Entrepreneurial Management
Part 3 | Culture Who
In Part One, we talked about you and how to manage your brain to grow your business. In Part Two, we talked about your business and creating it as separate from you. A business with vision, values, a manifesto, and its own money and model. We now want to dive into Part Three where we’ll talk about people. If you have not watched Part One and Part Two, you’re doing it wrong. You must have that foundation before you move into hiring people.
In this module, we’ll talk about people and culture. Pull out a blank piece of paper and take some notes as we talk about how to think about and work with your employees in a different way.
Most entrepreneurs hire people to solve problems and it usually comes out of their frustration, because they have too much work that needs to be done. They say, “I can’t do it anymore. I need a person. I need help.” So then they go find them. And it’s usually their sister or a friend that just got laid off. And they have very little direction because there is no company vision, values, or model.
If you don’t have your own self managed, and if you haven’t separated yourself from the business, and you just start adding people—it’s chaos. And you will come to the conclusion that you’re not good at this and that you don’t want to hire people and that it’s such a hassle or that really good people are hard to find.
Someone once said, “The people you start with are usually not the people that you finish with.” So if you haven’t done the work on yourself and your business, then it’s almost guaranteed that anyone you hired without that foundation is probably not going to adapt and fit in. Because they’re used to what you had before.
As we go through this process, pretend like you have no employees, and that you’re starting from scratch. This doesn’t mean you won’t re-hire some of the people that already work for you, but we want you to make it a conscious decision.
Why Do We Need People?
You hire people to execute the business model, and to create results. If you can execute your business model by yourself, then don’t hire anyone. Most likely as you grow and set bigger goals, you will need other people to help. But you do not hire people to solve problems.
For example, as you grow you may get a lot of customer emails. You will think this is a problem that needs solved. So you hire a person without asking yourself, “Why are there so many customer emails?” And because you don’t solve the cause of the problem, you end up hiring more people to address the problem.
The only reason you need people is to execute the business model and you only need as many people as it takes to execute the business model.
Full Time Employees or Part Time Contractors?
Now as you make the transition from solopreneur to entrepreneur, you’re going to probably ask the question, “Do I want to hire full time employees or do I want to hire part time contractors?” This is a good question and most people would rather hire the part time contractor because it’s less of a commitment and easier to get them on and off board.
If you really take the time to build the foundation of your business, the answer to this question will shift, because if you’re not in a hurry to hire someone to solve an immediate fire, your best choice might be an employee over a contractor.
We recommend you hire contractors to solve temporary problems or for their skill, like graphic design or website help. You will hire employees based on your core values and to provide long term solutions. When you hire an employee, they are part of your team—they are an investment. Contractors aren’t as aligned with your result or vision. They work to complete the task or project assigned and then they are done.
Culture
Culture is what happens when you are not around. It’s what’s said and done when you’re not there telling people what to say and do. It’s the thoughts everybody thinks about your company. It’s not something you create.
A manager at a luxury hotel was once asked, “How do you create such a friendly culture?” They said, “We don’t make people friendly. We hire friendly people.” So if you want to have a blue collar culture, you have to hire people who work that way.
You want to make sure when you hire people that they align with your values and they love hanging out together. If you have some workers that think they are better than others, then they will resent each other. If you notice a lot of conflict in your organization, it’s because you’re not basing your hiring and your accountability on your core values.
At The Life Coach School, we create a culture where no one is running around putting out fires. Nobody is working overtime or on weekends or is exhausted or burnt out. If someone says they are going on vacation and they are on Slack then we all give them a hard time.
How you show up and act, and how you interact, and if you hold everyone accountable to your core values—that will create your culture. And your culture is what’s going to produce all the results in your business, which is what really matters.