Get Your Business Out of Start-Up Phase by Growing Your Team

By Michele Scism

In the past week, I have read the results from three different surveys that all say that time and time management are the biggest hurdles entrepreneurs face.  I think this is especially true in the beginning (or start-up phase) where there is so much to do and there aren’t any systems created to actually get the work done.

In today’s post, I’m going to show you how to put the systems and people in place to quickly move past the overwhelming “start-up” phase to the much more satisfying (and profitable) growth phase.

So, here’s the bad news… you cannot move into the growth phase if you are doing everything in your business yourself.  After all, you only have 24 hours in a day – and there is only so much you can accomplish by yourself.

Here are a few ideas about how to move your business into the growth phase.

When thinking about if you can afford help, you need to realize that you are investing money in your business.  What do you charge to work with a client for an hour?  My guess would be $65, $100 an hour – that is pretty much where most of my clients are when they come to me. Do you realize that every hour that you spend building your website or cleaning out your email or balancing your checkbook you have just invested that $100 in your business because you could have been working with a client and bringing in $100 for that hour, and you could have had a team member clean out your email, and that would have cost you nowhere near that much.

Back to our question – how do you move into the growth phase?  You have to start building your support team.  I started by hiring a coach, a mentor – if you haven’t ever worked with a mentor, which was the case for me, the best way for me to describe it is that they can see what’s at the end of your nose.  Have you ever tried to look at the end of your nose – you can’t see it.

In business it is the same way – we can’t always see the answers that are right in front of us and a good mentor can help us see our options, make decisions and develop the strategy for our business.  It’s also important that they have already traveled the path that we are on.  One of the things my clients know is that I am going to say – hey I did this and it didn’t work so don’t do that, but this did work, so try that instead.

The next step would be to start expanding your team of doers.  That would be your virtual assistants, bookkeeper, graphic designer, web designer, social media manager, and housekeeper.  Yep that’s right – you need a housekeeper.

Now don’t get overwhelmed – how do you determine what comes first.  I can tell you that for most of my clients it is a VA.  You start out small – say 5 hours a week.  You will be amazed what a good VA can accomplish in 5 hours a week.  What I found was that in 5 hours she could do what it took me 15 hours to do.

Your goal is to build your team so that you can focus on the things you love to do in your business – working with your clients and making money.  Each day you should create a list of what needs to be accomplished that day and then you should be able to delegate 80% of it to your team.

You know some of my clients have gotten their first team member for free – they were interns from local business schools, high schools and colleges.  If you’re looking for someone to clean out your email, file things in your office, make phone calls or do customer service, an intern is great for that.

Now it is your time to Decide Act and Profit.  If you are in the start-up phase it’s time to decide if you are ready to take your business to the Growth phase and then on to the Leverage phase.  If you are, then you have to take action – you have to decide what your team needs are.  Do you want to investigate the possibility of working with a mentor?  Do you know what you are looking for in your first VA or maybe you have a VA and you are ready to expand your team further?  Can you see how having a team will build your profit?  Leave me a comment and let me know how you’ll be growing your business.

Want to learn more about the how to decide, act and create a profitable business?   Take my 5-day video challenge.  Learn more at https://coachingbusinessentrepreneur.com/MicheleS


 

Donna Ward
Follow me