Are You as Valuable To Your Business As You Think?
- Mark Edwards ·
- 4 Comments ·
- May 1, 2018
If you’re a business owner, then it’ll be all too tempting to think of yourself as indispensable to your company. You’re the brains, the heart, the energy, and all the other good things that a business needs to survive and thrive, right?
Well, while that could be true, it’s far from nailed on. If you’re not conducting regular self-analysis about your role within the company, then you might be inadvertently hurting your business. Below, we take a look at a few important areas that’ll help you to become nothing but help on your way to business success.
Recognise Your Skills
You’re an entrepreneur, but what does that actually mean, to you? As in, what skills are you able to bring to the company? While defining your role moving forward, you’ll be well-served by spending some time understanding what you’re good at. In doing so, you’ll be able to make sure you’re spending your time mainly focused on jobs that involve those skills, though of course there will be plenty of other business-related duties for you to do too.
Know Your Limitations
But of course, you’re not going to be great at everything. Alas, this is where some entrepreneurs go wrong. They think that all the big companies with a charismatic leader were built just by one person, but this is never, ever true. If you’re too confident, then you run the risk of assuming too many duties, when in fact you should be leaving certain roles to other people. It takes a lot of self-reflection to figure out what you’re good and bad at, but it’s a worthwhile pursuit. Especially as it might just prevent you from taking your company in the wrong direction further on down the line.
Open to New Ideas
The idea that an entrepreneur should have a one-track mind when it comes to their vision is generally perceived to be a good attribute, but is it really? Business, like life, isn’t linear, and in many cases, it may be better to adapt your course of action rather than follow through with an old plan even when it seems like it might be leading nowhere. As such, you’ll be well-served by letting go of some of your ego, and being open to new ideas. It might not always turn up gold, but it’ll do more good than ill in the long run.
Delegating Work
It’s your company, and it’s reasonable human behavior to want to do everything yourself. But a business isn’t a human: it needs the best, and to have its talents used in the most appropriate way. If you’re still fielding every call, updating the website, and spending hours pouring over your tax returns, then you’re seriously misusing your energy. Instead, you should be willing – enthusiastic, even – to bring in outside help. Online receptionist prices are more than reasonable, while entrusting your website to the experts will ensure that it’s optimized for the search engines and your customers. All the while, you can focus on delivering what you do best for your business.
Hiring the Right Employees
And to take this idea even further, how are you treating your employees? If you’ve hired correctly, then you should have no problem trusting them to get on with the types of tasks you hired them to do. If you’re too “hands-on,” then you run the risk of alienating your best staff; your company will not be a place where people want to work, which will mean an expensive merry-go-round of job advertisements, interviews, training days, and so on.
Working With Others
It might be nice, sometimes, to think of an entrepreneur as going out there into the world, solo, with nothing but their ideas and a dream, ready for the world to take notice. In reality, it’s not like this. Every successful company in the world needs other businesses on their side to help them to reach a level of success. If you’re resistant to working with others, then you’ll only be hurting yourself. Learn how to network and collaborate with others – it’ll serve you well in the long run!
Ready to Learn
Every single person makes mistakes when it comes to business. Take a look at the failures of the people that we now consider big success stories, and you’ll see what we mean. It’s not your mistakes that define your leadership; it’s your willingness to learn from them that makes all the difference. Have an open mindset, and you’ll never be let down!
Good article Mark. Having worked for a company for ten years before going solo, I can tell you that I learned a lot of what not to do from the bad guys in the business! To be a successful entrepreneur, you must be open to change and willing to learn continually.
I hear you Taylor, and to me personally, that’s what is so fun about being an entrepreneur, you become an all-rounder but never truly take the role for granted.
Taylor is right, I became a better person as an entrepreneur because I watched how some of my former colleagues and senior members of staff behaved and decided that I didn’t want to be anything like them! I work better with others now as a result!
Precisely Sia. Many think entrepreneurs are the more antisocial of people, but we must expand, learn and get on better with others to survive!