Hardest lesson in business: Managing growth
I’m at something of a business crisis point at present - managing growth.
Simply put, my workload is far too large for me to handle.
This is a big part of trying to expand my business - not so much client side, but general services side.
Because I’ve always been a hands-on person, I used to do everything - then slowly began to outsource little things here and there.
Now, there is so much admin work - webmastering, design, development, domain management, software install/backup, sites site up, etc etc etc - that I simply cannot cope with it all.
There’s been some interesting trial and error, and cursing myself for not networking enough earlier - I’m outsourcing blind at present for many things - and paying the price (literally) in some areas.
Bottom line is - small businesses either stay as one-man shows, or expand into employers. For longevity, I think my company needs to employ - eventually move a team into offices.
While a home office has served well so far, it’s beginning to get too small - the need for staff to provide more and more duties is more pressing.
It’s become something of a crisis point because I need to solve these management issues to expand - but identifying precise remits of individual positions - and then getting people to fill them - is very difficult.
I already have around 30 freelancers working for me on a daily basis, but now even managing these is becoming a difficult time sink - I need dedicated staff to delegate clear tasks to, and manage them, without my supervision. That means a massive amount of trust and competency required.
Sometimes I really wish I’d just get bought out or hired because I’m a techie, not a salesperson, and having to take on leadership roles brings a degree of responsibility and organisation that can be tough to adapt to.
Still, I’m working on a vision - driven by a sense of destiny if you wish - and somewhere out there is an end game where I grow a big business and use it to entirely fund charitable work. I’m driven by trying to achieve that goal.
So I must learn to tackle these management issues.
Reader beware - managing growth is the most challenging aspect of business I’ve ever had to deal with, and if I do manage to grow staff-wise, I can see the challenges becoming even greater - all the more reason to grapple and succeed with the issue now, and for the future.
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Hey Brian I hear you - I think we’re alike in some surprising ways (which we can discuss more at the upcoming seoclass in Edinburgh - I’d like that).
When I decided to go it on my own, I decided to virtually wait until I had suitably convinced a lifelong friend (who worked in a bank at the time) to come in on the project with me - someone to manage the business, staff, offices and growth while I concentrated on my seo studies and deployed the web solutions so many people wanted from me. Someone to be the boss!
We’ve went in one year from a company of one to soon to be a company of 7 (and shortly thereafter an agency of 10 probably) in one year.
You definitely need a partner - somebody to trust - who can help you through the pain barrier - to do the tasks you shouldn’t be doing.
It’s very painful, a constant balancing act, a checking of priorities, but it’s worth it.
After two years I now have a great team who’re all trying to better themselves at every stage. It’s quite inspiring.
That’s opposed to last year waking up every morning after 3 hours sleep thinking I was living in a nightmare of never-ending responsibility.
Good luck - hope you get the help you’re looking for.
Comment by Hobo — March 26, 2008 @ 9:32 pm
Definitely sounds like you’re organised - hoping my new changes will leave me in a similar position, too. :)
Comment by Brian Turner — March 27, 2008 @ 9:30 am
I’m sure they will!
Comment by Hobo — March 27, 2008 @ 10:55 am
The funny thing is the difference in role between manager and techie. On the one hand, I need to spend more time managing - delegating clear strategic tasks and ensuring them completed. However, being a hands-on techie sometimes reveals opportunities that could be easily missed by someone without a creative SEO background. It’s a tough balance, but as the company grows, more tasks need delegating. The problem is that for the more important tasks, it’s not necessarily easy to find someone with the mindset to ensure those tasks are completed competently.
Comment by Brian Turner — March 27, 2008 @ 10:59 am
To be honest I think I am really lucky - Michael hasn’t a clue about what I do, and frankly I don’t have a clue hat he gets up to!
Write now he is sitting two feet away from me drilling through emails replying to clients and office repairs while I am getting on with a website restructuring and the boys in the office are working on their own stuff - a bit o ying and yang stuff that seems to work for us anyway :)
Comment by Hobo — March 27, 2008 @ 2:49 pm
I’m coming to this thread late, so would be interested in knowing how you solved these issues.
For me, I figured that doing SEO in the way that I was just wasn’t scalable as a business, so I moved more into lead generation (using SEM to generate traffic), hired some staff and went in a different direction.
The one downside is I do spend a lot of time managing people rather than doing the stuff I really enjoy. I expect you’ll find the same.
Comment by Mark from Compare Designers — May 25, 2008 @ 1:25 pm
Common problem with alot of business people, knowing what their business is, and focusing on activities for the business.
Many people tend to do the tasks they like, as opposed to doing the tasks they should.
Human nature I suppose, so that’s why we have holidays, so when we come back we have an open mind for a while!
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