10 things a Business Owner should remember

Or to give it, it’s full title ’10 things a Business Owner should remember (to save their mental health, time and energy)’.

Yesterday on LinkedIn, Carrie Rose of RiseatSeven, the market-leading Sheffield-HQ’d search agency posted the article below. A few days before, she appeared in The Times. If you don’t know who Carrie is, you should. She is a whirlwind of energy, ideas, business nous and the owner of the fastest growing search agency around. She has a huge online following and is making enormous waves. You should follow her on Linkedin, Twitter and on YouTube. Oh, and she’s a 30-under-30 winner too.

I’ve highlighted this article because it hits so many points that I agree upon when it comes to Business Owners, and particularly SME owners.

1. Hire skills gaps
2. Focus on sales first then build your business
3. Good people will cover their salary
4. If it’s urgent, they will call.
5. If they don’t fit with the culture, make that decision to say bye.
6. Stress comes from decisions we didn’t make
7. Write down everything
8. Don’t copy others
9. Always focus on what makes you different
10. Have the courage and learn when to say ‘no’

Interestingly three of the points relate to staff. Three of the points relate to good time management. A couple of them relate to business strategy. But only one point relates to actual commercials (point 2). Perhaps that is the ratio of where your attention as a Business Owner should be?

Which of the points below do you do as Business Owner? Which of the points below do you NOT do, and perhaps should be doing, as a Business Owner?

Often, whilst you KNOW what you SHOULD be doing as a Business Owner, you often cant SEE what it is that you are or are not doing. That’s where an external pairs of eyes comes into play. You are maybe too stuck in the weeds to be able to see the big picture. You maybe need someone on the outside looking in to be able to guide, nudge and remind you what it is you need to be doing in order to run your business better than you are doing so now.

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Carrie Rose’s original post

1. Hire skills gaps – write down your problems and write down who can fix them. If there’s problems with no name next to it, go hire.
2. Focus on sales first then build your business. Make money and everything else falls into place. Money buys time, people and expertise.
3. Good people will cover their salary. Give them that hefty pay rise they’re asking for if you know they’ll make it back
4. If it’s urgent, they will call. Put the emails away.
5. If they don’t fit with the culture, make that decision to say bye.
6. Stress comes from decisions we didn’t make. Make quicker decisions to combat stress and you’ll see how much more relieved you’ll feel.
7. Write down everything. Ran a project? Made a decision? Trained a member of staff? Gave advice to staff on what to say on a sales call? Write it all down and create a bible of advice. You’ll thank yourself one day.
8. Don’t copy others. Copy others and you become second best.
9. Always focus on what makes you different. Your USP has to be something FOR your user/client – how do you make their day better/easier.
10. Have the courage and learn when to say ‘no’. Say ‘no’ and you’ll get more right fit clients/partners or ideas.

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