All small business owners are good at doing the thing their business is based upon. Whether their talent is valuing antique furniture or a being a highly skilled app developer and coder. There are literally thousands of skills that talented entrepreneurs are building companies upon. But entrepreneurs often mistakenly believe they are also good at every other aspect of business that is needed to succeed in their small business venture.
A microenterprise can fail early because the owner/operator can’t effectively balance their books, they may fail at cold-calling prospects or their weakness may simply be poor marketing skills to showcase their operation. Many small businesses don’t get past these barriers to success, but those who do succeed often accomplish that end by partnering with a strong book-keeper who offers relevant financial tips, a wonderful salesperson with great contacts who follows through to the sale or they may have the good luck to connect with an excellent online marketer who creates a strongly converting web presence.
Dark Side of Partnership Ensures Failure
Sometimes an entrepreneur can be so focused and so certain of his mission, that they become blind to good advice from partners and even though they are seeking guidance and want direction from others – they’ll bend that guidance to fit their strong vision and subvert any gains. There are company founders who pay for advice, but either misinterpret or mis-apply recommendations from experts to restrict goals and confine big ideas into much smaller pre-conceived idea boxes. Some can go so far as to ask one expert to work toward end goals that are better served by a completely different expertise.
Hire smart people,
so they can tell you
what to do.
- Steve Jobs pic.twitter.com/HDdSW7kobn
— HR quote (@HRquote) May 16, 2015
Company founders need to decide they are in need of business expertise and then engage the best possible employee or consultant to achieve clear goals – then take their advice and implement their recommendations within budget constraints. If there are disagreements about methodology or prioritization, work to achieve the best possible compromise without discarding the end goal. Sometimes an idea or a tool can be beyond reach in the short term, but is still accessible in bite-sized projects by moving an expense over to the following calendar quarter when fresh budget is available.
