Some entrepreneurs who start a business without thoroughly considering what it entails sometimes end up feeling swamped and overwhelmed. They might be getting more than what they bargained for.
They are caught flatfooted when they realize they have to take on multiple roles. This is especially true if the business they have set up is very small and have such limited funds that they can hardly afford to hire assistants.
Ariel Claudio Co found this out when he put up Innobuild 12 years ago. He would attend pre-bidding conferences, prepare his costs for the bidding proper, design and layout, follow up papers with clients. When construction began, he was his own foreman, his own engineer, his own “bodegero,” his own paymaster. All that belongs to the past of course, for he has over the years built up his own crew of technical and administrative people. But if he had given up when he was juggling his many roles while struggling to establish himself, “perhaps I would still be a salaried engineer up to now, working for another construction firm.”
“One day you are the tech person, the next day you are the sales person, another day, you are the cleaning person,” says Shobha Tummala, founder of a chain of beauty salons in New York City. “You can’t have an ego.”
After all, a small enterprise is sometimes defined as “a manufacturing or service enterprise wherein the owner-manager is not actively involved in production but performs the varied range of tasks involved in guidance and leadership without the help of specialized staff.”
Implied in this definition is the central role of the owner-manager of the business.
Thus, many small enterprises begin with the owner-manager taking up most of the management functions. In other words, the owner-manager starts by being their own marketing manager, production manager, finance manager, personnel manager. They wear all these hats until they have grown big enough to afford salaried managers.
Here, from mybusinessonline.com are the major roles:
- Accounting
If you sell products you’ll be collecting sales tax. An accounting role encompasses keeping records of transactions, bookkeeping, paying taxes, financial reporting, collections and paying bills.
- Manager
If you have employees you’ll be responsible for human resources that includes recruiting, hiring, scheduling, payroll, firing and keeping track of benefits such as insurance.
- Sales
Planning sales, negotiating deals, direct sales to buyers, customer service, managing other sales reps and tracking competitors.
- Marketing and advertising
Planning your marketing or advertising plan. Marketing may include writing ad copy, annual market planning, media planning & buying, market research, distribution channel planning, pricing & packaging.
- Legal
you may be required to know about certain legal aspects even if you don’t have a lawyer. Preparing contracts and other legal documents as well as simple legal guidelines will take some research.
- Business planning
After starting your business you’ll be monitoring your progress, preparing financial statements, expanding business, adding new products and adjusting your small business plan.
- Technology
As a small business owner you may be faced with technology challenges so it’s best to be prepared. We depend on our computers so much that planning for when it breaks or needs upgrades, or you need new software installed is best planned ahead of time.
- Clerical
This includes being receptionist, telephone and fax operator, keeper of files, writer of business letters, photocopier, even messenger, driver and delivery man.
The advice therefore to people who cannot wait to leave their comfortable jobs to plunge into their own business is to first ask themselves if they will be happy performing a whole range of functions.
As they consider these roles, they need to size themselves up … determine what they can best do and what they need to improve on.
How to cope
Here are some ways to cope with the hundred and one things one has to do in running a new business:
1. Consider taking in a partner, someone who will complement your skills, who is strong where you are weak. If you are shy and not articulate enough for all your technical competency, you might find a partner who is good in negotiations and salesmanship.
2. Get available help. Mobilize your spouse, your parents, your growing-up and grown-up children. There must be something they can do, even if it’s just taking phone calls, typing bids and proposals, following up on and receiving orders of supplies and tools, tending the shop while you are away. Friends and relations can also help spread the word around about your products and services.
3. Source out some tasks. Instead of driving down to the client’s to submit some requirement or other, consider using messengerial services that will pick up what you need to send from your doorstep. Payrolling, clerical, bookkeeping and other services may be done by part-timers.
4. Learn time management. Of 20 things in your daily to-do list, probably half is not essential. Learn to sift out the trivial many and sift in the crucial few.
5. Learn to prioritize and to focus on priorities. Don’t be greedy and take all the job orders that come your way. Only take in what you can reasonably do with your limited time and resources. Do one — or two — job at a time and give it your best shot. It is important to build up your reputation for quality and on-time delivery from your early start-up stage; it may be difficult to live down a blemished track record later.
6. Remember not to get too engrossed in daily routine tasks that you forget to plan the growth and sustainability of your business.