Business owners like being busy. Too busy to get through the urgent task list, speak to that important customer, deal with a tricky problem raised by a member of the team. They like the buzz, the adrenaline rush, up and out of the door early, in the office before everyone else and work, work, work. Doing stuff until it's time to go home.
But suddenly it seems, something strange happens. The customers who used to contact you directly are dealing with members of your team. The volume of emails and phone calls you have to deal with has slowed down to a trickle. Business is still coming in and work is getting done but it's happening without you.
It's a strange and unnerving feeling.
So what do you do? Well for some the need to be busy takes over. They will pile in and take on some work from the team to fill up the time. Before long they have their head stuck in a tricky customer project and they don't have time to sort out their important jobs again. They are needed and fixing problems. Job done? Well maybe not. They are busy but busy in their own comfort zone and the cycle starts again.
So if you are a business owner and this happens to you, my advice is pause and take some time before doing anything. Embrace not being busy for a while and use this time to think. What should your role be? How can you really move your business forward?
Steve Jobs at Apple went through a period of restructuring and consolidation and building up reserves in his business. Someone asked him what his plans were and why he wasn't moving forward with new initiatives. His reply was, 'I'm waiting for the next big thing'. That big thing was the change to downloading music and out of that came iTunes and the iPod and the resurgence of Apple.
As small business owners we maybe aren't setting our sights as high as Steve Jobs but we all have 'things' happening in our industries which will affect how we do business in the years to come. Maybe we should get busy seeing how we can exploit this rather get busy doing what makes us feel comfortable?
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