‘Entrepreneur’… what a loaded word.
Meaning: One who takes great educated risk and is willing to chase what they determine as success until they are ahead of it, and then step and repeat it all again.
Knowing you why as an Entrepreneur
When I started a local stork rental business, I didn’t think of myself as an “Entrepreneur”.
I started as a recent stay at home mom who wanted to be with her daughter and if time was being spent making money , I wanted it to be something I could do with my little one who could share in the experience of ethical selling.
Throughout the development of my local stork rental business to what has now become a national market for us – the “why” has remained the same.
Though the “Who” has surely changed.
When I stopped thinking of myself as a “stay at home mom” with a side hustle and started treating my business like a business, all worlds began to thrive.
I am a woman who loves my family and loves my business because I love what I do. The time I spend on my business is for me, because I spend time filling my cup. Motherhood feels more rewarding.
BUT what any entrepreneur could speak to is the fact that the business evolves and as it evolves the everyday task can consume you, well if you let it.
Staying connected to the “why,” which was to be available to my child and make money that felt good because the value in the service I was providing equally matched the dollar amount I was charging, I knew I needed to bring on a crew.
Every “business” will not meet this criteria, it will determine what your “why” is and for us the need for time , meant I needed others to give me their time.
How does one know they are ready to add staff?
It’s a hard answer, if you financially always wait to make this move you may never do it. Sure, you could keep doing it all, I mean you have been doing it, the problem is if your why is centered around “time,” owning your own business will surely eat that away.
Additionally, one must consider either way they go whether that is to bring on staff or not bring on staff what will the process and protocol be for family emergencies , illness, injury, pregnancy, all unforeseen circumstances.
If you’re running the business purely on your own it is important that if your coming from a service sector your customers understand possibilities in these situations OR negative outcomes can ruin all the TIME you are spending building this business on your own.
As an entrepreneur, excellent time management skills are the first thing that needs to happen.
You need to understand your business and do every part of your business so you understand the process, time involved, and what you’re really asking of the next person.
- I understand the length of time it takes to install and take down a stork .
- The parts that are foolproof and the parts that need more development.
- The method of organizing, cleaning and storing our items.
- How we track what’s out , what’s in, method for quality assurance
- The physical labor involved in each piece.
I time the process, every piece of the process, then I look for the holes and what could make this faster and more efficient.
Creating a process and understanding it thoroughly leads to less staff confusion, better scheduling expectations, and less confusion between leadership and employees which in turn leads to less turnover.
Less turnover leads to better and more cost effective results. A clear process makes for a better customer experience , a better customer experience leads to return customers, positive reviews, and a longer spending life cycle per each customer.
It is much less expensive to retain your customer base than to always be spending money on new leads.
My local business runs in such a smooth manner, that if we get a stork call right this minute, we can have the most beautiful personalized display out and on a lawn in 30 minutes.
Being an entrepreneur is understanding what task make you money and which tasks do not.
Entrepreneurs Focus on What Makes Them Money
YOUR TIME NEEDS TO BE SPENT ON THE ONES THAT ARE MAKING YOU MONEY!
This can not be said enough.
Your first hired staff member needs to have tasks that also make you money. It’s the money you’ve been leaving on the table because you can’t get to it because of lack of time. Now you have this new hire who’s getting to it and basically paying for themselves . In a short amount of time your ready to bring on the next one.
Through your time management skills you have been tracking the number of hours you put into a day, what task your doing, which make you money and which sustain your cash flow.
Next, you’re able to create clear job descriptions not ones you found on google rather clear to the point skills, rate, time needed. When you understand what YOUR really looking for not just “I need help , I’m drowning,” you make better hiring selections.
As you grow your team there will be other employees who as I like to call them “maintain the money” they are your worker bees, the one fulfilling the promises you made.
Your worker bees will be lost if you haven’t created a clean process and if they are lost they end up costing you money because they need so much of your TIME , which as we have been discussing is already limited.
The process developed by you will feel like you without needing you. A good ship can be on auto pilot without the captain , because the captain already programmed its route. In my local business no one really can believe I have as many crew members as we do because the end result is all the same.
You can’t look at one stork install or yard card install from another and tell which crew member installed it and that’s because the training and onboarding is clear as well as the expectations.
If your reading this and thinking , this all makes sense but I don’t know where to start. I struggle with time management, how do I begin evaluating my process?
Don’t struggle, get the support you need so you can make better decisions for your business.
We offer coaching, for some of our stork handlers they sign on with the coaching for $500 a year and buy into the product down the road.
If this feels like an area you could use support , let’s chat.
You can schedule a call here.