It’s a brand new year, and you want growth, both professionally and personally. In this episode, we’re going to identify your current stage of business, look at what type of team growth is needed for each phase, and determine exactly what type of support you need if you are ready to expand your business in the coming year.
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Understanding the Stages of Business
Before we dive into how you want to expand your business in 2020, let’s review the 3 phases of business:
- Building: foundations, testing
- Growing: visibility, operations (systems + processes)
- Scaling: team, revenue streams
These phases are sequential–each phase builds upon the previous phase. The focus areas build too. (You can learn more about the phases of business in episode 15).
If you “figure out” visibility in the growing phase, you don’t outgrow it and stop it. You optimize it before adding more to your plate.
And it’s when you start doing this over and over that the need for team growth happens. You want experts to come in and work in their zone of genius for you. This frees you up to being the CEO so that you can focus on sales, content, and connections.
Which stage are you in right now: building, growing, or scaling?
Now ask yourself: where would I like to be at the end of this year? Do I want to stay in the same stage, or advance to the next stage?
The majority of business owners I work with want to advance. But the length of time you’re in each stage is different for every person, every business, and every industry. The goal is to identify where you are right now.
If it’s growing, you’re likely going to be spending the bulk of your time on visibility and systems + processes. If it’s scaling, meaning you can remove yourself from portions of the business, then the focus will be on growing your team. There’s more detail on this in episode 5, so go take a listen if you missed that one.
Now that you know the types of stages and which one you’re at, let’s talk about how you can utilize or grow your team in 2020 to expand your business, your revenue, and your impact.
How to Expand Your Business in 2020 Using Operations and Team Growth
Since you’re listening to the Ops Authority Podcast, we’re going to look at expanding your business primarily through the lens of operations and team growth.
Team Growth at Different Phases
Even in the building phase of business, there could be a need for support or service providers to come in and assist you. In the online space, it’s common to start with assistants which will focus on administrative tasks.
In the growing phase, you’ll begin looking for support in more specialized areas like social media management, marketing specialists, graphics, copy, etc. This allows you as the leader of the business to focus on content, networking, or product design.
In between the growing and scaling phases, you may start looking for a higher level of support. You may want to bring in someone like an online business manager, an operations manager, a digital marketer, or even a project manager.
These professionals minimize the physical output of the CEO by executing and implementing ideas as well as creating processes and procedures inside the business.
At this point, and definitely in the scaling phase, leaders often start to recognize the need to expand and therefore, they see a need to have a “right-hand” or second in command within the business. (Learn more about visionaries and right-hand roles in this post).
In order for you to grow, you need to let go of some of the day-to-day implementation and management of the business and truly focus on your role as visionary. In this case, you may be ready for a certified Director of Operations.
I created the Director of Operations certification because I found that my corporate experience in supporting the vision of a CEO was missing in the online and small business space.
But how do you know if you are ready for this level of support? I’ve got some questions to ask yourself to help you determine if you are ready for a DOO.
3 Questions to Ask to Determine Who You Need On Your Team in 2020:
Question 1: Do you need a “yes ma’am” or a “yes, maybe” person?
A “yes ma’am” team member will be someone who will complete the tasks you give them. They are excited to please you, and this is likely the type of person you hired during the building or growing phase. This is also someone who is an implementer in your business.
A “yes, maybe” team member is someone who will push back on your ideas and your requests. They will be a strategic counterpart to your business.
Question 2: Do you want a plan for your ideas or do you want to continue to be the person creating the plan?
Up to this point, you’ve been solely creating the plans and others have been executing. If you are ready for some help creating the plan to carry out your vision, you may be ready for a Director of Operations. This leaves you free to develop the vision, make or build relationships, create unique content and sell.
In addition, all certified DOOs are licensed to use my Strategic Mapping™ Model, which is an established framework used for strategic planning in corporate. It’s been adapted for the small business and provides structure, clarity and direction.
Question 3: Are you ready to lead rather than manage?
Many business owners came into business without thinking about the scaling phase of business. But you’re here, and now it’s time to fully embrace your leadership role rather than continue managing the day-to-day.
“You won’t get any further if you hold onto the day-to-day tasks or the individual management of the people that are supporting you.”
This is what I call “big girl business” – it’s time to start leading and let someone highly skilled in talent recruitment, management, performance management, and development take over those parts of the business.
For operations lovers like myself, we get fired up about doing these things that are likely draining for you!
If you answered yes to 1 or 2 of these questions, I encourage you to begin looking for at the option of hiring a Director of Operations. If you were a 3 out of 3, it’s a must. I can help you find this person. Go to theopsauthority.com/hiring and we can help you out.
What if You are an Operations Gal?
Maybe you’ve been listening to this and thinking that you are the person who loves being in that right hand role. You love operations just like me, and you’d prefer to help the CEO make the plans.
Then I encourage you to check out our next round of the Director of Operations Certification. Applications are open through January 24, 2020.
Weekly Ops Activity
Did this episode help you figure out how you’ll expand your business in 2020? I hope it did, so now it’s time to do something with what you learned!
Inside of our Ops Insiders Facebook Group, I would like for you to share what stage you’re in (Building, Growing, or Scaling) and then tell us what your next hire will be. If you are in a service provider role and you’re not sure what type of role is best for you (VA, OBM, PM, DOO), go ahead and ask that question as well! I’ll be there to support you.
Previous Episodes Mentioned
- Episode 5: The Seven Pillars to Your Business Strategy with Andrea Layne
- Episode 15: Where to Invest Next in Your Business
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