When you open your small business, one of the questions to ask yourself is whether you want to be a job manager or a general manager. A lot of people start thinking, what does that mean? What and how do I benefit from this? Which path should I take? The real question is, where do I take the function of managing my business?
A job manager is someone who puts his hands in all areas of the business and does everything. From meeting people, marketing, to even throwing out the trash. A manager manager is someone who tells people what to do, where to go, and how to do it.
At the start of every small business, the job manager is the way to go, but as your business grows, what you end up doing is a general manager. He is now dependent on his business and the direction he wants his small business to take.
I have seen many one person businesses grow and prosper by one person and the business is 5-10 years old and that is good. But I’ve also seen small businesses get into 10-person operations and that’s good too.
You must and see all aspects of your business. You must look at the future of your business and see where it is headed. Or you also have to think, if I keep it as one-person operations or start hiring people to cover all areas of my business. Again, it depends on the nature of your business.
Example: I have seen a person from a bakery enter a 15 person operation. I have seen a kind of support business in a one person operation. I have seen a one person business card dealer stay as a one person operation and I have seen a basket making business go down to a 5 person operation.
The list goes on and on, I’ve talked to all of these business owners and they made a business decision when they had to, from going from a one person operation to a 20 person operation.
But all of them have told me that they started out as job managers and let the nature of their company grow into whatever operation they needed.
The benefits of being a job manager is that you control everything and you see what is going to happen and you are responsible for everything. The benefit of a general manager is that you have staff that do everything for you and take over the duty and the work and you just watch what’s going on.
No matter which direction you take, there is no mistake here. Just let the nature of the business go in the direction it needs to go. When you allow that, it will flow easily and you will do well.
The decision is yours, job manager or manager manager. What is your method of working with companies?