Get out of my way

Speed hump ahead. What is really slowing down your business? It could be you!

What is really slowing us down…

It is fun listening to big business and government tell people what is “up” with SMEs at the moment. I was once the marketing manager for small business at Apple (okay, so that was 15 years ago) but I did the same … read the research, simplified all the detail into a few sentences and wrote the press release. With 500,000 small businesses in NSW alone, I would suggest that there is at least that many issues too.

Here are the standard ones – compliance, cash flow, and succession.

I’d suggest, however that our troubles are not that much different from big business. We want people, great people, talented people who are passionate and committed to the work that they do. We want people who are creative, take initiative and are natural leaders. So finding great talent takes up a lot of time. Even if you use recruiters, people are so important to an organisation that you simply must be involved with the process.

Then of course you can get great people, you then train them, educate them, nurture and develop their skills and talents. Then because they are good, or even great, some other company will up the ante and poach them – quite inflationary really.

But this is not a blame game people. Companies will do what works for them commercially to attract great talent.

My point is – how are we responsible as business owners? If we have engaging jobs, where people are constantly learning, where they know the difference that they make, and they are truly acknowledged for their contribution. Would the grass be greener?

A third of people leave their employment because they simply think they are not noticed. Now that is up to us.