For the last several weeks, Lori and I have been meeting again with our wonderful consultant, Paula, from the Tennessee Small Business Development Center. (for those of you that are new to this blog, you can read about how she helped us start our business). I am still blown away at Paula's expertise on basically every topic in business. I have decided I want to be like her when I grow up.
Now that we've passed the one year mark in our business, we've been struggling with trying to figure out how we work less in our business and more on our business. For the first year, Lori and I have spent considerable time figuring out how to make our business function - and that has meant working in our business each and every day. (Keep in mind, Lori is a full-time CPA so she's worked alot of hours!)
Paula to the rescue! She's helped us better define our own job descriptions (imagine this - we both wear multiple hats that take us away from focusing on actually growing our business) so that we can figure out what we are presently doing that we could delegate to others. This partly means our present employees taking on more responsibility (which fortunately, they have all asked to do), outsourcing some of the tasks, and possibly hiring someone to do something we have yet to figure out!
It has been tremendous work, but we are diligently working with Paula each Friday. After we figure out roles, who's doing what, etc., then Lori and I have to focus on doing what we're "suppose" to be doing rather than what often times bogs us down. Two of the top priorities for me as CEO is a policy manual (we're talking the heavy duty stuff that explains exactly how things are done in our business) as well as a communications system. I also wear the hat of CMO, buyer, and as of today, store manager. Sometimes I get confused trying to figure out who I am today - or even at this moment - but obviously, the goal is to have all of this figured out well before October 30!
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