Job Description of a Business Owner

So you think you can now run a business? 

Welcome to the club!  You are now a member of that unique brotherhood of start-up business owners who are jumping into the river called entrepreneurship and testing the water, seeing for themselves if they can swim and survive throughout the entire length of the often-tempestuous tributary.

You have great belief in yourself and you think that because you are the top salesman, accountant or manufacturing guy in your previous employment, you now have the license to run an enterprise.

Well I have good news and bad news for you.

Photo Credit:  www.dailyfinance.com

Yes, it is a great asset if you have an extensive background from a line of work that is key to the growth of your former employer. That’s the good news. Congratulations for a job well-done.

The bad news is, a business is not made-up of just one function like sales, nor finance, nor manufacturing neither human resources. It is made up of all of these and more and if you are merely a specialist in any of these and you think that you’ve got what it takes to run a business, you are probably courting trouble, my friend.

Now that you have assumed the role of somebody who’s supposed to be in-charge of several business functions, it would be to your best interest to be appreciate the value that each of these functions contribute to the overall operations of a business.

To do this you have to re-engineer and tweak yourself to the role of a manager of all the affairs of the business. Not one, not two, but all.

I spent my early years in business and “grew up” in the functional areas of sales and marketing. But when I decided to venture in a business of my own, I realized that I need to increase my appreciation of finance and accounting, all the more when I went into business consulting.

As a general manager, you now need to have a bird’s eye view when looking at the business forest, rather than your former level when all you see are the trees of business functions.

Now, you need to learn a new skill set, a new perspective.

To help you do this, you need to develop a job description that fits the new hat of a general manager. You need to write a job specification that will spell out your new duties and responsibilities to guide you in your day-to-day activities as a business owner.

To prepare for your business growth and expansion, here are 4 key areas where you need to spend most of your attention and time, if you are to be effective.

1. Strategic Planning

            Your first job is to be able to see the future of your business. Already, have you developed a mission vision statement for your business?  Have you written a business plan that details every aspect of the business from product development, to sales and marketing, to finance, manufacturing to manpower build-up and development? These are musts that you cannot do without.  The first rule in a journey is do not go without a map and directions.

            During your journey, there are hazards along the way, and the one of the most fatal in business is the hazard of your business being obsolete because of new technological advancements.  If you were making or selling CDs and paraphernalia before, you’ll understand what I mean.

            An important part of strategic planning is being able to spot hazards ahead along the road and make a detour when necessary.

2. Creating a Business Culture and Community

            Nowadays, we often hear of the word “community” in every facet of of business life.  Creating communities are now part of every company’s business strategy in order to have a first-hand feel of the shared values of the community of its customers.

            Likewise, you should create a unique culture in your business where your stakeholders such as employees, suppliers, marketers and investors have the same attachment to what your business stands for, what values they can share as one community so that each of the elements are connected to each other.

3.  Manage Through Others   

Before taking in your first employee and the next, until you build an organization of human beings interacting with you, with your other employees, your customers and your other various other public, you’ve got to be like a  human resource specialist with the aim of getting the best possible employee to fill up vacant positions in your company.

Since nobody but you is responsible and accountable for the performance of your people, one of your most important tasks as a general manager is your ability to recruit, hire, train and develop good people.

These people, especially your key team members, must be hand-selected by you in order to ensure that they will be productive and treat other people the way you would. You need to personally handle their training and development so they perform according to what you expect of them.  The quality of their performance rests on your shoulder.

This way you get results through others by managing, not by doing.


These key people are key pieces in creating the community and culture of your business to maintain its effectiveness.  They need to appreciate and be able to live by your values in order to operate in your stead.

4. You are the Company’s Best “Salesman”
The principles behind the lessons learn from business success, whether of a large or small enterprise are all the same.  Only the magnitude of an organization’s size like Procter and Gamble sometimes give us the idea: “That’s P&G, my situation is different because I am just a small struggling company”.

Reading on the story of A.G. Lafley, the superstar CEO of Procter and Gamble who’s instrumental to bringing the company to one of the world’s most valuable companies, makes me smile in amusement.

I cannot help but be amused by what he asked himself and his employees to do:  Stay close to the customer.     

Having been close to owners of small and medium business owners since 1989, I realized that he is just adopting what the start-up and developing business sector are doing all along. 

Being small and agile, start-up businesses have the greater advantage of keeping their ears on the ground all the time.

As the owner, never lose your grip on the customer.  Personally allocate some time to them, as what Lafley and his executives did, making sure that you continue what others like you in the small business sector are doing, listening and paying close attention to what the customer is saying. 

 

Do this and you’ll never go wrong.