Strategy versus execution. Sales versus operations. Increasing income versus reducing costs. Every entrepreneur faces a constant tug of war.
On the one hand, you have to build a business — spend your time doing those things that move your company forward and grow. On the other hand, you have to run a business — spend time managing your company now, serving existing customers and paying your bills.
Every day, it’s a constant struggle, pulling you in two different directions. For example, which of these takes priority?
• Business development and growth activities: sales, marketing, strategy, developing new products, opening new markets, finding new strategic alliances, recruiting key new management, raising funds for growth.
• Or, business operations and management activities: serving existing customers, filling orders and producing products, managing employees, quality control, cost containment, improving bookkeeping and reporting systems, managing banking relationships, balancing your checkbook, returning phone calls and answering your email.
Of course, all of these are crucial for your business’ survival and growth.
In big companies, choosing between critical business tasks isn’t such a problem. There are whole teams devoted to new product development, other teams devoted to sales, others for accounting, and yet others to answering customer e-mail.
But in a small business, your job runs the gamut from “C” to shining “C.” You’re responsible for the operations, the finances, the marketing, the sales. There are so many different things to do, and so few people to do them, that an entrepreneur has to continually juggle priorities.
I personally grapple with this every day.
I love challenges and creating new products (even whole new businesses). I’m great at business development, finding and making deals. I’m good at sales. But I hate all the follow-up that goes into these.
I love creating new books and new products. But I hate spending days — weeks — editing and re-editing books before they go to press. Yet, we know that my publishing company’s competitive advantage is the quality of our books. It has to be done.
One of the answers, of course, is to hire others to help. I’m fortunate; I already have a staff of incredibly talented people. But we’re — I’m — also ambitious, so it means there’s more work than we all can manage. I’d like to have the money to hire more people, but until that day, I have to still manage many of these tasks myself. And I may be the only person able to handle some things, no matter how large my company gets.
This tug of war between growth and operations never goes away completely. But here are some techniques to reduce the constant, daily struggle:
Dedicate time: Set aside certain times that you devote solely to one focus. Thursday mornings you might only work on new product development, immediately after lunch may be the time you fill orders.
“Turn off” e-mail and the phone: Find an hour or two each day when you don’t look at e-mail or answer phone calls. These constant interruptions increase your lack of focus.
Delegate: Look around. Do you have staff members who are ready to grow? Others who can take on greater responsibilities? Entrepreneurs typically have an “only I can do this” attitude. But you need to delegate to grow.
Conduct planning sessions: Establish annual (or semi-annual) business planning sessions. Get away from the office so you can completely focus on evaluating and deciding on your strategic direction.
Hire more help: Yes, I know. You think you can’t afford it. But if you’re confident the new person will help you increase sales sufficiently both to pay their salaries (or fees if you use outsourced help) and grow your bottom line, then it’s time to put out the “help wanted” sign.
Get additional funding: Perhaps it’s time to consider a bigger line of credit from your bank or even seeking an outside investor to help you pay for more staff.
Rhonda Abrams is the author of “Six-Week Start-Up” and “What Business Should I Start?”
