This is a guest post from Alice Jackson, the Business Services Director of Madson Interim Solutions.
How can success be the worst thing that ever happened to you? Well, for many small businesses this really can be a major problem!
You didn’t become a business owner because you wanted to have a mediocre life. You went into business because you were passionate about your industry and you could see a better life for you and your loved ones. However, the reality can be somewhat different if you have failed to plan for success!
At the beginning you’re happy to work all the hours necessary to get your business off the ground. You secure your first customer and the feeling is awesome! You can’t wait to give them the best customer service experience. Your client is impressed and they recommend you to one of their network. You’re off and flying.
Before long referrals and new business are coming through the door, over the telephone and via email. In fact there’s so much work you don’t know how you’re going to handle it. You’ve started arriving at your desk earlier and more often than not you only get to leave your desk to catch a few hours shut eye before the whole process starts again. You’re trapped by your own success! Nobody mentioned this when you set out to build your dream.
At this point in your business even though you’re really busy everything is far from right, you have no room for expansion, no time for you or your loved ones and you’re starting to turn business away because you physically can’t do any more. You need to resolve this fast, before long your health is going to suffer along with your relationships with the people that mean the most to you and then it will start to affect your quality of work and your clients will start to disappear too. Sorry, to be so negative, but so many businesses fail due to their own success! I don’t want this to be you too!
So what can you do to make sure you have sustainable growth rather than a business that’s got you shackled to your desk?
Well, first of all you need to stop doing everything yourself. So you need to make time in your week to write processes for all the day-to-day tasks in your business. You definitely shouldn’t be doing these! Now you have a choice, you either need to employ someone to do these for you or you can outsource them to someone like us. You’ve now just given yourself the time you need to grow your business and most importantly you’ve also freed yourself from your businesses grasp. Your business has taken its first step to operating independently of you!
Next step, take you mobile number off your business card and only answer your emails and return calls at a set time each day. You’ve now eliminated all but the most important interruptions from your day! You can always have your emails and calls managed by someone like us or a staff member, so anything really urgent can be flagged.
These are just the first baby steps to the life you dreamt of when you started your business. You’ll need to keep an eye to the future and plan for each stage of your businesses growth so that it’s always you in control rather than your business running away with you.
You can’t do it all yourself, look at the top names in business. How many of them have become successful by doing everything themselves?
What’s been your biggest challenge since you set up your business? How did you overcome it? What processes have you put in place to ensure your business is always ready for growth and change?
