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by Casey Gollan
Do you remember Frank Sinatra’s song…? “I did it my way”
Excellent song. I love it.
And you know what… some business owners love the notion of ‘doing it my way’ so much that they
‘hold’ onto every aspect of their business - so much so that they don’t allow people to help them
to grow.
They latterly stop their staff from helping them.
They stop their ‘accountant’ from helping them
And they stop any outside expert from helping them…
There may be all sorts of reasons for this behaviour…
They may be too proud to ask for help.
They may be too scared to ask for help (as it can make you feel quite vulnerable).
They may think it’ll cost too much to get help (well if you think education costs too much - you
should try ignorance).
Or they may think that they don’t have time to look for help… don’t trust anyone to help them, or
even worse, they may think they don’t need help.
If you want to grow your business you have to make sure that all your people are ‘on your side’.
You simply can’t afford a staff member, or an external consultant that is wayward - or not fully
committed.
Because when they are passionate, focus and committed to you and your business, growing becomes
easy because you can trust your people.
Why? Because they love doing what they do.
Business owners that have had excellent growth, and made extraordinary money from business will be
the first to tell you that you need to surround yourself with great people to grow.
It’s a universal law.
And there are skills that you may need to learn, and/or develop to attract, and keep great
people.
Most unsuccessful business owners blame their staff for poor business performance.
Yet who hired the staff?
Ultimately the business owner is responsible.
Great business owners take the responsibility and so train themselves on how to attract and pick
great people.
As you start out in business, you can pretty much handle most of the work yourself. Then as the
business grows you try and keep your finger in every ‘pie’… then at some point - your business gets
to a point - where you can’t possibly do everything… you either have to keep your business small,
or grow.
Yet growing may means that you’ve got to get people to help. Both internally (in terms of staff)
and externally (in terms of consultants)
And that can be quite scary.
You see in business we become very good at making things or providing the service… yet we never
really learn how to ‘pick’ people, how to train them and how to motivate them… so employing people
or getting consultants can be a worry.
Yet the best business owners make it a passion of theirs to develop their people and leadership
skills.
They actively learn how to pick, train and motivate people to run their business.
Because one of the true secrets of growing any business - is to grow it with the help of great
people.
Top business owners know this.
They make it a passion to understand, and work with their people to help them grow their
business.
They have these ‘great’ people offer advice and opinions - yet at the end of the day it’s the
business owner that makes the decision.
In this article, the point to learn is that as well as employing great staff to work in their
business - the best business owners also surround themselves with the best people they can find
externally to help them grow their business.
Who are external people? Consultants and specialists.
They spend good money, and a lot of time with excellent accountants, solicitors and business growth
specialists to ensure they keep on track and focused.
That way their progress is direct, effective and faster and safer.
You see they know that by paying a specialist - they’ll get specialist results. Because a great
specialist will make you much, much more money than you’ll ever pay them.
You’ll know what I mean if you’ve ever worked with a gun consultant or specialist. They’ll be your
favourite investment - because their advice will pay off many many times over.
My advice to you is to first examine the consultants you currently engage. Are they working for
you? Or against you. There’s no in between.
The first test is are they passionate about what they do? Or are they just going through the
motions?
Choose to work with people, both internally and externally that LOVE doing what they do. That way
you’ll know that they are good.
If you hire anyone that’s passion is away from what they are doing for your business - their mind
will be elsewhere - and their results will suffer.
Let me give you an example.
Which one of these 2 Tax Accountants would you hire? You ask them both this question.
“Where will you be in 5 years time?”
The first one answers. “I’ll be living on my farm, my accounting practice will be set up and I’ll
be earning a passive income, so I can spend time with my family and working on my golf
handicap”
The second one answers. “My practice and I will be recognized as the very best in the country for
Business Tax structures so that my business and my clients will be structured in the best possible
way. The business will set up to run a lot more efficient, but I love what I do, so I’ll still be
here working with you and my other top level clients - because it’s my passion to help business
owners set up their business in the best possible way to minimize taxation and create wealth.”
I don’t know about you, but I’d be choosing the last one. The one that loves doing what I’m paying
him to do.
Work with competent passionate people that are more motivated to achieve your goal than you are -
that way you know you’ll be on track…. Because if they love what they do - they’ll keep ahead of
their game - and keep you ahead of yours.
Pick and work with passionate external people that love doing what you’re paying them to do.
Copyright © 2007 by Casey Gollan. All Rights Reserved
Casey Gollan may be contacted at http://www.caseygollan.com.au Click here to view more of Casey Gollan's articles.
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