Scaling Up Your Business (OpenMic)

This week’s show continues our focus on the bestselling business author and last week’s guest, Verne Harnish. He is the author of Mastering the Rockefeller Habits and Scaling Up among others that you should definitely check out. 

Even though many entrepreneurs achieve their success based on “gut instincts”, it’s still important early on to put systems in place that can help the business to focus, maintain and grow in a way that’s measurable and actionable.

Accountability

The scaling-up process involves yearly and quarterly meetings as well as weekly meetings and daily huddles to monitor and direct progress as well as give employees the chance to get help and direction when facing obstacles.

Oftentimes startup entrepreneurs with small staff look at long-term processes as something that needs to be done later on, but that’s not really the case. Even if the staff is small, having measurable goals and strategies gives you the opportunity to meet and assess whether you are meeting, exceeding, or missing your goals. And as the company grows, this type of format can be used by teams and divisions to set their goals within a larger company setting.

The weekly meeting and daily huddle can be very powerful tools because it makes people accountable. There are goals and objectives assigned to people, those people are then responsible and take ownership of those tasks and those tasks are then assessed.

Delegation

At the beginning of a company, an entrepreneur may find themselves getting involved in all of the little details that it takes for a company to be successful. But at some point, an entrepreneur needs to start to let go and actually delegate responsibilities to other people on the team, which is great for the leader and it is also how you scale a company. You cannot scale a company as a solo entrepreneur, you will learn quickly that it takes a confident team who can take ownership of responsibilities and spearhead tasks.

Also, a company’s core values grow and mature over time, but they should always be an important part of the decision-making process. Keeping core values aligned with your brand and business will maintain the health and integrity of your business overtime.  By delegating responsibilities and tasks, you create leaders that can look at the company’s core values and feel confident in making decisions based on those values. 

Leadership

In order for an entrepreneur to be able to delegate items to a team, it’s really important early on to find managers that complement your weaknesses. You cannot do everything yourself. You have to learn to hire and build a team of people who are capable and trust them to do the jobs you’ve hired them to do.

You can listen to the full session above! Happy Reading & Happy Listening! 

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