If you have been here for quite awhile (meaning a year or more ago), you may already have your small business going for a time now. And so you maybe thinking of expanding your business and perhaps also thinking about effective small business administration or thinking if you need business insurance or a business marketing person among other needs. Anyway, with your business expanding, you know you now need extra hands and minds.
How do I manage the expansion of my small business?
To manage a growing business, set up a formal organization by apportioning responsibilities to yourself and your workers.
The classic definition of a small enterprise is a "manufacturing or service enterprise wherein the owner-manager is not actively involved in production but performs a varied range of tasks involved in guidance and leadership without the help of specialized staff."
Implied in this definition is the central role of the owner-manager in the business. Like you, many small businessmen begin by doing most of the management functions. In other words, by being their own production, marketing finance and personnel supervisors / managers. Well, it is obvious you have been serving as "all things" to your business. Now that you have begun to grow, you know you can’t hack it alone. You need extra hands and minds.
One of the first things you do in setting up a more formal organization is to choose the responsibilities to take for yourself. Then, you choose the people to work for you. But whoever you hire, be sure that they can do the job you hired them to do.
Choosing your own role in the business
In choosing your own responsibilities and tasks, consider the following:
* Your education and training. Entrepreneurs with engineering and technical education naturally want to be on top of production. Those with accounting or banking background see themselves as financial managers. What about you?
* Your experience. We know someone who worked for years as a woodworker and later installation foreman in a large wood-tile company. When he decided to go on his own, he set up a small wood-tile production outfit. Quite naturally, he became not only general manager but also production manager. Similarly, you should consider your own experiences. Which of these experiences might have prepared you to do certain management and technical responsibilities?
* Your interest and aptitude. You may have neither the experience nor the training for a certain management job, but you might have the interest and aptitude for it. For example, if you are outgoing, persuasive, and persistent and naturally drawn to people, you will do well in sales even if you had no formal training or experience in it.
* Your time. How much time can you devote to all the management responsibilities you want to take? Remember there are only 24 hours in a day. Remember too that you have other roles to play in life —parent, spouse, daughter/son, member of the community. So if you fancy being "all things" to your business, think again.
* The advantage of your broad view. Remember, nevertheless, that a business organization is not permanent. It moves, evolves, grows. Your role in it also alters as the organization moves. Be prepared for these changes.
Choosing the people to work with you
Should you hire from members of your family, relations, and neighbors?
Whoever you hire, be sure that they can do the job you hired them to do. Before taking them in, lay down the ground rules. Tell them clearly what you expect from them in terms of performance, attendance, punctuality, etc.
Conversely, they also need to know what they can expect from you in compensation, benefits, work hours and conditions, etc. If they are relatives or friends, you must make them realize that, in coming in as employees, they are now relating to you in business and professional terms. It is now a relationship based on performance.
Choosing the right people to work with you may seem easy. There are so many people who are jobless or underemployed. However, you must look for those with the skills, attitudes, and personality traits to do the job well. You must choose employees who are willing to work hard and well, who are willing to be trained and to go on working for you after being trained. If you think that is easy, think again.
Source: UP ISSI
How do I manage the expansion of my small business?
To manage a growing business, set up a formal organization by apportioning responsibilities to yourself and your workers.
The classic definition of a small enterprise is a "manufacturing or service enterprise wherein the owner-manager is not actively involved in production but performs a varied range of tasks involved in guidance and leadership without the help of specialized staff."
Implied in this definition is the central role of the owner-manager in the business. Like you, many small businessmen begin by doing most of the management functions. In other words, by being their own production, marketing finance and personnel supervisors / managers. Well, it is obvious you have been serving as "all things" to your business. Now that you have begun to grow, you know you can’t hack it alone. You need extra hands and minds.
One of the first things you do in setting up a more formal organization is to choose the responsibilities to take for yourself. Then, you choose the people to work for you. But whoever you hire, be sure that they can do the job you hired them to do.
Choosing your own role in the business
In choosing your own responsibilities and tasks, consider the following:
* Your education and training. Entrepreneurs with engineering and technical education naturally want to be on top of production. Those with accounting or banking background see themselves as financial managers. What about you?
* Your experience. We know someone who worked for years as a woodworker and later installation foreman in a large wood-tile company. When he decided to go on his own, he set up a small wood-tile production outfit. Quite naturally, he became not only general manager but also production manager. Similarly, you should consider your own experiences. Which of these experiences might have prepared you to do certain management and technical responsibilities?
* Your interest and aptitude. You may have neither the experience nor the training for a certain management job, but you might have the interest and aptitude for it. For example, if you are outgoing, persuasive, and persistent and naturally drawn to people, you will do well in sales even if you had no formal training or experience in it.
* Your time. How much time can you devote to all the management responsibilities you want to take? Remember there are only 24 hours in a day. Remember too that you have other roles to play in life —parent, spouse, daughter/son, member of the community. So if you fancy being "all things" to your business, think again.
* The advantage of your broad view. Remember, nevertheless, that a business organization is not permanent. It moves, evolves, grows. Your role in it also alters as the organization moves. Be prepared for these changes.
Choosing the people to work with you
Should you hire from members of your family, relations, and neighbors?
Whoever you hire, be sure that they can do the job you hired them to do. Before taking them in, lay down the ground rules. Tell them clearly what you expect from them in terms of performance, attendance, punctuality, etc.
Conversely, they also need to know what they can expect from you in compensation, benefits, work hours and conditions, etc. If they are relatives or friends, you must make them realize that, in coming in as employees, they are now relating to you in business and professional terms. It is now a relationship based on performance.
Choosing the right people to work with you may seem easy. There are so many people who are jobless or underemployed. However, you must look for those with the skills, attitudes, and personality traits to do the job well. You must choose employees who are willing to work hard and well, who are willing to be trained and to go on working for you after being trained. If you think that is easy, think again.
Source: UP ISSI
