What’s your job? 4 things business owners must do themselves

Many business owners that I know will create job descriptions for their team members, but how many of us have a job description for our own job?

We create job descriptions to set expectations with our team members. We want them to know what we expect them to do.

Business owners need this too! I think one of the hardest things about owning a business is that there are about 1000 things for me to do, but I can only get 100 done (maybe less?). Which things should I focus on? Your job description should help you with that.

So what should be included in the Business Owner’s job description? There’s 4 things that every business owner needs to do:

1. THE BUSINESS OWNER MUST SET STRATEGY.

A business owner’s job is to define the future by casting a vision, and communicating that vision to the team. You need to have a point of view on where the marketplace and your company is going. That point of view includes how you are different from your competitors and how you are likely to succeed. Once you know where you want to go, you need to determine how you will get there and establish a plan. That’s what strategy is; we are going to climb that hill, and this is how and why.

2. THE BUSINESS OWNER MUST WATCH OVER THE CULTURE AND BRAND.

Individuals within the organization may not have the big picture view like the business owner does. They don’t see how their individual actions add to or detract from the uniqueness of the organization. It’s the business owner’s job to define and maintain this uniqueness. The business owner must set forth the purpose and values of the organization as they want the team members, customers and community to see it.

3. THE BUSINESS OWNER MUST HIRE, TRAIN AND DEVELOP THE BUSINESS’ KEY TEAM MEMBERS.

You can’t be everywhere. Sometimes your team members are going to interact with your customers, or work on products or services that are going in front of your customers. As your company grows larger, this will happen more and more. In order to ensure these key team members work and treat people the way you would, they must be hand-selected by you! You need to personally oversee their training and development. Not every minute, of course, but the quality of the result is your job.

There is hardly anything a business owner can do that will create a more lasting value for the business than to choose and train the right key team members.

4. THE BUSINESS OWNER IS THE MOST EFFECTIVE SALESPERSON FOR THE COMPANY.

Not every business owner is a great salesperson, and successful companies will grow to the point where the owner cannot close every sale, or even every large sale. However, I have seen time and again that business owners can close sales that even the best salesperson cannot. There is something about the credibility of hearing information directly from the business owner–the one with whom the buck stops–that can close tough sales.

So, pause for a minute and give yourself a performance review. Are you doing your job, or are you doing everyone else’s jobs?

Hit reply and let me know how you’d evaluate your performance. I can’t wait to hear!