Bringing Clarity, Structure and Results to Small Businesses
In last week’s post, Surround Yourself with Smart, Trustworthy People, I talked about building teams of smart, trustworthy people around you. In two LinkedIn groups that I post this blog to I got comments that I thought I should address here – especially as I thought I had covered the points they raised in last week’s post! Also, I had a meeting this week with an individual where the subject of networking for leads came up, and which tells a similar story to that of the comments.
Recently, on behalf of a couple of new business owners I had met, I reached out to a past client because I thought they could provide some insight to and even connections for these new individuals. This week, I got an email back from the past client in which they made a statement which I think is very apropos to the content of my last few blogs.
The past client said that the individuals should “surround themselves with smart, trustworthy people. You can’t do these sorts of things alone. Building a strong team around you takes time, a great deal of belief, money and tenacity.” They clearly hit on my recent themes of “you can’t do this alone” and “get good people on your team”; but, in just those few words they touched on so much more.
Over the last couple of posts I’ve been discussing the importance of building a good team, with different kinds of players with different skills. I heard a story this week that I thought made the point from the other side of this picture; i.e., why you shouldn’t try to do everything and why you should focus on your strengths.
In my last post I discussed the importance of building and managing teams to help accelerate the progress of your business. This week I was reminded of one of the type of team members that is often overlooked by entrepreneurs and small business owners.
So, here I am, doing what I often do on a Saturday morning – watching Barclays’ Premier League football matches (at least as I do during the BPL season); and being reminded of the importance of teamwork, with the occasional input of individual brilliance, to the success of any team – a lesson for all those solo-preneurs out there.