The Small Business Owner

These people tend to be involved in every aspect of their business from being bookkeeper, marketer, human resources manager, mediator, customer liaison officer and cleaner.

The smaller business harder it is for owner to delegate these functions because they dislike spending any money and, in fairness, dollars can be much tighter. However, many fail to realize that if they invest their dollars wisely in accessing right type of goods and services to grow their business and be more effective, they will see positive changes occur over time. They can become more productive and profitable. It takes time to build a good "business mindset" and to be an effective leader.

The Manager

Many of managers I have coached suffer from similar challenges as small business owner. The key difference of course is that business owner is responsible for his business and cannot escape that responsibility. If business is profitable or non-profitable it will impact on that person personally, particularly financially.

10 Habits of Highly Unsuccessful Business Owners Check out if you regularly practice these habits:

Don’t practice what you preach Tell other people what to do and don’t do it yourself. Set a poor example.

Do not invest any time and money into developing yourself and your people. Forget ongoing personal and professional development. The less you and they know more time, money and energy you will waste. A surefire way to have an unmotivated and unproductive team…not to mention loss of opportunities.

Avoid planning at all costs Continue to be reactive and do things on spur of moment. Don’t write a list of things to do each day and definitely do not use a diary to plan out what you will do. This will ensure you have no time and no life.

Eat whatever you want to and don’t exercise Being unfit and overweight will ensure you’ll feel tired and look awful. You’ll also be susceptible to sickness. A great way to ensure you won’t be able to cope with pressures of your personal and professional life.

Spend most of your waking hours at work Start work early and stay late. This will sap you of energy and creativity. A surefire way to have unsatisfactory personal relationships. Next time you’re in a social situation outside of work you won’t have anything else to talk about except work, work, work. In fact people will avoid you because you’re boring!

No, this is not a pipe dream. It can happen for you. However it takes an investment of time and energy on your part to create a strong, supportive and valuable team…It doesn’t happen by osmosis.

In many of my public workshops on How to Have Less Mess, Less Stress and More Success we often have disgruntled employees attend. It’s not that they don’t want to be at presentation, in fact they gain heaps of benefit from being there. They are frustrated in their workplaces because their bosses in many instances do not care or look after their people.

Many employers think it’s good enough to provide you with a job, let you know when you’re not performing, and if you’re lucky, take you to lunch for your annual Christmas bonus!

Jerry’s Story Jerry was Head of Department in an educational institution. He was headhunted to this position one year ago. He was made many promises including having his own personal assistant as he would be responsible for 5 team members.

The Principal promised a salary review in six months and flexibility in hours. Jerry was informed there would be some after hours activities involved but these would be minimal.

Ten months later Jerry had no personal assistant. He had to do every single administrative task himself. He spent more time addressing needs of his team at detriment of his other responsibilities. Extra curricular activities ate up an extra 12 hours a week on top of 50 hours he spent at school just to stay on top of workload! He couldn’t take time off in lieu for additional hours he worked as his department was already understaffed. Overtime wasn’t part of his salary package.

Jerry had constantly spoken to Principal who agreed to lighten his load yet hadn’t taken necessary action to do so! Lack of action from one person often forces other to react and take control.

Jerry had enough! He tendered his resignation after successfully applying for a position in another school.

The Principal from his old school promised Jerry that he would make changes he so desperately wanted. Unfortunately for Principal, staff and in turn students, it was too late. Jerry had enough. He decided to take control of his situation and not be reliant on actions of others.

Since leaving he was so much happier. His health and personal relationships improved dramatically.

Jenny’s Story Jenny worked in an accounting practice. As a manager she had many responsibilities. Not only was she supposed to manage a team of people and deal with all their issues, she also had to bill seven hours of chargeable time each day.