(Post 1 in a series)
What got you to this level in your business won’t get you to the next level in your business.
Getting to this point in your business relied on you figuring out how to say yes to everything. Heck, it was a victory to get someone to say “yes,” wasn’t it?
Most small businesses are not much more than one multi-talented person with perhaps a few supporting people around them to follow instructions. And they rarely grow beyond that concept.
As a business coach in Edmond, OK, I have had to learn to define my ideal client as someone who is a little beyond that because while business owners say they want to have a larger business, they are not willing to lead others differently.
Welcome to the club. I absolutely want a different outcome in some different areas of my life but have agreed with myself that I’m clearly not willing to contribute a different input.
We’ve all heard the joke about the definition of insanity: doing the same things and expecting a different outcome. But that joke certainly is about others and not me, and of course not you. Right?
Wrong.
How do we grow our business to the next level? I’m sure you’re feeling like you are way too busy to take on any more and you’ve probably got the wrong people to grow a business working for you now. What sort of disaster would it be to let them run the business for a few weeks?
Why aren’t your employees better and more capable? Have you noticed they all sort of wait for you to tell them what to do? Why do they come to you so often asking for help and input on how to do the next step? The answer is right in front of their nose, why can’t they see it?
They can see it. You’re the one who can’t see it.
It’s you.
Before you get too insulted, pull up your grownup britches and hear me out.
These employees didn’t even know each other before you hired them. Why do they all act in similar ways when it comes to getting things done? How can they all be similar when they were strangers?
Because you hired them, trained them how to work and how not to work.
You are the common denominator. Before your business can grow to the next level, you are going to have to grow to the next level.
Up until a certain point, every business is defined by the individual that owns the business. And that’s why most businesses aren’t buyable or sellable because the owner is the business. Without that key person running every moment of every day, nothing will happen.
Here’s where a good business coach or mentor can help you. You are going to have to start looking at how to develop your employees and managers to be self-sufficient. You are going to have to learn the 7 Gears of Delegation.
Business owners and entrepreneurs are invited to take my Free Online Assessment on the main page of the 7th Gear Website.
