"I'm not a businessperson", is what I hear business owners often say, yet they own a business and are often making a reasonable living. As the new year starts, business owners will be making new year’s resolutions about aiming to be more business like in the new year, yet 80% of them will fail to keep their new years resolution. What can be done to make this year different?
In 1911, Fredrick Taylor used the metaphor of a well-oiled machine for a business. Today the expectation of business owners is that to be a "good" businessperson, they need the skills to make their business run like a well-oiled machine which can respond positively to market conditions.
To be a successful businessperson, revenue must be both profitable and sustainable. For this to occur the activities undertaken will require an understanding of the position of your activities in the market and the efficient management of people, money, and equipment to carry out the activities.
With the focus on profit, businesspeople are sometimes regarded as having a non-compassionate approach to profit generation. But this is not a sustainable approach, profits usually arise from carrying out activities people are engaged with. The management of people requires empathy to allow them to achieve their best, so some of the best businesspeople are very people focused.
So how is this achieved? The first step is to know what you want to achieve. Whilst it might seem a long way off, how you will exit the business will help crystalise your thoughts and from this a goal for the next 3-5 years can be set. The skills fall into categories: development of the business strategy, marketing, people management, and financial controls.
A businessperson will start with the ideal organisation chart and then appoint people to it or outsource the functions. The proposed organisation should then be financially modelled and tested with different assumptions. When the model works, and fits with your appetite for risk, the transition can begin.
The steps to become a successful businessperson can seem daunting. So, before you start it is worth engaging the help of someone who has been there before. It will speed up the process and help avoid many of the pitfalls you will unexpectedly fall into if you have not run a business before.
If you own a business and have ever said or thought "I'm not a businessperson", and would like help so that you can be confident running your business, then commit to getting in touch for a free confidential discussion about what help you need.
