Just as you can not be all things to all people in your product or service offerings of your business, you can not wear all the hats in running a business.
There are many articles written about "Plan to Fail by Failing to Plan" that offer advice regarding the initial business plan which can not be understated, however; there are not many things written on how to adjust as you go to the "reality" of the day to day operation.
During the process of writing my business plan there was often a reference to "your team" in the classes at my Small Business Center at the local community college. My response to the "team" was kept to myself as I thought quietly that I was not going to be drawing a salary myself let alone have a "team."
The outline below describes my "team" a year later:
Team Member One: - Site Developer. I found out early on that I was not a site developer within two weeks of enrolling in a FrontPage online class and started immediately to search for those that could take my ideas and bring them to fruition.
Team Member Two: - Adwords Consultant. I was again reminded that while determination may be a virtue that being down right stubborn is not! Being "determined" enrolled me in a Google Adwords class and building my own campaigns. Not only did I waste literally thousands of dollars being so determined, I wasted valuable time as well, time that could have been better spent on the areas of the business that needed my undivided attention. The only good thing that came from this class was meeting someone that knew what they were doing and hired them.
Team Member Three: - SEO Optimization. While I blog, write articles regarding girls plus size clothing and participate in link exchange programs, I am anything but a HTML guru. The tags and where they need to be placed, dynamic pages versus static ones and the like are outside my knowledge base.
Team Member Four: - Business Credit. Yes, your business needs its own credit score and needs to stand on its own two feet financially. Starting a business out of your own pocket can adversely affect your credit score significantly and there will come a time that you may want to grow the business beyond your own ability to do so out of pocket. This means that your business needs to look credit worthy to a lender.
Team Member Five, Six, Seven, etc. - CPA for tax filings, lawyer for LLC, vendors extending credit, your family eating another frozen dinner and unpacking boxes after a long day at their regular jobs.
If I have left you with the idea that I have delegated all the work to others I am leaving you with a false impression. I am not just the idea person, someone has to coordinate the team members, provide customer service, buy the product, negotiate with vendors and pay the bills.
I took one thing away from my many years in HR and that was that I never wanted W-2 employees. So far contractors and consultants have done the work I have needed to have done. Now a year into the process I will never say never to employees, after all that would mean the business is taking off as planned.
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