The Juggle (General)

Entrepreneurs have to be masters at performing multiple duties, playing a variety of roles, and generally doing whatever is required to get the job done.  Most start-up ventures are woefully understaffed and owners and employees realize that they have to be flexible in performing a variety of jobs and can’t be too rigid in conforming to any makeshift job description.  Additionally, owners realize that a job remains undone, and there is nobody left to do it, or there is no money to hire someone, the task will undoubtedly be added to the owner’s to-do list.  It just goes with the job, you may have to juggle multiple tasks at any one  time, on any given day! Early in my business career, a trusted advisor urged me to delegate duties, and whenever possible,  hire folks to do what I didn’t do very well.  Secretly I thought he didn’t understand the reality of my financial position; I didn’t think I could afford that kind of help.  With a little time and experience, I came to understand his wisdom.  Entrepreneurs, managers, and employees only have a limited amount of time and energy.  We are only human and everyone has limitations.  We can’t be good at doing every task, and we can’t work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week…at least for very long. ..so at some point, we need to decide how to get it all done and still maintain our sanity. In one of my start-up ventures, I decided to do my own bookkeeping and handle payroll too. Before long I was consumed with the complexities of learning the task, and realized that I was probably making mistakes along the way.  It took up an extensive amount of time and I was not very confident in my skills… Not good!  I soon gave into the wisdom of allowing a payroll services to do my payroll, and hiring a “bookkeeper” to do my “books”… I got my productive time back was able to use that time to make enough sales to pay them and to make some profit too!  I didn’t have to do it all, I just needed to do it more efficiently. Knowing your limitations is critical in managing your workload.  By assigning tasks and responsibilities to the right employees, or outside contractors,  you increase your  likelihood for success, and your can focus your time and energy on what you do the best. Now, I admit there are times when you may have to do-it-all; maybe to get things started, or just keep things afloat in a tough time, however that can’t last forever if your intent is to grow your business.  Sooner or later you realize that you can’t do it all, be everywhere, and do everything may be required in a given day, and that’s ok.  Some days you just have to do the best you can, get a good nights sleep, and juggle it all again tomorrow.