Ego Makes Us Do Crazy Things – Even Work Harder, Longer, Alienate Our Families and Make Less Money.
American Express recently did a survey of Canadian small business owners as part of their overall marketing strategy to determine the attitudes, perceptions and insights of small business owners towards starting and running a small business and what keeps them motivated.
The results were staggering but not surprising. Here are some of the take away points.
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Small business owners put in an average of 55 hours a week
- Small business owners spend almost every weekend catching up on work and with no plans to take any time-off but they wouldn't have it any other way.
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62% of respondents said not taking regular vacations to decompress and re-energize doesn’t bother them.
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64% said they wouldn’t think twice about doing it all again.
The survey goes on to say that the respondents said they wouldn’t have it any other way. The thrill of running a business is derived form having a hand in every part of it.
Most small business owners surveyed said the number one reason for not taking more time off was due to not wanting to relinquish control and the worries about not making money while they are out of the office.
A small portion of the business owners expressed that more skilled staff would make running the business easier but most of the 39% are not willing to put the necessary time and resources into training and developing staff to help alleviate the strain.
This is exactly why so many small business owners are overworked, not as happy as they want to be and haven’t achieved the financial wealth they desire.
Their egos won’t let them!
Why do I harp on this so much? Because this mind junk is the biggest hindrance to small business success. The only thing that stands in the way of you and success is YOU!
The only person linking working long hours, never taking vacations and not spending time with your family and success is YOU!
It doesn’t have to be that way.
Notice how none of the respondents in this survey talk about using systems to automate the process of growing a business, training employees and executing sales and service processes. This stuff is non-traditional. This stuff is the hard work that makes success easy.
It makes me sick to my stomach to hear small business owners say they need to have their hand in all the day-to-day operations. That is an excuse for being disorganized and having too big of an ego as to their place in their company.
A great company can’t run with out the entrepreneur in the picture – this is true. But they don’t have to be answering the phones and doing the daily grunt work. You should be spending time doing the things that bring in the most money. And it doesn’t take 55 hours per week to get it done.
You have to close the door, remove yourself from the B.S. baby games that detract from the main purpose of the business and create systems and programs that bring in the money. We call this “Operation Money Suck.”
By doing “Operation Money Suck” – creating programs, marketing, ideas and systems that make your business run efficiently and effectively without you being involved is the ultimate key.
Do only what you are uniquely qualified to do and pay and pay well for others to do the rest of the stuff. The dividends will come back to you in multiples.
Most small business owners try to bleed and save their way into a profit and it only leads to a life of stress and mediocrity.
Crate marketing and success systems, hire great people that are smarter and better than you, invest in your education until you die, get the lifetime knowledge of others and absorb it, steal ideas that work in other industries and apply them to yours – these are the things that will make your business and your life will become Enjoyable, Simple and Prosperous.
Otherwise you’re doomed to kiss the asses of your customers and compete on price for the rest of your life.
