Being a SME business owner can be both lonely and demanding and often this can result in the business owner experiencing the “not being able to see the forest for the trees” syndrome.
One effect of suffering from this quite common affliction is that a SME business owner can start to live wholly in their own world, and eventually lose sight of the bigger, business picture. I call this affliction SME Blindness.
The very nature of business ownership in the SME environment is such that SME business owners often have to severely stretch their personal skill sets, and can find that they are spending most of their time engaged in activities that are far from the best use of their time and abilities, and which tend to bury them deeper and deeper into their own darkening world.
The amount of time engaged in such activities, usually mostly of an operational nature, also makes it harder for the SME business owner to be as strategic in their decision making as they need to be if they want to grow and prosper with their business endeavours, and be well prepared to face greater challenges in the future with their eyes wide open.
In many cases, the business concerned is the owner’s “baby”, and the attachment can be so strong that objective analysis and cutting the umbilical cord when necessary, are almost impossible when the business is not performing as it should, or major changes need to be made to ensure ongoing survival. We all know that no mother ever had an ugly baby, but if you look around, some are definitely better looking than others, but who would ever directly tell a mother that she had an ugly baby.
If your business is not performing to your expectations, perhaps it is now time to bring in an independent pair of fresh eyes to help you to critically look at your business, so that you can gain new perspectives, and can then utilise the insights gained through this process to implement the appropriate changes to re-invigorate your business.
There are many ways you can avail yourself of a fresh pair of eyes for your business, but first you need to determine what will work best for you, your team, and your business.
You should consider your own strengths as well as the strengths of your business, your own ego and the culture of your business, your willingness to change and the capability of your business to adapt and quickly adjust to changes, the cash flow of your business and its financial capacity to meet any costs involved, and the adequacy of yourself and your team to take your business to a new level, or in a different direction.
Once you determine what you believe is holding yourself and your team back from successfully growing your business to the level that matches your expectations (remembering that this is your reality, but analysis by others may subsequently come up with different findings) you can target the market to find the fresh pair of eyes you need to give you a greater and fresher independent perspective.
You might decide to find a mentor, access community or local government resources, utilise resources from any associations of which you are a member, hire a business coach, engage a business advisor, call in a management consultant, or actually employ (either part-time or full-time) a good business manager, with complementary skill sets to your own.
Whatever you choose, you must be willing to work with the person concerned, and make sure that you establish upfront, how you will value their contribution. Where appropriate, ensure that where fees are involved, you look on the fee as an investment in the future of your business, not a cost to minimize at the expense of the quality of the outcomes likely to be produced.
In general, look for a pair of eyes that are well qualified, have broad business experience, have owned a business themselves, have a track record that demonstrates good analytical and consultancy skills, and who will commit to providing their expertise for as long as it takes for you to extract all that you can from the relationship.
Is your business well and truly in need of a fresh set of eyes to flesh out the reasons why your business is not doing as well as expected?
Are you willing to expose yourself to that level of scrutiny for the greater good of your business?
Do you see the cost that you may incur in bringing in a fresh pair of eyes to look over your business as an investment in the future of your business or an expense to be minimized?
One effect of suffering from this quite common affliction is that a SME business owner can start to live wholly in their own world, and eventually lose sight of the bigger, business picture. I call this affliction SME Blindness.
The very nature of business ownership in the SME environment is such that SME business owners often have to severely stretch their personal skill sets, and can find that they are spending most of their time engaged in activities that are far from the best use of their time and abilities, and which tend to bury them deeper and deeper into their own darkening world.
The amount of time engaged in such activities, usually mostly of an operational nature, also makes it harder for the SME business owner to be as strategic in their decision making as they need to be if they want to grow and prosper with their business endeavours, and be well prepared to face greater challenges in the future with their eyes wide open.
In many cases, the business concerned is the owner’s “baby”, and the attachment can be so strong that objective analysis and cutting the umbilical cord when necessary, are almost impossible when the business is not performing as it should, or major changes need to be made to ensure ongoing survival. We all know that no mother ever had an ugly baby, but if you look around, some are definitely better looking than others, but who would ever directly tell a mother that she had an ugly baby.
If your business is not performing to your expectations, perhaps it is now time to bring in an independent pair of fresh eyes to help you to critically look at your business, so that you can gain new perspectives, and can then utilise the insights gained through this process to implement the appropriate changes to re-invigorate your business.
There are many ways you can avail yourself of a fresh pair of eyes for your business, but first you need to determine what will work best for you, your team, and your business.
You should consider your own strengths as well as the strengths of your business, your own ego and the culture of your business, your willingness to change and the capability of your business to adapt and quickly adjust to changes, the cash flow of your business and its financial capacity to meet any costs involved, and the adequacy of yourself and your team to take your business to a new level, or in a different direction.
Once you determine what you believe is holding yourself and your team back from successfully growing your business to the level that matches your expectations (remembering that this is your reality, but analysis by others may subsequently come up with different findings) you can target the market to find the fresh pair of eyes you need to give you a greater and fresher independent perspective.
You might decide to find a mentor, access community or local government resources, utilise resources from any associations of which you are a member, hire a business coach, engage a business advisor, call in a management consultant, or actually employ (either part-time or full-time) a good business manager, with complementary skill sets to your own.
Whatever you choose, you must be willing to work with the person concerned, and make sure that you establish upfront, how you will value their contribution. Where appropriate, ensure that where fees are involved, you look on the fee as an investment in the future of your business, not a cost to minimize at the expense of the quality of the outcomes likely to be produced.
In general, look for a pair of eyes that are well qualified, have broad business experience, have owned a business themselves, have a track record that demonstrates good analytical and consultancy skills, and who will commit to providing their expertise for as long as it takes for you to extract all that you can from the relationship.
Is your business well and truly in need of a fresh set of eyes to flesh out the reasons why your business is not doing as well as expected?
Are you willing to expose yourself to that level of scrutiny for the greater good of your business?
Do you see the cost that you may incur in bringing in a fresh pair of eyes to look over your business as an investment in the future of your business or an expense to be minimized?
1 comment:
Objectivity is a good thing whether you are a large or small business. Unfortunately, everyone gets caught up in the day to day, thus wears blinders. It is called being myopic.
Post a Comment