I think I may have created a monster.
My business partner, Andy Kyiet, has been doing what I asked him to do, which is focus on selling instead of delivering.
He’s been so successful that I’m buried under a ton of things to do.
How did this crisis come about?
My ‘New’ Business
Andy and I are in business together – it’s called Demand Flow Intelligence (DFI – demandflow.com.au).
The purpose of DFI is to help organisations improve their marketing by ensuring that their data is in a state which enables them to do so – we call it Data Lead Marketing.
A few years ago I started working with Andy as a campaign manager and have progressed so that from July 1st we are partners – whoo hoo!
My perception of things was that like many small business owners, Andy was very involved in the day-to-day operations side of the business.
This has the natural consequence that not much selling happens.
The Small Business Marketing Cycle
You see this a lot in business – there’s little or no work and so the business operator puts a lot of effort into marketing.
After a few months this starts to pay off and the work is now rolling in so the owner stops marketing and spends their time delivering on all the promises they made.
This often lasts for a few months and then that bundle of work gets completed and the owner realises there’s nothing in the pipe and so they go out and start marketing again, basically having to recreate all the efforts they’d done previously: welcome to the world of the small business owner.
Business Owner Being Too Hands On
At DFI things weren’t that dire because there are a couple of us at the core with a couple of great support people.
However, there was still the issue that Andy was too hands-on.
That often resulted in us duplicating tasks.
So, I impressed on him the need to allow me to handle the operational side of the business while he focussed on Sales & Marketing.
He did, and now, as I mentioned above, I’m buried – but it’s all good.
Many years ago I worked with Shirlaws – the coaching organisation.
They talk about the stages a business goes through and there’s the point where it takes off.
How Being Successful Can Drive You Insane
Uninformed business owners respond to the sudden growth by bringing in more people thinking that’s how everything will get done – WRONG!
What that actually does is create a greater degree of chaos and confusion because the people who’ve been brought in aren’t sure of what exactly they’re supposed to be doing and so they wait around for direction, adding more work for the poor, overworked business owner or they become proactive and make decisions which aren’t aligned with the business direction.
This is usually because they don’t fully understand the nature of the business, what it’s objectives are and how the culture is supposed to be.
They aren’t being malicious, quite the opposite in fact, but due to the lack of time and exposure they don’t really know what’s going on and so they do things based on what they learned in previous organisations, which may not be applicable in the current one.
This can then create misunderstandings both with other staff and the clients resulting in more stuff for the business owner to sort out.
(Lately, I’ve been watching MasterChef.
When I see what happens in the background of restaurants and commercial kitchens I can’t help but wonder why anyone in their right mind would want to be a chef.
Maybe my error is assuming they are in their “right mind”.
But, having made the above points about business you could be asking the same thing about people wanting to have their own businesses.)
Anyway, it’s not all doom and gloom – clearly because many businesses succeed and the owners can enjoy trips overseas (like Andy and his family right now), great lifestyle and whatever you want in life.
So, what’s the trick.
Returning to Shirlaws – the important thing is not adding more people, but adding more processes, procedures and systems.
The classic book on this is Michael Gerber’s “The E-Myth Revisited” – an oldie but still one of the best.
Working Half Days
So, this week, to keep myself from drowning I’ve been getting up at 4 and 5am.
It’s amazing how much you can get done before the rest of the world wakes up.
What I’ve also found intriguing is that I can still be working quite effectively (well I think I’ve been effective) quite late in the day (note: “day” – have been avoiding working to much into the night as well as the early starts).
Brian Sher, author of “How To Make Money Out Of Thin Air” tells that one of his beliefs which he learned from his father is “to only work half days”.
That sounds wonderful until he adds the rider that it means 8am to 8pm.
So, I’m working a similar time except it’s 5 till 5.
Putting Processes In Place
The other side of having so much work (apart from rearranging my sleeping patterns) is that it’s highlighted the areas in our business which need systems, checklists, processes etc.
I’ve been a spasmodic user of Google Drive, Asana, Dropbox and other apps for a long time but I’m now realising how powerful these tools can be.
Andy and I have often talked about finding a better way to communicate than using email and the phone.
As he’s now overseas email will be spasmodic (he’s supposed to be on a holiday – although there are some business meetings he has lined up ATO please note) and time zones mean telephone conversations will be very challenging.
So, right now, I’m working on keeping all the balls in the air, my head above water, all the plates spinning and staying sane.
But it’s all great because this is going to help us make sure we have a great business which will continue to grow and grow.
Now, what was that report I had to get done?…
(*Thanks to Olaf Uckermann for the photo of the inside of my head)