Working 200%

Start up entrepreneurs are blissfully unaware of what lies ahead. They are counting on their qualifications, skills and experience to get them through the path ahead. They have dreams – doing what they love, finding financial freedom, regaining independence and making a difference in the lives of others.

Established entrepreneurs are unhappy. Not that they started out this way. They had the same dreams as the start up entrepreneur – they wanted to do what they loved, find financial freedom, regain independence and make a difference in the lives of others.

But somewhere on this path, entrepreneurs lose the plot.  They fall into the biggest trap that I come across every day:

They work 200%

While working 200% is excellent when you are focused on doing the right things in the business, it backfires, when you are trying to be everything in the business viz 

• CEO
• Chief Operations Officer
• Finance Director
• HR Manager
• Sales Manager
• Receptionist
• Debt Collector
• Fire fighter!

The entrepreneur is 10+ people rolled into one. Because even when you employ others, you still end up doing most of the work yourself.

Humanly impossible

I don’t care how talented, smart, experienced or hard working you are, it is humanly impossible for one person to do everything in their business on their own. Business has become far too complex, for one person to be an expert in everything. Even if you stopped sleeping, there are only 24 hours in a day and when I last checked. The allocated time that each of us has, is not increasing. You can’t do everything within your allocated time, irrespective of whether you are speed reading this, multitasking on 5 other things simultaneously or super efficient. 

We are living in age where information is rising exponentially, the demands being placed on us are flying thick & fast and there is only so much of YOU to go around. 

There is always work coming in, often faster than the rate, that work is being completed. Getting the work done is non-negotiable.

Devaluing Yourself

From personal experience, I’ve learnt that when you try to do everything yourself, you end up devaluing YOU. Let me explain: assume you are an attorney and your normal charge out rate is R1500 per hour. If you are the PA, office cleaner and billing person, unless these individuals also have the same charge out rate, you are devaluing yourself. Why should you undertake work that has a charge out rate of R50 per hour, when your expertise is worth R1500 per hour ?

Decision Time

As an entrepreneur you need to make a decision today: are you going to continue doing everything yourself or will you build a team to support your endeavours?