Remember when your father used to say “If you want something done right, do it yourself?” It was those times that his mowing the lawn for you because you did it wrong was a good deal. However, we all grow up and learn that there was wisdom there, and when it’s time to get a job, creating your own can seem an enticing opportunity

Bootstrapping a business is a perfectly viable (maybe even preferable) path to take, but bootstrapped financing comes with limitations.  You don’t have the money to hire the help you need, so you get into the habit of doing it yourself.  In fact, in the early days it’s not even an option - you MUST do it yourself.  But, there’s danger in learning this lesson too well and thinking that what works for a small business will work for a not-small business.

If you want to grow, you have rely on other people to do important things.  It’s a mistake to think you can accomplish big things by hiring only low-level people to do the grunt work while you fill all the valuable roles.  There are too many different skills required and you don’t possess them all.

What Do You Do Well?

The first step is to be brutally honest with yourself; what is it that you truly excel at? Is it sales? operations? strategy? Next, identify those important roles that require skills you don’t have.  If you’re an ace business developer, you probably need an operations wizard.  If you’re a big thinker you’ll need someone who’s good with details.  Choose the work for yourself that will play off of your own strengths - offload your weaknesses.

What About The Things You Don’t

Now that you’ve decided to concentrate on what you do best, how do you make sure the other important stuff gets done?

1) Look at your current employees.  Do any of them have the raw material to step up?  Since you’ve been keeping them under wraps up to this point, they probably need training - but don’t assume that just because they haven’t been doing something they’re incapable.

2) If you don’t have someone in house that can be brought up to speed you might want to recruit someone new.  Make sure you fully understand what role you’re recruiting for and looks for those skills.

3) Outsource - especially when a role needs very specific experience but you don’t need it full time.  Only very large companies have lawyers, and PR people, and the like on staff - most businesses outsource these on an as-needed basis.  You can do the same with a multitude of roles: marketing, HR, accounting, etc.  Many highly qualified professionals are out of work these days, so hiring a savvy consultant in any number of fields is much easier now than it used to be. Take full advantage of this opportunity to receive quality help from able professionals.

4) Partner up with another company - one that has complementary strengths to yours.  This is a common approach for companies with strong technical or product abilities and weak marketing or distribution.

An Investment That Pays Off

Keep in mind that starting and growing a business is going to cost money.  There are times to be frugal, and there are times to be bold so choose wisely.  Concentrating on your strengths and investing in shoring up your weaknesses is a bold move that will pay dividends in growth and profits.

Clate Mask, posting at Small Business Trends, cautions against On Again, Off Again marketing.

His first point:

You are a marketer, not a provider of product x or service y. You are a marketer.

There’s more, so be sure to read the whole thing. 

Next, Paul Michelman, posting on HBR’s Conversation Starter, tells us How to Resist the Urge to Overreach.

We all need to take a cold hard look at our spheres of responsibility and make sure we’re dedicating the right resources and attention to the right things. Have you taken on too many responsibilities? Could burnout affect your performance and your ability get the most from your part of the organization? It serves no one best interests to let that happen. More so, when your performance suffers, you lose control of your agenda. (emphasis mine)

This is a problem I see consistently with my business owner clients.  They have 50 things on their To Do list and every single one of them is urgent.  Then, on top of that, they have a dozen new products or services that they want to introduce by next week.  It’s a recipe for losing focus at a minimum, and, in the worst case, serious burnout.

Finally, a little levity from Donald Luskin at Chronicle of the Conspiracy.  He offers up a few pics from the road in California.

My question is this:  Is the owner of the car in pic #1 being ironic?  Since it’s California, you can’t be sure.

Pic #2 is a perfect example of my personal philosophy that there are a million ways to make an honest dollar.

For the last year-and-a-half I have been a member of a small network of business advisors who get together twice a month to swap stories, celebrate victories and learn from each other. We are now in the middle of a series of workshops for small business owners on topics of interest (and need) to them. If you’re in the Baltimore area, you can find the details here.

In yesterday’s workshop on managing and motivating employees, Sheila Cox, executive coach, presented her Delegation Quiz. I liked it so much that I asked Sheila’s permission to post a copy here at OODA Central, and she graciously agreed. It’s a short 8 questions, and if you answer honestly you’ll gain some insight into your delegation style. You may just find out that your inability to delegate may be holding back you and your business.

The Delegation Quiz is here in pdf, and Sheila’s blog, Executive Coaching Journal, can be found here.