Business owner removing himself from the business he started
Discussion
A business associate has asked my advice on how to organise his business affairs.
I was able to assist him in my area of experience, but his single biggest problem is not one I can help him with. It is, basically, that he is running himself ragged operating a small firm.
He has five staff, but does all the quoting, billing, wages, customer service, ordering etc and he is working long days seven days a week.
He is at the point of closing the doors, because he is so sick of it. I have cautioned him against doing it rashly, because his investment business would be a precarious vehicle upon which to rely solely.
I am aware that the model I describe is a known issue - business founder not letting go. But unless he finds a way of doing it his business is worth very little and he will remain shackled to it.
Has anyone been in the same position but extricated themselves from it?
VeeReihenmotor6 said:
He needs to spend time building his team with characters he can trust and delegate to. He can still review stuff to keep his "hand in".
100% this.It sounds like he only wants to "extricate" himself because he's sick and tired of the amount of work he's having to do, not because he wants to retire. He needs to find people he can rely on - one option might be to bring in a partner.
I would read the e myth revisited. It's about exactly this.
Recruitment and training, is a central part of creating / running a smooth business. But finding a good bookkeeper should be relatively easy. There are firms that you could outsource the work to and avoid employment headaches.
Finding a manager to run the entire business is also a recruitment problem, but a harder one. He should walk before he can run, and first hire a bookeeper.
So if he can't successful recruit someone to do the books, then highly unlikely he will succeed at finding some to run the whole thing.
He needs to recruit people he can trust, to take responsibility for these tasks to. If he doesn't have the money to recruit people, is the business viable?
What do the five people do?
Recruitment and training, is a central part of creating / running a smooth business. But finding a good bookkeeper should be relatively easy. There are firms that you could outsource the work to and avoid employment headaches.
Finding a manager to run the entire business is also a recruitment problem, but a harder one. He should walk before he can run, and first hire a bookeeper.
So if he can't successful recruit someone to do the books, then highly unlikely he will succeed at finding some to run the whole thing.
He needs to recruit people he can trust, to take responsibility for these tasks to. If he doesn't have the money to recruit people, is the business viable?
What do the five people do?
Edited by lizardbrain on Thursday 18th January 18:46
lizardbrain said:
So if he can't successful recruit someone to do the books, then highly unlikely he will succeed at finding some to run the whole thing.
He needs to recruit people he can trust, to take responsibility for these tasks to. If he doesn't have the money to recruit people, is the business viable?
What do the five people do?
It's viable for as long as he is in it.He needs to recruit people he can trust, to take responsibility for these tasks to. If he doesn't have the money to recruit people, is the business viable?
What do the five people do?
The five are three or four tradespeople plus someone else, I am not sure what they do.
In part I think it's a case of if he found someone good enough to run it they would already be doing it for themselves.
Louis Balfour said:
In part I think it's a case of if he found someone good enough to run it they would already be doing it for themselves.
Not always. Some people only want to work part time and stay active and sharp. He might look to an older hire who wants to say work 2 days a week while having no ambitions to take on the business. Or a younger hire who is sharp in IT who wants a part time gig to add to their CV by automating and adding in some smart tools to help (doesn't have to be expensive)
Amateurish said:
Billing, ordering, wages are all administrative tasks which can be automated or delegated.
This. I've built a few bespoke systems for small businesses to take care of the the mundane stuff - processing orders, invoicing, work scheduling etc. which frees people up to do the value add stuff. A lot of these small businesses have people who are busy at being busy and can't scale because they are maxxed out doing too much manual admin. Louis Balfour said:
It's viable for as long as he is in it.
The five are three or four tradespeople plus someone else, I am not sure what they do.
In part I think it's a case of if he found someone good enough to run it they would already be doing it for themselves.
I’m going to hazard a guess that he doesn’t think anyone else on the business can do the jobs he’s held onto as well as himself.The five are three or four tradespeople plus someone else, I am not sure what they do.
In part I think it's a case of if he found someone good enough to run it they would already be doing it for themselves.
I started my business with my wife, and we did everything in it ourselves. No staff and nothing outsourced.
As it grew it was a simple but often torturous exercise of off loading various tasks to the new members of the team. I say torturous simply because as it was my baby sometimes It was difficult to let go.
When I was a senior manager as an employee in another business delegation was easy, so much harder in your own business. I’m much better at it now. This is something your friend needs to learn an implement. That and automating some of the admin tasks as already said.
The situation your Business Associate is in is not dissimilar to Gambling Addicts or Alcoholics in that they must first accept that a problem exists and open themselves to the help that's available to them. You can nudge people along towards that but ultimately, it's down to them to 'want' to change.
I have a good friend and associate who's an Executive Coach. He works with CEOs, business owners, senior managers and the like tackling issues such as this. He's very good and I've seen how he works first-hand. It's rather impressive.
I have no idea if he would be of any use to your Associate but I'd be happy to introduce you. For sake of a chat, might open some ideas for you both.
PM if you're interested and I'll connect you.
I have a good friend and associate who's an Executive Coach. He works with CEOs, business owners, senior managers and the like tackling issues such as this. He's very good and I've seen how he works first-hand. It's rather impressive.
I have no idea if he would be of any use to your Associate but I'd be happy to introduce you. For sake of a chat, might open some ideas for you both.
PM if you're interested and I'll connect you.
Louis Balfour said:
In part I think it's a case of if he found someone good enough to run it they would already be doing it for themselves.
Absolutely a false assumption- there are many people who would happily work in a management role who have no desire whatsoever to run a business.Crook said:
Louis Balfour said:
In part I think it's a case of if he found someone good enough to run it they would already be doing it for themselves.
Absolutely a false assumption- there are many people who would happily work in a management role who have no desire whatsoever to run a business.StevieBee said:
The situation your Business Associate is in is not dissimilar to Gambling Addicts or Alcoholics in that they must first accept that a problem exists and open themselves to the help that's available to them. You can nudge people along towards that but ultimately, it's down to them to 'want' to change.
I have a good friend and associate who's an Executive Coach. He works with CEOs, business owners, senior managers and the like tackling issues such as this. He's very good and I've seen how he works first-hand. It's rather impressive.
I have no idea if he would be of any use to your Associate but I'd be happy to introduce you. For sake of a chat, might open some ideas for you both.
PM if you're interested and I'll connect you.
Thanks Stevie. However it would appear impertinent. I was asking the question more because I have seen it happen so many times, and also because I wanted to be better informed myself for the eventuality that I have further dealings with him. I would not presume to advise him on his core business, I am just not qualified to do so.I have a good friend and associate who's an Executive Coach. He works with CEOs, business owners, senior managers and the like tackling issues such as this. He's very good and I've seen how he works first-hand. It's rather impressive.
I have no idea if he would be of any use to your Associate but I'd be happy to introduce you. For sake of a chat, might open some ideas for you both.
PM if you're interested and I'll connect you.
If this was a pal of mine,
I’d say a quick win might be to let some of the small local accounting/book keeping firms do the payroll. It’s usually fairly easy to outsource & minimal expense.
Local to me places like the bowling club / bars etc do this as can’t justify a person of their own. There’s a lot of admin/red tape/fixed deadlines etc in that & subsequent pension contributions & paye etc
After that I might suggest other accounting services (possibly same provider) rather than a book keeper
These days it’s potentially as simple as scanning documents as they come in & they’ll do the VAT etc for you.
Important thing for small Business owners is they can still retain control over seeing everything/reviewing everything & can still be the one paying people etc just frees a few hours a week. ( systems for accounting/Payroll/VAT/Pension are all setup to allow multi users /agents access to assist so it’s “normal”
I’d say a quick win might be to let some of the small local accounting/book keeping firms do the payroll. It’s usually fairly easy to outsource & minimal expense.
Local to me places like the bowling club / bars etc do this as can’t justify a person of their own. There’s a lot of admin/red tape/fixed deadlines etc in that & subsequent pension contributions & paye etc
After that I might suggest other accounting services (possibly same provider) rather than a book keeper
These days it’s potentially as simple as scanning documents as they come in & they’ll do the VAT etc for you.
Important thing for small Business owners is they can still retain control over seeing everything/reviewing everything & can still be the one paying people etc just frees a few hours a week. ( systems for accounting/Payroll/VAT/Pension are all setup to allow multi users /agents access to assist so it’s “normal”
I was stressed doing too much so I downsized the business dramatically and went to 4 days, we made sure we paid every supplier on delivery so no trade accounts, we stopped giving credit so that meant no chasing money by us, that stopped most of the phone calls from people chasing money, took a lot of stress away, by downsizing we could be more picky about the jobs we took on and life was much better.
Louis Balfour said:
StevieBee said:
The situation your Business Associate is in is not dissimilar to Gambling Addicts or Alcoholics in that they must first accept that a problem exists and open themselves to the help that's available to them. You can nudge people along towards that but ultimately, it's down to them to 'want' to change.
I have a good friend and associate who's an Executive Coach. He works with CEOs, business owners, senior managers and the like tackling issues such as this. He's very good and I've seen how he works first-hand. It's rather impressive.
I have no idea if he would be of any use to your Associate but I'd be happy to introduce you. For sake of a chat, might open some ideas for you both.
PM if you're interested and I'll connect you.
Thanks Stevie. However it would appear impertinent. I was asking the question more because I have seen it happen so many times, and also because I wanted to be better informed myself for the eventuality that I have further dealings with him. I would not presume to advise him on his core business, I am just not qualified to do so.I have a good friend and associate who's an Executive Coach. He works with CEOs, business owners, senior managers and the like tackling issues such as this. He's very good and I've seen how he works first-hand. It's rather impressive.
I have no idea if he would be of any use to your Associate but I'd be happy to introduce you. For sake of a chat, might open some ideas for you both.
PM if you're interested and I'll connect you.
What I would say is that you wouldn't be advising in the core of his business as that's not where the primary issue is. It's more behavioural, psychological and cultural. Effective and efficient delegation is only possible if the person doing the delegating is willing to do so. If they're not, then there's little other remedy available. In this case, the barriers that prevent them from doing so should then be examined and explored.
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