Keys To Success: Employees

One of the keys to success for many small businesses is when they hire their first employee.  As an entrepreneur, solo professional or self-employed business owner you can only grow your business and influence with the help of others.

Unfortunately, many small business owners see employees as a babysitting task or unwelcome responsibility as opposed to an opportunity to take them and their business to a better level.

Yes, having employees brings a new dynamic to your business.  It also brings increased paperwork and the discipline of making a payroll and the paperwork and procedures that must be implemented to have a good work environment.

Keys To Success:  Get Over The Hurdle 

One of the keys to success in small business growth is to get over the hurdle of hiring your first employee.  Very often, in my personal business coaching practice I have business owners who are reluctant to take the step to hire someone.

Yet, if they don’t they will stay on the treadmill they have created and ultimately wear out and quit their business.  Once the self-employed business owner truly understands that employees are the way to have a better business and life then they are ready to step up to becoming more and having more.

So, what holds the self-employed business owner back from hiring employees?  There are many reasons.  Some don’t want the extra paperwork.  Some don’t want the responsibility of an employee.  They really don’t want someone else to be accountable to.

Notice that the focus is on what the business owner does not want.  When the small business owner is focusing on what he doesn’t want, instead of what he does want, he is being ruled by fear.  And, the likelihood of him or her taking the action to move forward is quite small.

Keys To Success:  Focusing On What You Want 

Instead, as a small business owner you must focus on what you do want.  One of the keys to success and small business growth is to continually focus on what you do want.  If you want to get to a point where your business isn’t your life and your life isn’t your business then you must learn to depend on others.

One of the keys to success in small business is to have good processes.  Too often, the focus is put on outcome.  In truth, it is process that determines outcome.  To be ready to hire an employee it is better if you have good processes in place.  And, it is even better to have them written down.

Keys To Success:  Good Processes 

The first process is in the hiring employees.  It is important to have an application form.  There are numerous reasons that I won’t go into here.  Suffice it to say, that one of the keys to success is to have a good application form.

The next part of the hiring process is to be specific in what you need the employee to do.  Have a written job description.  If you don’t, start creating one when the employee starts.  Having a job description allows the small business owner to hold the employee accountable and to measure performance.

In coaching success I find that the businesses that truly succeed on a higher level have policies, procedures, accountability and measure performance. If this is not something you like to do, there are people who you can hire to help you do this.

There is a great deal that could be written on this subject.  My goal here is to give you a start and possibly the impetus to take on your first employee.

Get in the right mindset.  It is part of success planning. Employees are an asset.  To go forward in running a small business or a small business startup and to have small business success, we must learn to be dependent on others.  And, in being dependent on others, one of the keys to success is to create a process where we are dependent on the right people.

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The Truth And Confusion About Can’t And Won’t

Can't and Won’t  are two words we use quite often. They let someone know, or if we are talking to ourselves, that something is not going to happen.

Yet, how we use Can’t and Won’t will either accelerate our relationships or it can take them backwards.

For example, if you asked me to cut down a tree I can answer you with the following.

“No, I won’t cut down that tree.”

“No, I can’t cut down that tree.”

Without reading anything into either statement:

“No, I won’t cut down that tree.” That is a statement of attitude and emotion. It is valid. It is about my belief system.

“No, I can’t cut down that tree.” Usually, this would be more a statement of fact. You just can’t do it. You just don’t have the skills, the equipment or the time. There is attitude and emotion attached to it but the underlying concern is about fact.

Yet, when we communicate with others or ourselves very often we confuse can’t and  won’t . And  in the process, we can confuse our listener. The truth about ‘can’t’ and ‘won’t’ is that they are both valid.

Be careful how you use ‘can’t’ and ‘won’t’. That’s what can be confusing.

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Keys To Success: Finding Peace (1)

When talking about the keys to success in small business one topic that seldom comes up is “peace.” In coaching success, peace is the one thing my clients value above all else.

Keys To Success:  What Is Peace?

Peace can mean many things.  It could be a longing for predictability or stability.  It could be in having a process for doing business that minimizes breakdowns for both the business and its customers.

At looking at peace as one of the keys to success one thing is for sure.  Peace comes from order.  Distress or lack of peace comes from disorder.  Now, to have small business growth and small business success there must be some disorder.

After all, the only path to growth is to change.  And, change by its very nature represents disorder.  Whether you are starting up your own business or running a small business there needs to be growth and change.  There needs to be some disorder.

Keys To Success:  Know What Is Causing You Distress

You would like to have peace but maybe you are in one of the following situations:

• Your business is growing yet you feel like you are losing control.
• You are profitable or extremely profitable but you are unhappy doing what you do.
• You are not generating the sales or profits you would like and feel lost.
• Your business is good but you can’t seem to hire the right people.
• You find yourself with no energy at the end of the day and not looking forward to tomorrow.
• You are having personal problems.  You end up focusing  even more on your business but the reality is that with the increased focus you are seeking more escape and not addressing the problems.

When the self-employed business owner doesn’t find peace it is because they are distracted. And, too many distractions can cause too many detours and bring progress to a stop.

Keys To Success: Visualize Peace

In the next post I will discuss what peace is and what peace is not.  Also, I will give you some insights in how to create peace in your business and life.  Give some thoughts to what peace is for you.

Visualize what it would look like.  Remember what Napoleon Hill said, “What the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve.”  Visualize inner peace.  It is one of your most important keys to success.

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Keys To Success: Accountability And Action

What are the business keys to success? If we knew what they were then everyone would use them and all businesses would be successful. I think you would agree that whether you are an entrepreneur, solo professional or a business owner running a small business one of the keys to success is your ability to grow in your thinking and your abilities.

It all sounds so very simple. Once again, if it were then everyone would do it. There are many ways to attain business success. More education is more readily available than at any time in our history. Yet, the failure rate of small business has remained unchanged over the last thirty years. If you are starting your own business your probability of succeeding after seven years is less than 20%.

How come the rate for business success, small business success in particular extremely low? There are many answers but the biggest one has to do with the business owner and the size of this thinking. As a business coach I have seen self-employed entrepreneurs and solo professionals start with a complete business plan and a good marketing strategy and fail.

And, I have in my business coaching collaborated with and supported business owners who don’t have detailed plans yet they become very successful. They become successful because they choose to personally grow. Think about it. As a business owner your business will get no bigger than your thinking.

Some ways to grow include having a business coach. Business coaching, if you are ready, provides accountability to accelerate the process of your successful performance. With business coaching you can cut down the cycle time to accomplish what you want and build forward momentum.

Another way to grow whether you are starting your own business or running a small business is through training. Taking a useful course can be helpful. But, the danger here is that you can spend too much time on education and not enough on actually doing what you need to get ahead.

This can become educated procrastination. You keep putting things off until you have all the information and facts. By the time you get around to executing what you have learned you have either lost your focus on your business or it is too late.

Another option is taking a membership course for a fixed term. These may last up to a year. Some are as short as a month. One that lasts 5 months and focuses on small business success is at www.BusinessKeysToSuccess.com.

It is focused and in a short period of time designed to put you a path to more quickly getting where you want to go. It will guide you and train you to become more in your business and life. The focus of Business Keys To Success is to teach you to accomplish. Some courses teach you just to learn. That is not this course. Some courses, and this course is one of them, teach you to accomplish.

After all, your success as a small business owner or in running your own business is not in what you learned but what you accomplished. Grab you copy today at www.BusinessKeysToSuccess.com and start yourself on the exciting journey of becoming more, attracting more and creating the business and life you desire.

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