Finally, we need to briefly discuss the skills that you either need to learn or you need to hire someone that has them. Many new entrepreneurs are just interested in getting out there and start working, not worrying about every little detail of running a business. The problem is that if you don't take care of them yourself, or hire/partner with someone that does - your business will eventually spiral out of your control. Let's take a look at some of them:
- Organization - Some people are great at keeping organized and some just can't get the hang of it. Yet, it doesn't take many forgotten appointments or forgotten phone calls for your business to earn a bad reputation. If necessary, find someone to keep you organized.
- Time Management - You simply can't allow one activity to bleed into the next. If you schedule a meeting for one hour, only spend an hour. If your task is to spend two hours making phone calls, stop after two hours. If you are never having enough time for a certain task, adjust your scheduling. Quit trying to 'squeeze' things into your schedule. Often, our personal activities interfere with our business activities, forcing us to lose money. For instance, if you are making $100 an hour, perhaps it would make more sense to hire someone to clean your house for $20 an hour and use that time for your business. In fact, Time Management is so important to your success that we have added a complete course on this subject.
- Each item on your agenda should have a defined outcome. I've been to so many meetings that would suddenly wander off into side conversations that, while interesting, had nothing to do with the subject of the meeting. This either resulted in nothing getting done or extended the meeting so that it messed up the rest of my schedule for the day. Anything extra should be scheduled for a later time or wait until the work for that allotted time is done.
- Numerical Analysis - Some people just don't like numbers, but they are your friends. You need them to tell you if a business is feasible. You need them to determine how to charge for your work. You need them to know if you are making a profit. The next course in this series is on basic accounting and it's vital you don't skip it.
- Subjective Analysis - You can crunch numbers and do data analysis all day, but if you ignore your intuition you will generally lose. The best business people are the ones that also listen to that gut feeling they have about a situation. Sometimes the numbers look great, but it just doesn't feel right. I've learned to walk away. Sometimes the numbers don't look to good, but I feel that there is something that I am missing. So, I dig further into the situation to see what I may be missing. Your intuition may not be right every time, but it has saved me more times than it did not.
- Communication - The biggest mistake you can make is to assume that people know what you are talking about. For anything critical, you should request that the person repeat it back to you to make sure that they understand the agreement you are making or what you are asking them to do. This extra time to verify they understand will save you countless headaches down the line.
- Team Building - There has never been very successful entrepreneur that tried to be a Lone Ranger. There is no way that you can be good at every aspect of a business that produces a sizable amount of money. For instance, I had to determine what the most important thing that I was responsible for in creating my company. I didn't have time to waste trying to do the complicated graphics, so I found a graphic artist whose work I admired. I don't have time to worrying doing the daily maintenance (like backups) for the site, so I brought in a company that is an expert taking care of this type of thing and helped me automate it. Although I'm good at financials, I sought out a new bank that will handle mailing out payments, payroll, and a better rate of return on my idle funds. I am also partnering certain aspects of my online advertising campaigns. This allows me to concentrate on my core job - providing you with the support structures and knowledge you need to build a solid base for your endeavors.
- The Big Picture - You are a business owner now. You have to start thinking like one. Too many businesses have failed because the owner got so caught up in the daily details of the business that they forgot the big picture. I'm sure that you have heard the old saying, "Couldn't see the forest for the trees". If you find that you don't have time to keep track of the whole business, then it is time to bring in a team member to handle the details taking up all the time you need to properly manage your business.
At this point, we would recommend that you stop and do your skills assessment. You will then have a pretty good idea of your skill set, what you need to learn and what skills you may want to address by adding members to your team.