Every now and again someone will come to me seeking assistance with mapping out a solid growth strategy, marketing help or SEO guidance. Often times they’ll suggest I can’t help them right now because “you don’t know our business well enough yet.” Sound familiar?
Do you need to know how to mow your lawn perfectly to hire someone to do a good job? Do you need to know landscaping inside and out to hire a landscaper? What about painting … do you need to be a master to hire a qualified painter to paint your house?
Probably not, right? Why is that?
Have You Looked in the Mirror Lately?
Thinking you have to master a certain skill within your business before hiring someone to do a good job is quite costly, and here’s why …
Everyone has strengths and weaknesses, and smart business owners instinctively realize where they’re weak. Often it’s in the sales and marketing arena so recognizing someone who has the ability to help you effectively market your business and sell ice to Eskimos is a sound business practice regardless of your background or skill set.
Wouldn’t you agree?
Why You Don’t Have to be a Master Tactician to Achieve Great Success
Consider this: Tom Watson, the man who started IBM, never programmed a line of code or setup a computer. He knew that in order to build a successful firm he needed folks highly skilled in those areas.
He wasn’t worried about programming in C, PHP, Java, Pearl, COBOL, or RPG. He also didn’t fret over which motherboard and chip-set provided the greatest throughput for the lowest cost.
Why wasn’t any of that stuff critically important to Watson? Because the long-term success of IBM wasn’t dependent upon him knowing a bit of it.
If that example doesn’t resonate with you, here’s another one. Does Scott Davis, the current CEO of UPS, need to know how to load boxes onto a truck or drive it to hire a good driver and delivery person? Does he need to know logistics software inside and out to grow that division? Does he need to be a skilled pilot to hire a good one? Not so much, right?
If you agree with this line of thinking, take a moment to complete the quick exercise below. This could be a game changer for you.
Do You Make this Costly Mistake?
A costly problem many business owners face is believing someone has to know your business inside and out to be an effective contributor.
Ask yourself this: “Am I spending far too much time worrying about hiring the absolute perfect candidate instead of a good one I can train to do the job well?” Are you losing sight of the big picture as a result?
The “Secret Sauce” to Limitless Business Growth
If you haven’t already come to this logical conclusion on your own, hire good people to train to hire good people to train.
That’s it … the “secret sauce” to limitless business growth in a single sentence.
It’s not going to come to you once you’ve learned how to optimize your website for search engines.
It won’t happen by using fancy NLP language in your daily conversations to “magically” hypnotize your prospects into buying from you.
It’s not going to happen by updating your logo for the fifth time or attending another networking group of so-called “movers and shakers” pretending to be oh SO busy.
Why You’ll Likely Ignore This Advice
The reason common sense advice is ignored so frequently is it isn’t sexy. It doesn’t have that “wow” factor to make you look smarter than you truly are. It’s not going to impress your neighbors or colleagues as being “cutting edge.”
No, implementing time tested advice won’t win you any awards but it might fatten your wallet to the point people sit up to take notice. Isn’t that a better reward anyway?
Look, you may have already heard all of this before … chances are you probably have. How much of it are you actively implementing though on a daily basis? If you’re like most business leaders, it’s probably not nearly as much as you’d like others to believe.
Your Next Steps
Go ahead, take action on this “old” and “boring” advice then come back and share the results.
Start now … stop waiting for the perfect time because you already know the perfect time never comes.