Focusing on doing the job, rather than running the business?

[ctrlbrk]

This post caught my eye in another thread

Most (all) businesses have failings and weak areas - a good coach can help to recognise and address them.

From observation, I'd suggest that the most prolific failings by far are

1. Focusing on doing the job, rather than running the business.

Tagging @Mark T Jones specifically because he, as the author of the post, has probably some insights and examples which I'm going to kindly ask him to share, but if anyone else wants to contribute, by all means please do.

Posting in Start Up Space because I think the question can apply more likely (not always) to people who have less experience in running a business.

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

It depends where you are in the business if your strapped for cash on start up you may have to do the job and run build the business This will often mean working during the day and running the business at night with no sleep!

Another example of me saving the day was the driver shortage and high demand in the pandemic . I got on the road as the business required the best person in the industry to be on the ground No drivers that had sameday experience!

A major advantage if I go on the road I can get to talk face to face with the major customers This leads to even more business but the Golden rule as @Mark T Jones always advises is run the business. I can get a lot more done here than puddle splashing on the M25!

 

[Socio South West]

Photography is a trade where new entrants frequently fall into that trap. An interest or skill in photography is actually less important than understanding cost control, upselling and marketing.
In a techy trade where equipment development is fast moving its very easy to get swept along in the tide of latest versions, newest upgrades etc, as well as spending countless hours on post production, which, without a properly priced product at the end, can be a great suppressant to overall earnings.

 

[MBE2017]

Having been self employed for 35 years, learning to utilise new equipment, working practices to keep ahead of the competition has been key for myself. I used to work 70-80 hr weeks as a youngster, now that has been been cut to 5-10hrs per week maximum.

I spent five hours implementing lead automation, automatic population of spreadsheets and CRM, and run everything through my iphone. I could work longer if I wished, but the point is I don’t need to.

Apart from the above, use a VA wherever possible. Mine is in Singapore and charges $8~10 per hour.

 

[Mark T Jones]

Thank you @ctrlbrk

I'd suggest that the vast majority of small business owners fall into this trap to varying degrees- and some big business owner/directors

Tell-tale signals 'nobody can do the job like I do' or 'I know exactly where we are at in a job'

Examples - I could start with myself. Initially, as co owner and director of a significant brokerage I was accidentally guilty - essentially self employed salesman who stepped in with management duties.

Latterly it is an active decision. I love handling transactions particularly complex ones (and frankly am not a great employer/manager) so have deliberately set things up that I do that job, and have partnered with a company who takes care of compliance, systems etc, and provides 'presence' when I am away.

When I retire/die/go gaga they will buy my majority holding for the price of a pot of jam and a bottle of gin and change everything about it other than the brand.

I enjoy it, but it's a self employed job, not a real business.

Next, plumbers. When I was running start up courses there were nearly always trades - most of whom would aspire to grow a business, but would actually fall into the trap of doing the job.

I would lead I with Charlie Mullins/Pimlico Plumbers.

They would respond by slating them rubbish/expensive/shoddy. So what makes Pimlico the most successful plumbers in the UK, possibly the world?


1. They know exactly who their customer is and what they want.

2. They are a business, not a plumber. Presumably Charlie Mullins is a plumber by trade (haven't checked - its irrelevant)
I can pretty much guarantee he is never out on the tools nor does he know what is happening on any given job - there are staff and systems for that.


Lots of trades struggle to grow into real businesses because they don't understand the point at which they need to down tools and start running a business.

 

[wayzgoose]

We spend an awful lot of our lives working. Maybe we just prefer to do a job we love rather than be business men/women so not really falling into a trap at all.

 

[ctrlbrk]

Thanks guys - so far there is a common theme emerging, which apparently has also to do with delegation.

The problem for most small businesses that rely on just one person is that there is no one else to delegate to.


In those situations, is it a case of deciding how much % of time to allocate to 'running the business' and how much % of time to actually 'doing the job'?

 

[Mark T Jones]

Thanks guys - so far there is a common theme emerging, which apparently has also to do with delegation.

The problem for most small businesses that rely on just one person is that there is no one else to delegate to.


In those situations, is it a case of deciding how much % of time to allocate to 'running the business' and how much % of time to actually 'doing the job'?

You can count outsourcing as delegation, it becomes a whole lot earlier.
. One cliche I latched onto early on was 'take an hour to save a minute ' essentially, taking an hour to show someone to do a small job will repay you in 3 months, after which it is free time.

Also on my course, i segmented running a business into 3 components

1. do the job
2. Marketing
3 other stuff. They all contributed to the other stiff list - which is essentially endless.

Then I'd as what portion of their time they intended to dedicate to doing the job. About 80% would answer 100%. The odd smart-ass would pitch in with 110%

To which the obvious response was when do you intend doing the other stuff?

 

[Mark T Jones]

We spend an awful lot of our lives working. Maybe we just prefer to do a job we love rather than be business men/women so not really falling into a trap at all.

Its a choice. Unfortunately a lot of small business owners dont understand the choice - they fool themselves that they are busy building a business when in fact they are doing a job. This manifests itself on here with the endless stream of 'what's my business worth? Threads. (Answer - a ball of fluff and a dead goldfish unless you've structured it as an actual husiness)

 

[The Byre]

I actually wrote a book on mistakes made by management and, since joining this forum, I realised that I missed so many that I have taken it off the shelves for a rewrite - I had missed so many mistakes that seem to appear and reappear here on an almost daily basis!

I did not know that there are people out there who just do not read contracts. Yes, I had come across such creatures, but I thought that they are outliers. Surely, thought I, there cannot be too many people out there who are THAT stupid - and I was wrong! They seem to stagger around in large unseen numbers like the undead in a bad zombie film!

Then I didn't know that there is a happy band of pilgrims who go into business with zero preparation. They don't even pick up a book on man-management or accounting or costing or, well, anything really! Hunter S Thompson put the problem in one succinct sentence "He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master."

Then I missed those knuckleheads that enter businesses that they know absolutely F-all about. They seem to appear here on a daily basis. They know nothing about anything to do with whatever it is that they plan to do - run a restaurant, a tool-hire company, whatever. I didn't know that there are people so daft that they think that the FOB price quoted by some Chinese company is all they have to pay. I didn't know that there are people who think that running a restaurant is like cooking the Sunday roast. But these people really are out there - and in droves!

And then there are the complete fools for whom simple arithmetic is just a closed book, sealed with seven seals. I knew that such people existed when I came across two young teachers, neither of whom could multiply a half-times-a-third and a college lecturer who needed to consult a pocket calculator for the arduous task of calculating seven times eight. But I never imagined that such people try to run businesses.

Running any business is a complex and difficult task. The rewards are great if you are one of the few that can get it right - but when things go wrong, they can go very badly wrong!

As for mentors and consultants, I am reminded of the schoolboy joke about the castrated bull in a field of cows. He tells the cows "I am only here as a consultant!"

Or as music producer Mickey Most said to some know-all record company wallah "If you know so much, where's your Lear Jet? Mine's a City Airport, but where's yours?"

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

@The Byre
I think your book maybe of a perfect material for my reading by the pool in Cephalonia this summer and Autumn

 

[tnet]

Let me jump in with my personal experience.

Started a company when at age of 23, and so we are more than 10 years in business now. It's a service business (web design and branding), 10 employees at the moment (in-house + freelancers, outsourcing partners).

The advice of this thread (focus on business rather than doing the job) cost me A LOT of money and lost opportunities. Because I believed it - quite literally though, for years. I was the best person I could find (and afford) to fill in 3 different roles (software dev, product owner, account manager). And I decided to take none ASAP - because "I need to work on it, not in it". Oh, how stupid. I'd hire "most affordable" project manager or sales man I could - prematurely, just so that I can "step out" of any operations.

I am self maid, business started with 500 EUR budget and a laptop. So this advice was actually horrible for me. It's probably good for someone that started from a "fortunate" position. For example, if you parents would grant you the money needed to start the business.

If that's not the case, and if you have at least one skill where you accelerate at, then do fill in that role yourself (apart from running your business). Thing is, you can do that job in 4-5h, which would take another person a whole day (so you still have time for the business part). You being "in it" is a huge advantage over your competitors that are just "running it". You being in it, is a great force multiplier - more opportunities, more sales, happier clients etc.

The other challenge is how do you grow? If you are a plumber and you "work in it", then you can cover your bills but if you employ someone your business is now losing money rapidly.
I started as a programmer, so I hired 2 interns for "barely nothing" but an opportunity to work closely with me and learn. They learned from me and grow, as my business expanded and required more man power. It's time consuming, but if you have no capital then time is what you invest. When I stepped out of development (as I was not needed for 95% of time), I focused more on management role and hired interns again. Same for other areas.
Always two interns - because then you teach two of them at the same time. If you fails or leave, your time is still not wasted.

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

I am self maid

Despite the average age on here being very old We still embrace diversity and encourage people to be themselves and people on here should always feel free to be exactly who they are
So there is never any need to explain what you identify as or your gender
Hope this helps

 

[tnet]

Despite the average age on here being very old We still embrace diversity and encourage people to be themselves and people on here should always feel free to be exactly who they are
So there is never any need to explain what you identify as or your gender
Hope this helps

Hahaha

*Self-made

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

 

[Mark T Jones]

Let me jump in with my personal experience.

Started a company when at age of 23, and so we are more than 10 years in business now. It's a service business (web design and branding), 10 employees at the moment (in-house + freelancers, outsourcing partners).

The advice of this thread (focus on business rather than doing the job) cost me A LOT of money and lost opportunities. Because I believed it - quite literally though, for years. I was the best person I could find (and afford) to fill in 3 different roles (software dev, product owner, account manager). And I decided to take none ASAP - because "I need to work on it, not in it". Oh, how stupid. I'd hire "most affordable" project manager or sales man I could - prematurely, just so that I can "step out" of any operations.

I am self maid, business started with 500 EUR budget and a laptop. So this advice was actually horrible for me. It's probably good for someone that started from a "fortunate" position. For example, if you parents would grant you the money needed to start the business.

If that's not the case, and if you have at least one skill where you accelerate at, then do fill in that role yourself (apart from running your business). Thing is, you can do that job in 4-5h, which would take another person a whole day (so you still have time for the business part). You being "in it" is a huge advantage over your competitors that are just "running it". You being in it, is a great force multiplier - more opportunities, more sales, happier clients etc.

The other challenge is how do you grow? If you are a plumber and you "work in it", then you can cover your bills but if you employ someone your business is now losing money rapidly.
I started as a programmer, so I hired 2 interns for "barely nothing" but an opportunity to work closely with me and learn. They learned from me and grow, as my business expanded and required more man power. It's time consuming, but if you have no capital then time is what you invest. When I stepped out of development (as I was not needed for 95% of time), I focused more on management role and hired interns again. Same for other areas.
Always two interns - because then you teach two of them at the same time. If you fails or leave, your time is still not wasted.

This naturally evolves into SMART goal setting.

Cliched as it might be, it really is important to understand the individual footsteps and what their impact will be.

Some common misconceptions:

- 5 people will create 5 times the output/revenue of one
- An experienced person will hit the ground running.
- You can train/inspire employees to share your enthusiasm and commitment
-

There are a few others. The reality is that there are big steps & little steps. And experienced person will need less training than a a novice, but they will still take your eye off the ball somewhat.

If you employ 5 people, you will be moving towards being a manager, rather than a producer. You might also need new premises = more cost, disruption etc.

One reason I always want to see cashflow projections is that it highlights whether the owner has thought about these things.