A Vision of Possibilities for Your Business

You probably began your business because you had a passion for your work and desired the freedom to be your own boss and access the many benefits of ownership:
• Work where and when you wanted,
• Freedom from Corporate or Institutional policy and politics,
• Freedom from an oppressive work environment, lack of passion, or limited income potential

Now, months, years or decades later, you may have had enough success to stay in business, but found that you really just traded one job for another. You work 14 hours a day if you need to and can’t take time off, as you are the key figure in your organization. You’re getting burnt out. What was once an impassioned hobby has turned into a business where the fun has dissipated.

Do not fear. These are roads well-traveled upon.

The first Concept we need to explore is:
You need to be working on your business, not in your business.
This concept was made famous by the brilliant Michael Gerber who once said, “Most entrepreneurs are technicians suffering from an entrepreneurial seizure.”
This means that just because you are a gifted guitar player (substitute your forte’), doesn’t mean you know anything about running a music store.

Starting and running a business is like parenting. Seen from afar, the greatest businesses make it look so easy. However, it can be easy once you turn your passionate hobby into a systematized machine that runs with or without you in a smooth manner.
My Friend Harv Eker once said, “If you’re a cog in your business, you’re a clog in your business.” The goal is JNN (substitute your first initial for the J).
JNN means Jonathan Not Needed.

I know what you’re thinking:
• I am my business,
• No one has the passion and visio
I have,
• How can my business run without me,
• ___________ (fill in your excuse for your 70 hour week)

I will contend that you are absolutely right and absolutely wrong.
You need to shift your job from being the manager and administrative assistant to the founder and visionary.
You must create the time to work on the business, not in it.
Your business must work whether you’re at the front counter or in Abacos.

Many professionals (doctors, lawyers, CPA’s) are trading their time for dollars.
If they are not billing hours, they don’t get paid. This is not a business, this is a job.

If you want a business, you must get to JNN.

How do we get there?

Rule 1: Hire people for who they are and delegate EVERYTHING you possibly can.
Good people aren’t hard to find. Find good people, love them, train them and turn them into exceptional business people. Jack Welch said, “In America people are hired for what they know and fired for who they are.” This is bass-ackwards.

We ALWAYS hire good people; honest, hardworking, impassioned individuals. Then we spend a HUGE amount of time training them into the systems. Always observing what their strengths and weaknesses are. Give them the work that they are naturally gifted at and train them through their weaknesses so they become strengths. Above all, honor their commitment to your cause and listen to their ideas.

Then delegate everything you possibly can. I have a woman working for me now who types close to 100wpm. I have another who stumbles around 50wpm, yet is such a good organizer. Guess who takes dictation and who is a project manager?

Rule #2: Manage your time.
Most Business owners spend 65% of their time on Admin, 25% of their time on Marketing and 10% of their time on production. How about you?
If you are the most impassioned, visionary of your company then YOU should be spending 65% of your time on Marketing and 25% of your time on Admin. Your assistant and office manager will be running the admin under your direction. You should be spending a full 2/3 of your time on the goal of all businesses, which is:

Rule #3: The Goal of all Business is to Find and Keep Customers.
I know you think it is to make money. However, if you can find and keep customers, you will not have to worry about making money.

As the Founder and Visionary of your company, your first responsibility is to spend 2/3 of your time working on this Primal Goal. Period.