Train people well enough that they can leave. Treat them well enough, so they don’t want to
– Richard Branson
You can’t do everything yourself
Napoleon Bonaparte once said, “If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.” The idea of doing everything yourself is not the message of the quote I used at the top of this article, and with good reason.
As we discussed in previous articles, you can’t do everything yourself. You must know your value and spend your time wisely on the tasks to which you are best suited. Focusing on what matters really comes to the fore when you start expanding your team.
You know your business inside out, but new staff members that come on-board do not. There is a temptation to continue to take control of essential tasks and to micro-manage your staff. Your business is your baby, you know what your clients like, you got your business this far, and it is scary to let go.
If this is going to be your outlook, don’t hire anybody. Seriously, keep your business small, that might be all you want. You would only be wasting your money.
Only if you can learn to let go, will your business grow.
You must trust your team. If you do not believe in your team, you have the wrong people, or you haven’t invested in them enough, so, that you can.
We are all about making the most of your time, to be the most productive that you can be. Similar to the calculations you might make concerning outsourcing, you need to make the same for upskilling your staff.
You should aim to train yourself out of a job. Don’t keep jobs that only you can do. Don’t keep the tasks at which you are the best. You may have started a business as an expert in your field, or to follow a passion that you love, but to grow a business, you need to become a businessperson.
Entrepreneurs aren’t one of the crowd.
They are the leaders. You need to lead your team, and you need to invest in them to give you the best support.
By training your staff to be as good as, or even better than, you at the skills you need in your business, you can free yourself to focus on what matters and grow your business.
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