Entrepreneurs Tripping Over Their Own Success Refuse to Delegate
I am passionate about creating success. My vehicle for success is crunching numbers by creating systems to evaluate the numbers. It is the one key element to attracting the right prospects and generating more referrals. Often when I take on a new client I find that some of their key motivators end up getting in their way to creating a successful life and business. To have to choose between a successful business or a successful private life, one without the other, makes for a sad existence.
My definition of a successful entrepreneur starts with quality of life. Quality of life starts with the freedom we deserve as entrepreneurs. Time flexibility, the ability to have as many clients as we want with no limits on territory, and the potential for unlimited cash flow are the three starting points for success. Add to those relationships of choice, as example having the ability to choose who we play and work with make the formula for success even better. Couple those with an adoring spouse and family, and you then have my idea of a successful entrepreneur.
I have found that entrepreneurs or founders continue to get in their own way when they are suffering business troubles. Take my friend James. Please take James. When he is sitting still he is moving. He has been growing his company for over ten years. From the surface it appears that he has all the trappings of success. Cash flow is good, new opportunities for business are plentiful, and current clients adore his company’s performance. He employs over 20 technical employees serving all of California. He is recognized nationally as a leading innovator in his industry. His problem could be that he is doing more than he can handle, creating tumult in his life and the lives closest to him. Let me explain.
When I first knew him he had 12 employees and was working in a small office and warehouse complex. After two office moves he now has three offices in SoCal, employs people remotely on both coasts, and has a wife and daughter who he spends most of his free time with in their home in SoCal. In his early forties he has no time to sleep. He goes from meeting to meeting every day, answering emails, text, and telephone calls around the clock as well as being the service provider for his clients out in the field. He is a people pleaser wanting to satisfy his clients and staff to his own destruction. What he has yet to see is how this will impact him as he gets older. His health will suffer, as will the relationship with his family and employees. His wife has already suffered the tragedy of cancer.
The answers to his dilemma can be found in Michael Gerber’s E-Myth and E-Myth Mastery. Following your passion is the key to success. Do what you do best so others can do for you what they do best. There is a need to trust to delegate so that people you hire assume responsibility to work by themselves. Often it means, as the founder, letting go and hiring a CEO to run the company. The simple solution through job descriptions can determine when an employee needs to get answers from the founder. Thus the CEO handles the minutia of the day funneling access to the founder only as needed.
Founders and entrepreneurs often suffer from Founder’s Disease. They always want their baby to be perfect. It is easy to manage when there are zero employees to a handful or two of employees to manage success which allows for the keeping of perfection in sight. With growing companies new hires become part of the mix, clients are added, new business proposals increase, yet the number of hours in the day stay the same. Delegation is the key to success in businesses that can increase by scale. Easy to say…hard to employ. It starts with trust. Trusting yourself to make the right hiring decisions then trusting those you hire to do what they do best so you can do what you do best. Maybe the most important is trusting that someone else can do something better than you…a hurdle that can be 10 feet high without a clear course to go over or around. To have a successful business coupled with a successful private life attracting the right prospects and generating more referrals, find ways to delegate to others so they can do what they do best allowing you to do what you do best!
Gerry Rose runs INTEGRITY Networking Solutions in Marana, AZ. He works with people in business who want to attract the right prospects and generate more referrals. More than 10,000 businesses have been presented the INTEGRITY Networking Solutions system in San Diego, Los Angeles, Riverside, Orange counties, California and now in Arizona.
Gerry’s stimulating presentation Unlimited Prospects, Unlimited Referrals is ideally suited for small business owners, home-based businesses, and independent professionals who want clearer direction and want to attract more prospects, develop dynamic systems, and strengthen their companies’ accountability. Gerry does one on one consulting, conducts a range of keynote speeches from thirty minutes to full-day education workshops. His book series, Unlimited Prospects, Unlimited Referrals, are available on the website, www.integritysd.com.
Gerry has more than 20 years’ experience directing business owners how to grow their businesses. He is a networking dynamo. Those who know him will assure you that he does a great job of bringing people together—which is why he started INTEGRITY.
Involved with networking organizations since 1984, Gerry is a Distinguished Toastmaster, a member of Toastmaster International, and has chaired numerous chambers of commerce and non-profit organizations.
Are you truly committed to attracting the right prospects and generate more referrals? If so then contact INTEGRITY Networking Solutions for availability and information. You can contact Gerry by mail at 15107 W. Wild Burro Spring Drive, Marana, AZ 85658. Direct dial (760) 439-4623; e-mail to gerry@integritysd.com. For more information, go to www.integritysd.com
