Thanks for all the questions that were emailed to me this month at thomas.tpaul@gmail.com.
There was one reoccurring question that I heard not just from readers, but interestingly, I was asked this by a handful of the companies I work with through the Northern Arizona Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (NACET) Accelerator:
“How do I know when it is time to hire a general manager or an operations manager?”
If you, as the business owner or CEO, are running all aspects of your business and don’t have a strong, qualified operations manager, it isn’t a matter of if you will ever ask this question, it is simply a matter of when. Every business owner will face this question for one of three reasons.
Succession – While the majority of small businesses never exceed $100,000 a year in revenue, there are those that break away from the pack and become more than just a lifestyle business or a source of extra spending money.
At this point, you must ask yourself what happens if you are hit by a bus. If you have grown to the point where your family and, more importantly, other families rely on this business to put food on the table and pay the bills, there is a real need for the business to survive in the event you are no longer able to run the day-to-day duties.
You should be thinking of the person that could step in and continue to run the business in your absence. Having a key man or life insurance isn’t enough. Talented operation managers are perfect for this.
Success – Is your business growing? Is the number of employees increasing? Are you expanding the number of products, locations or divisions?
These are all the things we dream of as a business owner. We started or bought the business because we believed in a different approach and the growth and expansion is validation that we did something right. But now you are too busy to think about the future. You arefocused and caught up in just running the day-to-day of the business.
How can you focus on the things that made the company successful while you are so busy dealing with employee issues, collecting receivables, paying the bills and running around buying office supplies?
Getting a well-qualified operations manager will give you the opportunity
to do this.
Balance – I spoke last week to a CEO that I have worked with since she first became CEO of the company. In the four years since she took the lead at this 15-year-old company, she has doubled revenue and completely reshaped the organization. She called to ask what advice I had for creating balance. She is a very hands-on leader and essentially has every single employee reporting directly to her. As a result, her personal life is suffering because she finds herself spending every waking hour either in the office or at least thinking about work.
My advice was that it is time to hire an operations director. Let the operations person manage a subset of the employees. She posted the position on LinkedIn last week!
If you are asking yourself today, “Should I hire an operations director?” and you are
experiencing or can relate to any or all of the three scenarios I have outlined, then the answer is YES. Last month, I talked about the importance of a Board of Directors and the importance to your long-term business success.
Hiring a general manager or operations manager is critical to your sanity, life balance and business as you begin to succeed and see the growth we all strive for in our business.
Do what that CEO did and get the position posted on LinkedIn, or better yet, promote someone from within your company. It is a great way to increase morale.
T Paul Thomas teaches business and entrepreneurship at Northern Arizona University and serves as chief entrepreneur at the NACET Accelerator. Prior to joining NAU and NACET in 2013, Thomas spent 25 years as a serial CEO and president.