As great as Kobe is, he can’t take on the other team by himself. Tiger Woods relies on his caddy to give guidance. I have an amazing office of talented people who make me look good. Who do you have?
Having the right team is more integral than you think. It’s about more than having someone to bounce ideas off of or split the workload – it most often comes down to complimentary skillsets. I don’t need 10 Alex’s following me around all day (ugh, that would be terrible for all of us!), I need people who excel at things I do poorly.
On a broad level, most people can be assessed simply: organized or not, detailed or not, creative or not, techy or not, salesy or not.
So, if you want to run a company that requires sales, and you have a product to sell, you’d better find someone good at selling. Seems obvious, right? I can’t tell you how often I see people try to become the thing they have no chance at being good at, while paying the price financially to try to learn it. Sure, tinker around with playing the piano for years, doesn’t really matter – but when in business, time is money, and more often than not tinkering leads to the demise of a well-intentioned business concept.
Small business owners in particular suffer from this dilemma- they make great sandwiches, but lack the skills to run a successful sandwich shop. The TEAM is what fills in the blanks and makes the whole thing work.
When considering small business marketing solutions, I see too many ‘tradesmen’ (someone who excels at a particular craft, like making shoes or sushi) try to “figure out” how to leverage social and mobile marketing to build their business. They set up a Facebook page, run a couple of terrible promotions, get some flyers they designed using MS Word printed on bright pink paper and expect that to somehow make them money. Ugh. Blame it on the economy, right? BS.
The smart ones invest in a team – people who are tradesmen of MONEY MAKING. Those people are good at making money, and probably make a terrible sandwich…a match made in heaven!
The proprietor articulates the vision and goals for the company, and supports his ‘money making team’ to go make him more money. Meanwhile, he makes sure they keep making great sandwiches.
When considering your goals and roadmap to get there, be honest with yourself, realize your strengths and supplement your weaknesses with great people. A recipe for success.