If you are a 1st or 2nd generation business owner, you probably have so many things on your plate to deal with daily, it is hard to know where to start to implement strategies that you know you should implement.
Advice comes at us 1st gens from every possible angle and with each suggestion is completing orders of implementation. It is a cart/horse or chicken/egg thing! Confusing.
Also, all the free advice or even the paid advice provides no real strategy to implement quickly, easily and cost-effectively. So, like most 1st gens, it gets set aside to look at when you have a few minutes. I have been there so many times I can’t even count that high. And I can also tell you there is no time to look. We are full to the brim.
Having lived through a couple of family businesses and survived, my mission is the keep family businesses in the family. One of those ways is to simplify and get you working on your business not just in it.
I have 3 strategies that you can implement without a lot of thought, cost or time. Are you on board?
Ok lets get started:
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RESPECT – Respect your team, employees, staff, or whatever you like to call them. (I am going to call them team members) Everyone wants a little R.E.S.P.E.C.T (you are welcome to put the earworm in your head) just ask Aretha.
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- Respect covers everything from their abilities, accomplishments, time, and space. Recognize and acknowledge all of it.
- Pay them well for the work they do. Set them up for success. Ensure they know the role they have and make them accountable for that role.
- Be interested in who they are, not just what they do.
- If you have no respect for your team, either in or out of the office, then they probably shouldn’t be part of your team. Time to cut the cord.
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SHARE – Share your vision, mission, and values for the company with the company. Get everyone on board.
- I have mentioned many times, no one can read your mind- your family or your team members. Regardless of how well or how long they have known you. It is impossible.
- There is no way to get everyone rowing in the same direction if they don’t know where they are going and they have no one to motivate and lead them. The more team members on board going in the same direction, the more power you will have. You must be the coxswain (the person who steers and motivates) in your company.
- If your entire team does not share your vision, mission, and values, it is time to kick them out of the boat. They will only slow down your progress and reduce everyone else’s power, no matter how hard they row.
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BE OPEN – The best way to achieve the success you envision for your family business lies in you being open to a wide range of ideas. Be collaborative, consider technological advancements, explore new markets, and be willing to look at other products and services that may align with your business. Most importantly, listen to your leadership and team members.
- If you are perceived as being open-minded, as a person and a business, your team members will bring forward ideas that they might have kept to themselves. If you are not open, they may leave you to go out and implement the ideas on their own. Becoming your competitor not your team member.
- Don’t say no or yes too quickly, work through the ideas with your leadership to keep and implement the stars and ditch the dogs. There will be many of both.
- What got your business to where it is today, will not likely get you to where you want to go, be open to change.
- If you have a team member always on the opposite side of the and against your openness, it may be time to part ways.
These may seem like basic strategies, but they will help get your company moving in the right direction. We get busy and grumpy and the result – we are off course and don’t know why.
So, add a TO DO on your calendar if you have to, to remind yourself to say something nice to a member of your team- every day. Everyone likes a compliment, recognition for a job well done, or for going over and above. You will get back more than you give. It won’t take long to remove the TO DO, it will be second nature
If you don’t have a way of keeping people accountable, implement a system to monitor weekly, it will empower and motivate them to get the job done. You the company and your team members will all be proud and happier being able to see the progress
Add an agenda item on your regular team meetings for idea sharing, Call it brainstorming or pie and the sky ideas, whatever, just name it. It will get your team thinking outside the box. Who knows what million dollar idea will come out of it.
Don’t forget to share – share your vision, mission, and values.
None of these will cost you money or take time to implement. As Nike says, “Just do it”
Until next time.
Cheers!
Tammy