How many hats do you wear at your startup?
Josh runs a small technology firm near Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. When we met for lunch, he shared with me the marketing challenges facing him and how he can’t figure out a solution. I asked him to describe a typical day which he did in great detail.
The problem was evident to me after listening for fifteen minutes.
On not In
At some point on a startup journey, you have to work on the business, not in the business. When you have sufficient revenue coming in, you have to find a way to do things that only you can do.
As I listened to Josh, I shared with him that someone else can write the code, follow up on customer inquiries, send out new proposals or manage quality issues. Those are jobs where you work in the business.
Working on the business means that you are looking for paths to grow: new partnerships, new products, new markets or new investment.
Wearing all the hats
During my past life with my wife making brownies for a living, I did every job in our business. I wanted to understand the fundamentals of each position so that, I could look for the right person to do those jobs instead of me.
My job wasn’t making brownies every day and delivering them to customers and collecting payments.
My job was to reach out to Ben & Jerry to do a deal to promote our brownies with their ice cream.
I was the only one suited for meeting new Haagen Dazs distributors around the country who could sell our products along with their ice cream into freezer cases in supermarkets.
No one but me (and my wife), could meet with United Airlines in Chicago to cut a deal to sell three million brownies a year to the airlines for their meal service.
What Job Do You Do?
Letting go of the day to day responsibility isn’t easy. Josh and I talked for several hours about how he could slowly delegate 20% of his responsibility every six months so that he could free up his time to work on his business. Whether through part-time or full-time help, Josh needed to be doing a different job if he wanted to break through to the next level.
Are you working in or on your business? In or on – you can’t do both.
Pick a hat.
Need help delegating so you can work on your business?
You can set up a time to chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com Call me. 919 720 0995. The conversation is free, and we can explore if working together makes sense. Try my new chat feature on my site if you have a quick question.
Photo by JOSHUA COLEMAN on Unsplash
