Give up control

I am often asked to explain how I managed to grow my financial services business quickly and with some level of efficiency. How did I start the process of the creation of a business with a level of scalability?My simple answer is that I gave up control. I gave up control over the day to day grind of lodging and managing deals with the banks. I gained control of my time to optimize it and do what I do best, which is being front facing to new customers. In corporate terms that would be called new business development.However, I am the first to admit that it was not always by design.  In any of my businesses when we employed staff it was often more out of necessity rather than a detailed plan. That is probably the one key trait of being a serial entrepreneur, the ability to make decisions without necessarily a completely detailed plan of attack.The barrier for most brokers in the mid 2000’s’ was the lack of scalability.  We, like many others in the industry believed that the key to growing the business was centered around employing many brokers.  At one stage, we had 18 brokers and no support staff. My partner and I were seeing clients, collating paperwork, submitting to the banks and doing all the follow up. We realized that by employing and empowering staff around us we would enable the business to grow. This was the turning point in that business.Giving up control to gain control is the result of the process of taking a business through the pains that allow it to grow.  I am sure that I have not done everything right, and that I have made many mistakes along the way.Over the years I have developed a set of business principles that have very little to do with traditional approaches to business. These are about business design and leadership about creating a culture that makes the workplace a great place to work and its about keeping life and business systems very simple.  These are also areas that make up some of my speaking topics. :

•         Never asking staff to do anything you would not do
•         Have a fun work environment and a serious work culture
•         Learn to be a salesman
•         Find mentors in specific areas of life and business
•         Customers come second to your People, people and people
•         Communication is the king
•         Keep it simple and don’t over complicate processes

I finish every blog with “why am I writing this?”

The answer is BECAUSE –

•         Because I want to share the ideas, stories, anecdotes and business tips and traps.
•         Because I want to pay it forward.
•         Because I want to help people grow their businesses.
•         Because I want managers to become better managers.
•         Because I believe that I can “Give your business the EDGE”