Starting and growing your own business is a lot of work! When you begin, excitement is at a high level. The potential of having your own company carries you along. If things go well, you’re excited to see everything come together. As the company grows, you find yourself running from one task to the next one. You don’t have to live that way. Here’s a few suggestions . . .

When you start a business, you have to do a lot of things. You design the business. You market the business. You sell the services or products of your business. You deliver the services or ship the products. The list goes on and on.

As your company grows, you need to grow. I see so many business owners leading their companies like they did when they were in start-up mode. They feel like they have to touch every piece and part. They quickly become the ceiling of their companies. The company cannot grow because the owner can handle any more. 

As your company grows, you must grow in your leadership. You shouldn’t lead a growing, developing company like you did your start-up company. You must shift from doing most everything to managing those who do those things.

If you’re fortunate enough to grow to the next level, you will need to shift again from managing to more of a visionary role.

The key concept is that you must grow as a leader as your company grows. If you don’t, you will cap out your company. It will stop growing because you stopped growing.

When you start your company, you have to do many things. Some of those things will fall in your strengths. Many of them will not.

As your company grows, choose wisely what you continue to do. Everyone has strengths, but no one is good at everything.

Do you know what your “super strengths” are? If not, figure it out. Often, we don’t value our “super strengths” because they come so naturally to us. We feel like, “anyone could do that.” But we are wrong. The reason you may not value your strengths is because they are so natural to you that you hardly have to work at them.

Once you know your strengths, you should work 80% of your time in them. I am amazed at how many leaders work primarily in their areas of weakness. They do things they don’t even like doing and are not really good at doing. That makes no sense!

If you work primarily in your strengths, you will bring the most value to your company. Your ROI (return of investment) of your time, energy, and skills goes way up.

As your company begins to grow, you want to build a complementary dream team. By complementary, I mean hire people who have strengths in your areas of weakness. Believe it or not, there are people who love doing what you hate doing, and they are really good at those things.

You want to find those people and bring them on your team. People thrive when they work in their strengths. When their strengths complement you and your strengths, everyone wins.

Think of it like building a sports team. Not everyone plays the same position. Not everyone has the same skills. You’re building a team. You want different people with different abilities on your team.

I encourage leaders who have growing companies to develop 3-5 direct reports. If you are really good, you can have 5 direct reports. Most of us are not that good, so I suggest starting with 3.

Think of these direct reports as VPs or Lieutenants who manage sizable verticals in your company. You want to hire or promote capable people who can help carry your business load.

I see so many business owners carrying their businesses on their backs. That’s exhausting and stressful.

Instead, find capable people who can help move your business forward, and work at developing them. Doing so moves your business from addition to multiplication.

It doesn’t happen overnight, but if you find and develop competent direct reports, it will change your business and life!

As you develop a team of competent people, you must shift your focus from working so much in your business. You have good people who help carry the daily load. You don’t need to do as much. You don’t need to do all the things you did as you developed the company.

Instead, shift from working in the business to working on the business. Your role shifts from doing to developing.

The role of a leader is to step back, constantly look at what’s working and what’s not working. He or she should look for new opportunities of growth, ways to be more cost effective, and ways to improve and expand the company.

Many leaders are so buried in the day-to-day work, they do not provide the leadership needed to grow the company. Don’t be that type of leader!

Don’t be the leader who is constantly chasing his tail. Don’t run from one thing to the next thing. You will wear yourself out and limit your company’s growth! If you need someone to bounce things off of, schedule a call with me today: https://penncoaching.com/meetwithdave.