There’s an old saying: “If you want to get a job done properly, you’ve got to do it yourself”.
I have to admit, I have always been the sort of person who agreed with that. Like many entrepreneurs, I want everything done my way. And when other people do the job, it’s never quite how I would do it.
Unfortunately, this sort of misguided perfectionism doesn’t actually help. It’s cost me dearly, sometimes. The saying should be, “If you want to get a job done properly, delegate effectively”. In a one-man-band, you can do everything yourself; in fact you have to! But that doesn’t make you the most effective businessperson. Indeed, being a one-man business is about as stressful as it gets. The fact is, you’re not an expert at everything, and that means there are some things you’re truly lousy at. (I’m terrible at following up sales leads properly. I’m also very enthusaistic about new projects, but get bored as soon as they reach maturity).
The answer is to build a team. Whoa there- I don’t mean you have to suddenly go off and employ 20 people. Most businesses can’t support that, and in any case, you didn’t start up a company just to become the king (or queen) of human resources, now did you?
But you can build a team in interesting ways. Firstly, you can always use freelance assistance, even if you don’t want to go to the extent of taking on employees. Indeed, if you’ve got an accountant, even if you only see them once a year, you’ve effectively got freelance help: someone with expert knowledge who takes a problem off your back.
Right now, my company has over 30 freelance individuals who add enormous value to what I do, allow me to sell bigger deals, and above all give me expert help when I need it.
There’s another source of expert assistance at your disposal: friends, colleagues and other contacts. Think how much knowledge you’ve got from them. I have lost count of the amount of invaluable advice I’ve had, free of charge, from the broad community of people I just happen to know.
In essence, if you want to get a job done properly, get some help. It’s a shock and a terrible knock to the ego to realise that the rest of the world has buckets of talent; and a nice surprise to find that it’s there for the taking.
Filed under: people skills, tips | Tagged: business, employees, entrepreneur, freelance, HR, people, run a business, running a business, teamwork
Certainly agree in the value of others. Here at vzaar we have a core team of 8, but use various partners and 3rd party developers to further our business and to ensure we grow without over stretching ourselves.
To shoulder the burden is honorable in one sense but not a healthy long term option for the company or the individual concerned. If anything you risk becoming a Jack Of All Trades and a Master of None.
What I would warn against though is that to sometimes properly incent your team/workforce they need to part of the internal structure and to feel part of the company’s success. That’s not so easy when using outside resource or 3rd party support. A balance needs to be struck so that you get the output you require.