The Small Business Owner’s Hat Stand
One of the first questions I ask my clients is, why did you leave the comfort of employment to start your own business? The answers vary, however, the most common response is ‘freedom and flexibility’.
Most small business owners feel the pressure to wear many different hats that each have their own unique set of challenges. There is a separate hat to wear for each aspect of running a business.
These hats include ‘run of the mill business operations’ such as inventory management, invoicing, scheduling, and most importantly physically completing the work (just to name a few). There are more ‘specialised’ hats that are required to be worn when things don’t always go to plan, or when they are unsure of their rights and responsibilities. These scenarios include issues that relate to debt collection, financial management, complying with government regulations, solving cashflow issues, creating and implementing business plans, considering advice from accountants or lawyers.
The risk of wearing all the hats in the business may lead to being burnt out and not providing value to your client or worse still making a mistake that ends up being costly to rectify. According to a recent study by capitalone nearly half of small business owners surveyed indicated that they experienced burnout. Another study by Big Small Business Survey found that the word ‘exhausted’ was continually used to describe small business owners’ mood and wellbeing.
By wearing all these hats, centralise decision making with one person resulting in a roadblock preventing the business gathering momentum.
Seems overwhelming?
Yes, it can be, but the good news is that there are simple steps that can undo the roadblock. The trick is to share the hats on the stand with others by implementing small and manageable changes one step at a time. These ‘others’ might be staff members taking on additional responsibilities or communicating with advisors on a more regular basis or talking to business mentors. But the most important step is to implement processes and procedures within the business so that all aspects of the business is coordinated to ensure the success of the business.
