October 24, 2007, 10:58 am
Are you happy with the manager you hired to run your business?
In When should an owner cede control?, a CEO contemplates sharing the management responsibilites of his small business. Based on your experiences, what would you recommend he do?
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The advice given originally is great however, I found that in order to really grow the business it is important to hire someone to work in the business. As the leading authority for women of color business building, I found that most entrepreneurs are stuck doing everything and find it hard to relinquish responsibilities. It is important to be working on the business instead of working in the business.
As far as hiring a person, I found that creating systems and having them in place for everything, made the transition easier. For example, I even had a system and written policy for answering the phones, submitting reports…everything. It takes a lot of work up front, however, it was so much easier in the long run.
Secondly, I have been both, promoted from within and hired into the company. As the new boss, the transition is difficult as an outsider. However, it was harder when I was promoted from within basically because the employees were resentful and skeptical of my ability to run the office eventhough my boss had all the confidence in me.
Finally, even at $36 million in sales, I never relinquished 2 duties, I always opened all mail and signed all checks to keep an eye on the business.