You Don’t Want to Run a Business?
I speak to quite a lot of business owners who tell me they don’t really like the business side of things, they like doing whatever it is the business does, Joinery, Construction, Engineering, Recruitment, financial service etc. But not running the business.
When I ask why they started a business, often they went self employed so they could manage their own workload and make a little extra money, and that’s fine, the follow up is “ok so why did you grow again”, the answer is usually something like I got too busy.
Let us be clear, if you are too busy to take on any extra work then you do not have to take on any extra work, so one of two other things are most likely to be the actual driver behind growing, either you don’t want to let people down and say no or you want the extra money delivering more work brings in.
Taking on extra work you do not have the capacity to deliver because you don’t want to say no is not the smartest thing you can do, and if you are taking it on for the extra money great but then please do not complain about not liking the business side because you can’t have your cake and eat it.
I see and hear this all the time people with a business complaining they don’t like the business side of things, they don’t like marketing or sales or operations, management, hiring, firing, measurements, numbers or accounts, Sometimes they like only the accounts or the sales but being competent in all of those things is what having a business is all about, joinery is a job, so is being a bricky it is not being in business.
Michael Eisner was CEO of Disney in 2005, and his salary was $52m a year, not because he drew and animated but because he was very, very good at running and growing a business.
You don’t have to build a business to be wealthy, and you don’t need to be wealthy to have a fantastic and fulfilling life, you do need to be good at making money though and a business is the best way of doing that. There is nothing wrong with being a bricky or a joiner, there is nothing wrong with being an accountant or a financial advisor, an apprenticeship is 4 years plus a year of experience before anyone believes you are even competent let alone outstanding. It takes years to become a qualified accountant or an architect. It takes years to get good at what you do, and being good at what you do should be a goal for you no matter who you are doing it for.
Running a business is about being good at running and growing a business and this takes years of study, not years of being in business, years of study while being in business and if you don’t want to get good at that don’t start one, if you do don’t complain about cashflow, people, mistakes, inactivity, unproductive people, poor performance or any of the other issues that come up every day until you have spent at least 5 years studying in detail how to do the things that make a business good, again not how long you have had a business, I mean studying, reading, going on training courses, or finding someone who understands how to get good at business to help you.
This is what business is, it’s a skill in its own right, it’s something to master, and when you do the rewards can be amazing.
If you don’t like running a business, then get better at it or employ someone who is good at it.
By Andy Walter
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