Business beaver
Working on the business rather than in the business - does it really make a difference?
Every business owner must decide for themselves but I thought to take a real life case study from two such individuals' point of view provides a new perspective from which to judge.
My thanks to Peter and Claire (names changed for confidentiality purposes) for sharing their experience.
"I set up the business with my wife, Claire, several years ago. We run a service based business in a niche market. It's a sector that I have years of experience in and one that I am very comfortable with.
For many years the business performed well and produced sound profits but it proved difficult to generate any real growth, then the market got harder a couple of bigger clients started to cut back on their budgets and the business began to contract.
I've always enjoyed working for myself but was starting to find it very frustrating to wake up in the morning with no clear idea of what I should do that day. Typically we would be very busy on a whole range of issues but often I'd get to the end of the day and not be sure what we'd really achieved.
We discussed our options and decided to make a commitment to a strategic development programme. At the first meeting we went back to basics, i.e. what were the reasons for being in business on our own account? Quite a cathartic experience! We left that meeting with a couple of very specific tasks which we worked on and brought back to the next meeting a month later.
Fifteen months later we still have a long way to go but the last twelve months has seen the business double its turnover, increase by one full time and one part time member of staff and, most importantly, both Claire and I have a much clearer view our roles in the business.
There is no magic wand and to be fair I don't think Rob has told us anything that we didn't already know but we have certainly found that to have someone to work as a facilitator to draw those ideas out and provide a framework for delivery (and a conscience to nag!) has unquestionable helped us achieve the improvements we've seen over the last twelve months and build a much stronger vision of the future"
This article originally appeared in the February 2010 edition of Wiltshire Business
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