Some questions to ask if you're a small business owner or self-employed?

Andy Robertson has just relocated from London to Brighton. Since leaving the City he has set up and run businesses, saying that if he’s good at anything it’s “I’m quite good at helping people get more out of themselves, their business and their work by asking good questions and then implementing them, helping everyone to work smarter, more profitably and more happily.”

Most business owner’s lives are taken over by ‘running the business’. Yet I’ve noticed that the businesses that really grow fast are actually the ones where the directors and team constantly take plenty of days off to ask questions.

Q. Who buys from you? Why? Who doesn’t buy from you? Why not?

Rather than zooming in and thinking “we must have more PR, marketing, more leads, and salespeople” stand back and look at your business from the outside in. It can be hard to do yourself (myopic, habitual, self-supporting thinking) so ask the team and customers. The answers are often surprising and might lead to retargeting or re-strategising what you discover are actually your key strengths and resources.

Q. Do you have constant, free-flowing, honest, non-frightened two way communication from the factory floor to the CEO ?

Only by listening and talking, do we find out what really works, doesn’t work, needs to be changed or improved. We find out whether we are really effective (and happy) in our roles or if we can do better with some changes. Through communication we discover great ideas and more effective practices for ourselves and the business. Be encouraging – staff must be sure that you reward constructive criticism, not sack them for it!

Q. Are you self-employed ? Or a business owner ?

 Some people like being self-employed... You have no employees and you’re doing the job that you (hopefully!) enjoy. BUT, it’s hard to take time off and you’re doing everything yourself. As well as the actual work you’re dealing with sales, accounts, paperwork, client problems, IT. You spend 30 years getting a good reputation, doing things well, being a nice guy/gal, then what?

As a business owner working ON the business or IN the business, make yourself redundant as fast as you can! Really. Not only will you find it more fun and less stressful by only doing the bits of the business that you enjoy, but it’ll be worth a lot more money if you ever want to sell it as it can function without you. Many business owners find themselves with too much stress, too many frustrations and not enough time. They often love their industry, but find their time is hijacked doing too many things they don’t want to do.

For fun and money, get great people, trust them, and look after them.

All this takes desire, belief and trust from the owner to liberate his/her team. This can be hard, but it’s the only way I’ve seen businesses double their profits every year. As Betfair (£60m pa profits) owner Andy Black says, “I don’t really like running a business. But I do know a lot about gambling and the internet. So my philosophy has been that there is always someone who can do the job better than me, and I go and hire them”.

For more information contact andrewcrobertson@yahoo.co.uk

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