Small Business Revolution

13Your Team

Great vision without great people is irrelevant.

—Jim Collins

EVERY BUSINESS STARTS with a dream or a vision. Some of those businesses become big businesses someday. Even large businesses need leadership and vision to succeed. And as you know personally, a great deal can be accomplished by just one person—the owner or the leader—working day and night. But, that's just not enough to truly succeed if a business aspires to be more than a one-person band.

In Chapter 2 we talked about the necessity for brutal honesty and for knowing your “why” when you went from an idea or hobby and became a business, and why you choose to stay in business. For most businesses, there comes a point when the owner must be able to draw a salary from the business, or else the whole effort will crumble from lack of profitability. Then you can get a job working for another business owner who has a better idea, a clearer vision, and the ability to pay you for your services.

The same is true when it comes to the business owner's willingness to work. You may have the most selfless, dedicated approach to work that's possible, but there comes a point when you can't do any more. In fact, you probably can't even sustain the time and effort you're already putting into the business as it is, never mind find a way to grow it.

I'm going to assume that you are willing to delegate—to give capable people clear expectations and the latitude to deliver the needed result. It's easy to say “yes” to yourself ...