In business as an entrepreneur it is better to put ten men to work for you, than do the work of ten men. As an entrepreneur, you can make your business grow and break barriers if you successfully recruit and train others to work with you. Some businesses perform very well while they depend on one person (the founder) but once goals have to be achieved that require the efforts of others, they slow down.
When you are pioneering a business, you have to know when to change ‘gear’. It is good for you to start a car out on the first gear but some where along the line you know you have to shift to another gear if not the engine would be straining. The strain is reflected in the engine sound. A lot of start-up entrepreneurs don’t understand this. For instance, when you are starting the construction of a house, the kinds of tools you work with are different from the ones you use when you are through with DPC level. When you are just starting out you use excavators, diggers and the like. But when you have built the house past the DPC level you don’t need earth moving tools any more. If you continue to use the same kind of tools you will pull down what you are building.
We have to be sensitive to that point of transition or else it will result in stress and burnout. Little wonder it was statistically proven that 90% of small or new businesses in the U.S die within the first five years, and in ten years the figure grows to 99%. The additional 9% in the latter five years are largely due to failure in health of the entrepreneur. The fact that you are a foreman does not mean you should do the job of four men.
A lot of business owners believe that their employees are the problem. There was a story I heard about a company in the U.S whose sales department was doing very poorly, and the Sales Manager was angry. He spoke harshly to his subordinates, insulted them and told them they were the reason the company was failing. He warned that if they did not shape up they would all be sacked. There was among the staff this salesman that had just been hired who had been a professional footballer. The angry Sales Manager pointed at him and asked, If a football team is not doing well, you sack the player that is not playing right, isn’t it? The guy rose to his feet slowly and said, Sir, no, when a team is not doing well, you fire the coach.
Most people are fantastic players but poor coaches and if you are an entrepreneur, somewhere along the line you must learn to switch from being a player to becoming a coach. Have the patience to work with people and train them. Understanding that by the time you are through training your employees the returns to your company would be enormous. You will be making money with other peoples’ time and effort, if only you can catch this big secret.