Struggling to get your home business to grow? If so, take a look at the activities you have been performing over the last several months. You may be surprised to find the answer to your problem looking you straight in the eye.
We are what we repeatedly do. – Aristotle
Oftentimes struggling home business owners can’t seem to pinpoint the source of their troubles. More often than not, they blame their unwanted circumstances on lack of time or money and believe that if they had more of each, things would get better.
When you begin your home business, you quickly realize you are not only responsible for bringing in customers and serving them, but also for taking care of administrative functions like answering the phone and responding to mail, paying bills and collecting debts, scheduling appointments, shipping and receiving, product repair, maintaining your workspace and equipment, conducting research, networking, marketing, managing inventory, stocking supplies, and meeting with your banker, accountant and lawyer.
A thirty-six hour day still wouldn’t be enough.
There are three primary roles required within a business. Michael Gerber, author of The E-Myth Revisited, refers to them as the technician, manager and entrepreneur.
The technician role involves being the front line for promotion and delivery of your product or service and taking care of customer service issues. It includes the creation and maintenance of the product and most hands-on tasks.
The managerial role involves overseeing daily operations ranging from administration to production to making sure the facilities are taken care of. Ensuring all systems and processes are working in concert is the primary objective.
The entrepreneurial role is that of the visionary, focusing on long-term planning and seeking out opportunities to grow.
Unfortunately, what often happens in home business is the owner spends most, if not all, of his effort on the technician and managerial roles leaving no time to fulfill the entrepreneurial responsibilities.
The owner finds himself caught up meeting the daily whirlwind of activities with no deliberate or planned movement toward a future vision.
The biggest myth around running a home business is that you have to do it alone. I love a quote a colleague once shared. He said, “You are in business alone, but you don’t have to do it alone.”
In order to grow your business, it is imperative that you adopt an entrepreneurial mindset.
Over the next few weeks, pay close attention to how you spend each hour of your day and ask yourself each time you take on a task if it is technical, managerial or entrepreneurial in nature.
Keep track of the results and you will quickly discover the majority of your time has been spent on technical and managerial functions.
Time cannot be managed. Events can.
Look at each event you take on and determine whether or not it can be handled by someone other than you. Delegate tasks that don’t require your attention. If money is an issue, consider bartering, bringing in someone who is retired and looking for something to do, or a student requiring co-op placement.
Your most important responsibility is to determine your long-term vision, then wearing your entrepreneurial hat, focus your daily attention on finding ways to achieve that vision.
Instead of struggling through all of your responsibilities alone, learn to ask for help.
Seek out a successful businessperson and ask her if she would be willing to mentor you.
Join or form a mastermind group of business people you respect. If you feel you would have nothing to contribute, think again. The fact that you are willing to organize and facilitate a meeting made up of respected entrepreneurs might be enough of a reason for them to join. They may have been hoping to work with certain colleagues, but never had the time to put a group together.
Look for a business coach. You can expect a cost to be involved, but it’s not impossible that a coach would consider bartering with you. For example, if you are an interior designer and a coach finds herself in need of one, she may be willing to trade services.
You never know until you ask.
Remember, you are what you repeatedly do. Wear your entrepreneur hat and dedicate a significant portion of your time to entrepreneurial duties every day. If you spend eight hours a day performing technician or managerial duties, it won’t be long before you find yourself back at a job doing what you’ve been doing all along.
2007 © Laurie Hayes - The HBB Source
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