? As a startup you have a limited budget right? You may not have to pay for the help you need. Can you trade your service or product for a task? Can you partner with someone who can handle all the stuff you don’t want to do or can’t do?

 

Think about it. If your business becomes as successful as you hope it will be, do you see yourself doing every task it takes to operate your business? Absolutely not! So why start your business like that?

 

I just heard this guy on Rachel Ray answer the question – why don’t you cook. He said he had been told if he didn’t want to do something don’t get good at it……Same is true for you, really, if you don’t want to edit video, why spend time learning how to do it. Find someone who wants to do it and is already good at it. Save the time it takes to learn it and the money it takes to purchase the knowledge.  Delegate it!

 

Why not start your business the way you want to run your business. Oh- MONEY. It takes money and money can be a road block. Well it might take money but as I said earlier it might take trading services, product anything for the services you need to run your business.

 

How about finding a Partner? I can think of a lot of successful business owners who  never would have  achieved the degree of success they have if there wasn’t someone else who was good at the operation of the business partnering with them!

 

Another approach is to invest the money into your business. Staff key tasks of operation. While you probably hope to start your business and wait for income to start rolling in before you spend money in your business, that is a doable but slower approach for many and the kiss of death for most would be entrepreneurs. Why? Because success loves speed. The faster you can put all the components of operating your business into play the faster you will generate income.

 

Now there are stages of start up, and waiting to spend or invest in your business for the right stage is key to making the most of the money you do spend on operation tasks.

 

At the very beginning you are not ready to spend money on your business. If you spend money too early you will run out of money before the income rolls in.

 

First you need to get clear on your business, who you serve, what you offer and design the look and feel of your business. At this early stage of business development you need to learn to perform all the tasks of operating your business. But, you need to understand an have the knowledge to manage others – know what to do and what not to do. What to communicate to your web designer, your virtual assistant your social media manager.

 

A lot of entrepreneurs trust the first person they encounter who says “I can do that” and then regret the decision to hire x web designer because they had no idea what to look for, what to ask for, what to expect and how to direct a web designer.

 

Not having the knowledge they needed to properly run their business is the biggest obstacle you have to overcome. Whether you do the tasks yourself or you hire them out you need to know what you need to know about that task otherwise you will waste time and money trusting that others do know what you should know.

 

Look at the great successes in business. They had a keen understanding for what their business needed and found competent people to operate and perform essential tasks their business needed to operate. They weren’t born with this knowledge, they learned what it takes to run a business either in business schools or through mentors.

 

During this first stage of start up you are in a development stage. You are developing the skills and knowledge you need to run your business.

 

The second stage is the design stage/ Deciding what your business looks like, what it offers, what service it provides and how.

 

Then in the third stage of start up you can start spending money on hiring out the tasks for the structure you need to have in place to get your business up and running, like web design, product creation and social media promotion.

 

In the next stage of business start up, the 4th stage, you can spend money on operating tasks, content creation, posting in your blog and social media marketing, customer service and any other tasks essential to your business. You can start small, a few hours of paid for help in each task and during this phase the most important thing for you personally is to be meeting and talking with your potential clients and customers, offering your services, generating future income.

 

Stage Five of start up is all about evaluating every aspect of your business Getting feed back from everyone who knows of or has experienced your products and services. Refining and fine tuning your systems, products, operations/

 

So now that you know what the start up phases look like you need to get started. Step one is all about gathering the knowledge you need to run your business. Get educated to the ways of business today.  Not so you can perfect and perform every task yourself but so that you are aware and informed, you know what a business looks like and what you will need to do to create and oversee yours.

 

Knowing what you need to know will help you skip the learning curves that can be costly in both time and money and potentially be damaging to your business.

 

Second step is to get clear on your business. What is it, who does it, who does it serve and how. Need help with these steps, see the mentors that can help you get the knowledge and support you need to develop your business. Need help getting clear on your business idea or figuring out which of your passions could be a profitable business, see the experts on passion and profit.