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What would happen if your key team members resigned tomorrow?

O.K. you would dive for the Valium and phone your favorite recruitment agent, But that’s not going to solve your immediate problems.

If these key team members, that are now threatening the very survival of your business are your bookeeper and or your best sales person the disruption could be terminal, or at the very least, play havoc with your newly acquired golf score.

When you study businesses that find themselves suddenly thrust into this black h***, you find one common cause.

Their owners have failed to delegate responsibility, they have instead abdicated responsibility.

ABDICATION VS DELEGATION

To understand this a little better we need to go back in time a little, and look at what happens to most businesses as they begin to succeed and grow.

Most businesses start off with owners who are enthusiastic and prepared to work ridiculously long hours to succeed.

With a bit of luck and an enormous amount of hard work, the business starts to generate sales and profit. Over time, the business and profits grow, and at some point, the business owner needs help, so they decide to get rid of the tasks they no longer want to perform, in most businesses, this is the book keeping stuff and the sales stuff.

So, they employ an expert book keeper (often a close family friend who won’t blab the figures) and a sales expert, you know the sort of person, one of those smooth talking delighters who could sell “Ice to Eskimos”.

This frees up the owner from the mundane tactical “Doing It” stuff so they can concentrate on the “Big Picture” strategic stuff , and to take some well earned and deserved “Life Style” rewards.

Most people think this “Life Style” stuff is the problem, it seldom is. Most businesses do function better when their owners take a step back to refresh themselves and focus more on growth strategies.

SO, WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?

It is HOW these “experts” are introduced into your business. It’s about delegating responsibility not abdicating it.

If you simply employ an expert and let them “Do their own expert thing” thinking they are the expert and they shouldn’t interfere with how they get their great results, you are in fact, losing control of that part of your business.

Sure, it may be generating the results you want (in the short term) but you have lost control of that part of your business. They (the expert) now own that section of their business, and over time, you will pay dearly for that loss of control.

It may cost you constant salary increases, but worse still, it exposes you and your business to the severe disruptions of a sudden resignation.

SO, WHATS THE SOLUTION?

Systems. Everybody in your business must be working to a system. Every expert in your business must understand, from the very beginning, a prime part of their role is to create a written system for their position.

They must be told from day one, that if they wish to grow their career within your business, they must prove that they can duplicate their expertise.

Only this way, can you maintain control of your business. The test of an expert system (on say book keeping) is: You can take any traditionally trained book keeper and introduce them into your business and have them “up to speed” within 10 days.

APPLY THE DOUBLE DECKER BUS TEST TODAY…

Take a close look at every key member of your team and ask yourself “If they were hit by a double decker bus on their way to work tomorrow, what effect would that have on your business?” If your answer is that it would cause a severe disruption, you need a system for that position, FAST.