There is a REALLY big difference in the way a 5-person business operates compared to a 20-person business. Certainly, different than a 500-person company because they will have a whole different set of systems and RESOURCES than the original 5-person organization.

Unfortunately, as a business owner readying your small company for the real growth of the team, all the shiny ideas and possibilities that we COULD offer to motivate, reward and educate each team member will likely end up distracting a business owner from the reality.

At this critical stage of growth, let’s be clear. Big corporations can have intern programs, promotion tracks, next level training, and take-all-the-vacation-you-want benefits because… they have profits, large teams that handle single-focused workflows and the capacity to devote a significant amount of money and time into building teams for succession. That is NOT you …yet.

In our small business world, let’s imagine you offer the “take as much vacation as you want” scenarios. If your Customer Service Representative takes off a month to hike around every national park…. Your company’s phone does NOT get answered and clients must WAIT to get their issues resolved because you only have one Customer Service Rep on staff. We can’t hire a temp during that month because we still must PAY the Customer Svc Rep, per our stated employee benefit. Certainly, you can stop your day-to-day productivity of selling during that month to cover for them. And when you do that, and business owners in the know understand what happens to a business that does not focus on sales consistently. It turns into a slow and long slog to get that pipeline back where it was before the vacation. 

I do 100% love incorporating these employee-forward benefits once we have our organizational structure clearly defined and a kick ass team rocking their roles. Because when this happens ALL those resources start to accumulate in your company.

However, worrying now about motivating tenure from a team that is not yet delivering consistently or even an effective hire is putting the horse before the cart.

If you do not first learn HOW to look at your company, identify what it needs in terms of roles, attract people that will be successful- yes, in your culture – AND in ALL the ways your business requires, your company will never get the chance to scale and have the profit you can invest in your teams.

I know, I can hear your thoughts Boss. It sounds like the “Which came first? The chicken or the egg?” issue. (Wow! We are rocking the cliches today.)

Yes, we want to motivate people to work for our business. We want to give our employees a chance to advance. Most of the small business owners I get to speak with yearn for the opportunity to teach interested up-and-comers to follow in their footsteps. While this is NOT a bad thing necessarily, this does NOT serve your business’ needs for growth right now in this stage.

Yep. Your business is an entity with its own needs.

Your company might need someone to answer the phones 24 hours a day, someone that can coordinate client documentation while you are out selling to prospects, or maybe your business needs someone to create and post the social media content on two platforms.

Whatever your business specifically needs, you are in charge of hiring and growing the team that can deliver results – including vendors, independent contractors and employees. And like good business owners, you are learning from thought leaders, books by subject matter experts and fantastic mastermind communities (just like our Idea Collective!). But I beg of you, consider if you are learning about processes, concepts or systems that have worked in companies of YOUR SIZE!

Maybe it’s time to give yourself and your hiring skills an honest assessment. Is there anyone you would NOT be sad to see leave? Do you have all the right people in your company right now? If you are spending time teaching people how to do their job instead of trusting them to deliver…we could lose not just growth time but ACTUAL CASH!

Reality? Small and, growing entrepreneurial businesses do not have the resources to do this today. We must prioritize the limited resources we have now to build that thriving machine that includes people you trust to deliver results, growing net profits and an amazing pipeline of prospects.