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October 2004 How to Gain Greater Freedom & Fortune
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After interacting with business owners over the years, we
have learned with absolute clarity that your goal as a
business owner should be to design a company that is
distinct from you and quite candidly, works in your absence.
You should create a separate cash flow entity, not merely a
job for yourself. It should pay you a healthy salary plus a
return on your investment of money, time and effort. You
should build equity! You should build wealth! Bottom line,
your role should be to shape, manage and grow this
independent and enduring asset – your business.
Your enterprise should function without you, not because of
you. I know this sounds bizarre, but hear me out. While you
can be the brains behind the enterprise, you should not be
like Hercules trying to hold up the entire weight of the
company! You will be crushed!
Your business should work harder so you don’t have to. You
should be able to make money everyday without having to work
everyday. You should invest more brain equity and leadership
equity and much less sweat equity into your company. Your
business should be a product of your brain, not your brawn.
You should strive to build a business that does not enslave
you and does not rely on your being present every minute of
every day doing all the thinking, deciding, worrying, and
working. You must adopt a new way of thinking and acting.
You must become a strategic business owner. Specifically,
you must learn to adopt a CEO mindset; systematize and
document your business; lead more and work less; create a
simple business plan; utilize the leverage of marketing;
effectively manage your greatest asset, your people; and
learn to let go. In short, you must transform the way you
see yourself and your business.
As a strategic business owner, your primary aim should be to
develop a self-managing and systems-oriented business that
still runs consistently, predictably, smoothly, and
profitably while you are not there. You should shape and own
the business system (again, an integrated web of processes)
and employ competent and caring employees to operate the
system. You should document the work of your business so
that you can effectively train others to execute the work.
You must make yourself replaceable in the technical trenches
of your business. To repeat, define and document the
specific work to be done and then train and delegate. This
is how you begin successfully to beat the blues, escape
death by details, and gain greater freedom.
With a documented operating system, your employees should be
able to carry on the work of the business while you focus on
big picture priorities or God forbid, decide to take a
break. You should be able to escape the daily drudgery. In
fact, your company should run on autopilot status even while
you’re on an extended, work-free, guilt-free vacation. If it
does, you will have designed and built a business that truly
works and is worth a fortune. More importantly, in the
process, you will have gained back a personal life that is
fulfilling.
To maintain freedom, independence and fulfillment, as your
business grows, so must your leadership effectiveness and
operating systems. You must stop micromanaging and start
leading (macro managing). You must become more purposeful
and proactive. Specifically, we take business owners and
managers on a life-changing process:
1) Step one: learn to work on yourself by transitioning to a
new way of thinking and behaving. Re-program yourself and
your habits. Stop acting like an employee and start thinking
like a CEO. Learn to work on your business, not in your
business. Adopt the theory of optimization. Be strategic,
not tactical; work less, lead more!
2) Step two: systematize your company by creating,
documenting and continually improving all your key
processes, procedures and policies. Trust the business
system and personnel you put in place and remove yourself
from the company’s daily details. Be more hands-off and more
brains-on. Replace yourself with other people. Define and
document the work to be done. Train others and delegate the
work. This operating system is your foundation for freedom.
3) Step three: increase your leadership capabilities. Excel
at leadership, not doer-ship. Your business needs a clear
vision and strong leader to hold others accountable, not
another employee doing technical work. Help build and direct
your team.
4) Step four: develop clarity of direction for your business
and employees by creating a simple business plan and an
effective implementation process.
5) Step five: learn to effectively manage your people, your
greatest asset.
6) Step six: instead of incremental growth, engage the
leverage of marketing to achieve substantial, profitable
growth.
7) Step seven: learn to let go, delegate, and truly enjoy
business ownership, your relationships, and your life.
By working less in your business, you gain more time to work
on your business and make those essential changes necessary
to optimize your company and your life. You may well be
skeptical. That’s normal. However, let me ask you “Are your
current paths and strategies working”? If so, you wouldn’t
be searching for answers here.
If not, I invite you to acknowledge the problems in your
business, take responsibility for them, and dare to try new
approaches. Give us a call at (818) 716-8826 or
email us
today.
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