Business owner, are you a hands-on technician? Do you tend to get lost in the daily, technical trenches of your business? Are you working almost exclusively "in" the business instead of "on" the business? Do you suffer from the condition we business coaches call, The Technician's Addiction?
If so, that's an exhausting way to run a business and live a life. You work multiple roles and handle multiple tasks. Instead of owning a business, you end up working a tough job. Yet, you still have all the challenges and responsibilities of being the owner. Furthermore, spending so much time in the technical aspects of the business prevents you from leading and growing the business and your wealth. You make huge trade-offs.
If you are addicted to or simply enjoy the technical work, being an owner can be a real challenge. Technical expertise is one of the most over-rated abilities of a business owner. Why? Because millions of people can do those same technical tasks (repair a car, remodel a room, paint a house, write software, etc.)...some even better than you! Being a successful and satisfied business owner is NOT about being a gifted technician. It's about something more strategic.
Conversely, what is sorely lacking in most small business owners is leadership and marketing expertise, the skills and abilities to design, build and run the entire business, not simply complete technical tasks. Many owners are mistakenly "being the business" instead of "building the business". And while it's OK for you to be a technician the first year or so when you start a business...it should not be forever! You must evolve. You must choose a path. To battle the Technician's Addiction, you have only 4 basic options:
Option #1. Remain a technician and be content with that choice. If you don't mind wearing lots of hats, doing lots of tasks, and working predominantly "in" your business and very little "on" your business, that's your call. It's your life and business. Just accept the unintended consequences...being overworked, overwhelmed, and feeling like a prisoner to your business. However, if you truly like doing the technical work, you will get joy from doing that. Just realize, without real leadership, your business will not grow beyond your personal level of production. If you can be happy while your business remains small and simple, this may be the right option for you.
Option #2. Hire someone else to be the leader of your organization. Someone to help set the direction, goals, and keep the employees accountable for doing their jobs. If you have someone working "on" the business, that frees you up to work "in" the business and handle the technical work...IF that is what you truly enjoy. Since someone is dedicated to leading the business, it has a much better chance to develop and grow. However, you must allow the leader to lead!
Option #3. Elevate your knowledge, mindset and habits and gradually become a strategic business owner. Start on a path to eventually get free of the daily, technical, tactical aspects of the business. The Growth Coach helps transform technicians into more successful and satisfied owners. With a change in mindset and habits, it's absolutely possible for you to make a successful transformation. If you see yourself as an owner and marketer, you will have a much larger mindset and do the right things to design and build the entire business, not just the technical components of the business. However, until you develop the right support structure (operations manual, job descriptions, etc.), hire the right technicians, provide proper training, and delegate the technical work to them, you will still be doing some of the technical work during your transition. That's OK. There will be light at the end of the tunnel. Your new job will be to create technical jobs for others, not technical jobs for yourself. You will get to function as a real leader and owner of your business, not a technical doer. As a result, you should have greater freedom, free time, fun, and fortune.
Option #4. Make no decision and keep trying to do the all technical AND the strategic work of the business by yourself. Odds are, you will do neither very well. Trying to do it all yourself is truly an exhausting way to run a business. Choosing the path of "status quo" is a cowardly choice. Revisit the other options above and make a bold decision on how you wish to run your business going forward...simply be a technician of a small business, hire a leader to run and grow your business while you enjoy being a technician, or become a strategic business leader yourself.
Daniel M. Murphy
President, Founder & Business Coach
The Growth Coach
Business Coaching Franchise System
Certified Business Coaches throughout North America