Creating More Capacity in Your Business
Time is the great equalizer. Today’s caller on Your Business Hotline, Ryan, is looking to leverage his time and create more capacity.
He thinks the only route to do that is by building a team. We explore a number of additional options as well.
Some background: Ryan is two years into his consulting business. He prioritizes working with friends (I realize that’s a statement that will make many people pause) on things he believes matter. People are lining up to work with him because of this pre-existing relationship equity.
Given that he’s in demand, his limitation as a team of one is causing him to desire expansion.
Having a background managing teams (sometimes to his enjoyment, otherwise causing exhaustion), he assumes this is the one route to get there.
Fortunately, there is rarely one way to do anything, and this is no exception.
In our conversation (which you can listen to here), we explore different options from collaborations to joint ventures, referral partnerships, and more.
We dig into why some of these options:
Don’t have to be overly formalized
Can evolve over time (to allow you to ‘date’ before you ‘marry’ and give the partnership time to try it on and assess it)
Allow for complementary skill sets to come together (check out the book Rocketfuel for the one-two punch of collaboration between an ‘innovator’ and ‘integrator’)
We then discuss the importance of knowing what role(s) you want to play in the business before you bring anyone else in (in any form or fashion). Ryan wants the freedom and space to be creative and hates creating systems and doing the ops-type work (a classic scenario of an innovator who needs an integrator). He recognizes that his leadership style is one that strays from wanting to be seen as the ‘boss’ and his rebellious spirit both helps him be innovative as well as holds him back.
He decides it’s time to get some formal administrative help and that his role will be to create more clarity for that person to succeed. This will require upfront investment of his time and will have a payoff down the road.
He will use the same skills that magnetize clients to him to attract collaborators and partners.
A lot shifts when we invite others in to see our situation from another perspective.
Want to see what you can learn from this conversation with Ryan?