What’s your top frustrations as a Business Owner?

What areas cause you and your business the most pain and annoyances?  We are asking business owners to tell us about their top frustrations.  So far the feedback received has uncovered various recurring topics and the top (2) seem to be closely related.  Finding & keeping good staff and finding time for themselves to let the business run itself.

The question is, how to get to that point, and why do so many business owners find it so hard?  Most business owners started their business because they are great at what they do, and most likely can do a better job than any of their employees, leaving business owners to worry that if they go away, things will slip.  The biggest sentiment is that too much time away could cost them valuable business.

To be able to take time off and be confident that you will not take unacceptable losses by doing so; you need to be sure that your personnel know what to do and are capable of making good decisions.  For now, let’s concentrate on how to free yourself from having to be available all the time and assume your employees are essentially capable and trustworthy.

Employees are forced to depend on you if:

·        There are some tasks that only you know how to do

·        Their roles and responsibilities are not clearly defined

·        You have processes that are not clearly defined and documented

·        You are the expert and your employees have limited technical or product knowledge

·        Customers only ask for you

·        There is no one to fill in if someone is away

Before you think of taking off, you should empower your employees by delegating duties and accountability.  All of the above situations should be fixed, and then you will be able to step away from the business more and let your processes run the business more effectively.

Tell us about your business frustrations or comment on this article.  We appreciate your feedback and insights on this article.