Are they freeing up your time to build the business?

Most people, when asked, would give a range of reasons for hiring staff at their small businesses but the real, underlying reason, for all hires in a start-up or newer enterprise is to: Free up the owner's time to build the business!

After all, why else would you take anyone on - to share the wealth? C'mon, this is capitalism we're talking about! No owner willingly shares the returns on their sweat equity.

Yet it is amazing how few business owners - never mind employees - realize this fundamental truth.

In order to assess if employees and other staff are really pulling their weight, you need to run their performance through this "freeing up your time" prism constantly.

Obviously, you have to allow for time to train new hires and you have to allow for time to discuss job requirements, new projects that come in, new products or services you plan to offer, new customers etc, as these things arise.

But if you find you are constantly sitting down with any single worker to go over things they are not doing or not doing right, well, that person is definitely NOT freeing up your time to build the business. They are TAKING your time from building the business.

It's unlikely any small business owner has the luxury of that much time - or the funds in the bank to support this diversion of his or her concentration away from building the business.

Be aware of some of the traps that come up with employees who are not supporting your business building goals. My book Other People's Problems goes over all the issues which can siphon off your time - and shows you how to forestall these problems.

For details or to purchase, go to:http://www.deborahcsawyer.com/shopsite_sc/page2.html

Copyright Deborah C. Sawyer