Getting “Beyond” The Start-Up Phase Mentality A Virtual Brick Wall That Often Lasts For Years

Kicking off a new business means that the entrepreneur or business owner begins operations leveraging his/her knowledge of the products or services it performs and how those product/services will be delivered to the marketplace.

When the startup begins with the entrepreneur him/herself – a non to infrequent occurrence, the entrepreneur begins operations doing absolutely everything – sales/marketing, finance and operations – dividing up his/her time based on what has to be done based on a priority known usually only by that individual.

The thought that no one works harder, longer or on a more committed basis than the entrepreneur him/herself.

As the company grows and starts to add profitable revenue, the entrepreneurial begins to think about getting some help.  What kind of help?  Probably anoher generalist who can and does help the entrepreneur do more of exactly what he/she started doing when they were doing everything themselves – a little of everything.

Decisions continue to be made by the entrepreneur.  And because the company is small, there is very little downside to continuing to run the business this way.

Funny thing, this process of hiring “helpers” and continuing to make any/all decisions continues with little change – for years and years.

The author has seen companies with over 20 employees that continue to operate exactly the same way.   Any/all decisions are centered in the hands of the founding father or mother.

At some time in the future, the entrepreneur starts to run into a brick-wall.

A brick-wall?

Yes!  When business reaches a point when the entrepreneur ends up spending 80% plus of his time making these low-to-mid-level decisions – he/she is, effectively, short-circuiting the company’s ability build the business.  The company has run across an “invisible ceiling” of decision making time.

If you see a company that seems to be stuck-in-a-rut, consider that you may be looking at a company where most if not all decisions are made by the entrepreneur him/herself.

Is there a way “beyond” this invisible brick-wall?  Yes – it requires a willingness to look, honestly, at the people who are asked to implement the decisions you made (supervisors/low-mid level managers) and determine whether they can begin to take on that role themselves without decisions coming directly from you.

Could it be that the people you’re counting on to assume these new responsibilities are already POISONED?  What do I mean by “poisoned

Is it often found that the individuals who are now being evaluated for a higher decision making role have had their ability to make decisions compromised by an entrepreneur’s management style?

If, over and over again, you short-circuit most if not all of their efforts to make decisions on their own, there is a great likelihood they’ll be poisoned and incapable for making decisions whether trained to do so or not.

Converting poisoned employees into employees who feel empowered and have the confidence and capabilities to make meaningful decisions is a difficult thing at best – often impossible in practical terms.  The only option, in this case, is to either continue making any/all decisions – or - hiring talented people who have both experience and competencies as managers to assume that role.  What happens to the employees who have been poisoned?  They can either be kept at a line-level reporting to the designated manager – or – they will need to be replaced.

Keep in mind that poisoned employees often work less hard than those who are empowered.  In any case, you are bound to feel guilty of having poisoned them – and feel an obligation to keep them aboard.  If you do, all you’ll be doing is adding to your overhead without the benefit you need from every employee – line or manager.  Ask yourself if you can really afford to keep these people?  That’s the real decision you have to make if you want to move ahead.

How to get beyond?  Good question.  Not an easy answer!

Needed is a commitment to change – to plan for the changes and their implementation in a way that dosen’t end up shooting yourself in the foot.

Change means re-thinking how your employees (managers and line) as well as sub contractors interact, their level of responsibility including decision making authority.  As you begin planning for these changes, remember that change requires training – sometimes formal – other times in the form of mentoring – but in all cases, it requires your active involvement.  That means time away from your day-by-day role of making all decisions (smile).

Beyond the staffing issues, it is not uncommon that the corporate organizational structure will need adjustment.  And new systems and procedures established that will compliment the re-engineered company.

The magic ingredient is “time”.  If there’s time to plan and establish decision making guidelines, a gentle “weaning” of capable managers to a decision making role is possible.  If the way the business is now running doesn’t allow the time to making weaning these individuals into a decision making role, then other decisions are necessary. Or, far worse,

This process is NOT an overnight one – it takes time – for planning, for training and for implementing the new systems and procedures.  SPIA has found that a 90 day window is enough time to do it right.

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If you are interested in learning more, feel free to contact Craig Stimmel @ SPIA Inc. cstimmel@spiainc.com or calling Craig @ (978) 640-0803.  Check out the many articles on these and similar subjects on SPIA’s blog: http://www.blog.spiainc.com