The biggest casualty of self-employment is time. It will also stifle your freedom to travel. Here and in the next post I show you how you can escape the self-employment trap and build a business that can eventually generate independent income for you:
- Build the Foundation of Culture
First, you want to be very clear on who you are, what you stand for, what you stand against and what you really want to de ne your organization. Write down your non-negotiable items and never allow anyone in your organization to stray from them.
- Hire the Right People, Train them Meticulously, Treat them Right
There’s an informal debate in the business world between Michael Gerber, the author of The E-Myth Revisited, and Seth Godin, the author of Linchpin. Michael Gerber says that building a business is all about systems. He teaches how to make your systems so simple that pretty much any warm body can perform them.
Seth Godin says it’s all about finding the right people—he calls them indispensable “linchpins.” Linchpins are proactive, responsible and smart. They see needs and fill them. They’re full of ideas for improving your organization.
My take is that any business needs both, but I side with Seth when it comes to hiring. You don’t want the lowest-common-denominators who will be the cheapest to pay. You want the best and the brightest who can adapt to change and proactively improve your organization. You want people who think like trusted stewards of the business upon whom you can depend to make good decisions.
Inexperienced employees may cost less in the short-term because of lower wages, but in the long-term they end up costing you more in money and time. Employ specialists who are significantly more talented then you in specific tasks within the company. If you’re the smartest person within your company structure, hire more talent immediately because you’re losing money. Amplify and double down on your strengths and outsource your weaknesses. In business you must hire people to solve problems, not ask questions.
The way to find the right people is to first create the position you need filled. Understand the mindset and skills that will be required to fill that position. Then hire someone who fits that position. There are some things you hate doing in your business that other people will love. Hire them, train them and let them shine. Also, never forget to treat your team with the same level of respect and give them the same energy as your customers and patients—or even more. The customer isn’t always right. You must take care of yourself first, your team second, and your customers third. This creates loyalty and empowerment.
- Define & Document Your Processes
Processes are how you want specific tasks to get done. They create structure and define task flow. Processes are labor-intensive and require people to run them. You can support and fine-tune them with procedures and technology later, but first you have to get a basic framework in place. Subscribe to and incorporate intentional task management, whereby you increase the relevance of each task undertaken. Add your own deadline together with a personal reward, further incentivizing the commitment to completion. Multitasking lowers your IQ level. Apply one laser focus on one major task at a time. When the task is complete, move onto another.
In my next post, I’ll continue with my suggestions for how you can escape the self-employment trap.
In the meantime, what do you think of these three points I’ve addressed here? Are you doing any of them, if you’re at a point where you’re building your entrepreneurial life? Thank you for sharing.
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