Into our second year as a small business in the services industry, there were many lessons that we learned in our first year and there are even more that await us in 2013. Throughout the evolution of your business, you will come face to face with many obstacles in the form of customers, business decisions, managing finances all while juggling the different personalities that come with your personnel. A key to small business success is finding a general manager that can echo your personality, buy into your company’s vision and serve as the glue that keeps it altogether.
Our Hard Working General Manager
As a business owner, especially a business owner within a company with eyes towards future growth, you will not be able to wear all hats and be everywhere at once. Successful officers or owners of a business recognize that responsibility needs to be delegated, therefore empowering your employees so that they too can have goals within your company as opposed to just you as the owner and your business partner. However, businesses can’t just be goal setting, dreams and visions. There is an absolute need for execution and that’s where your general manager comes in.
Whether you’re a start up or a business that’s been operating for 10 years, your goals should are more than likely the same and that is to find managers that can get their hands dirty, attain the respect of his/her employees while executing the expectations of the owners. This process may not be as simple as going through a stack of applications, it may take you recognizing the skill sets in your employees and cultivating that person within your company into a leader.
We are all works in progress so it won’t be as easy as crowning a GM and giving him a checklist. You will make mistakes, your GM will make mistakes, and you can rest assured that your employees will make mistakes as well. However, it’s your determination and your GM illustrating that determination on your behalf at times, that will exemplify the “Get Back Up” mentality to your employees. This type of work ethic and mentality inspires your employees to learn from mistakes so that they can get back up and do it better next time.
Our General Manager Jeff McDole oversees operations at Fire Dawgs & Moving Dawgs. We certainly don’t have all the answers and are ourselves in the infancy of our business and its future success. That being said, this is one lesson that I feel has been incredibly helpful to our growth and is one that will aide in your business’s future development.