Do you do too much?

[t2van]

I've had a mentorship meeting not so long ago, I don't know if that's the right way to word it. I think it is, I meet with someone to help or guide me in growing and taking the brand to the next level as for a few reasons:

1. I don't feel like I know how
2. I think I do much
3. I don't trust anyone

I've done OK with it. I've built it from nothing to 7 figures, survived a big downturn and the loss of revenue to 0 despite having all the overheads of a 7 figure business and recovered it all. So I like to think I got a good head on and can make this thing work just going up a level seems tough.

I had a few takeaways from it, be interested in people's thoughts:

1. I never knew what vertical & horizontal integration were until I went there. Do you? Without googling? BE Honest, let me know below.

Spoiler: Be honest and let me know before you go reading

So simply form is Vertical, you control your supply lines to secure the market as well as distribution, wholesalers etc. I do this as standard apparently or inversely which helped to our growth. You take control of the entire industry and strengthen the supply chain. Horizontal, you go after other business and expand out to dominate the market and go into similar sectors or services something I'm trying to do.

2. I never knew what an Ansoff Matrix is. Do you? Without googling? BE Honest, let me know below.

Spoiler: This is where my problem is.

Essentially it's this:

He said most businesses function in 1 of these areas and then SOMETIMES to expand they operate in 2.

After sitting down and talking about what I do. It seems I'm doing all 4 LOL which he thought was insane, I kind of figure that, but it's also interesting..

So yeah, based on Ansoff Matrix I'm my own worst enemy and apparently will end up needing to get out of my own way for the company to thrive and grow.

Not sure the whole point of this post now lol, maybe I should delete it.

BUT do you know what those things are? Do you get in your own way? Are you a product of your own success but also your biggest hindrance? Or maybe any similar minded business people just want to DM and chat / unload etc be interesting to chew the fat as they say

 

[MisterF]

It's very easy to do too much yourself, quite often it's a trust thing. Do you trust the person you are hiring to be able to be as focused as you, to have your best interests, to be able to problem solve as quick as you do, etc etc etc.

Also, often the person you see in a CV or interview, isn't the same person you actually hire. By this I mean what they are telling you is sometimes only things they want you to hear.

About 4 years back, out of the blue while we were looking for an SEO team leader, a CV came my way from a young lady with an impeccable CV, she was working for a quite well known ( if you are in the industry) SEO agency but they were making her redundant and she was working her notice.

I did 2 interviews with her online, offered her the position that she had applied for.
She came back and said he's like to accept, but could I increase the salary by 5%.
I replied, no, this is what is on offer, but we do 6 monthly performance reviews.

She started with us, 2 months later. Worked a month, got paid on the final day of the month. Start of month 2, my manager allocated her, her work for the month, didn't hear back for the next 3 days. Finally got an email from her saying she'd been asked to return to her employer, so had gone back to them.

Needless to say, we revoked her access to our system and distributed her work to other team members.


It's things like this, that piss you off and stop you wanting to hire in new people.

Then 3 months later, she sends me a Skype message, apologising and asking if we had any positions open.

Blocked and deleted.



So, yes it's sometimes better to do as much yourself as you can.

 

[Rem]

Do I do too much?
Looking back
Yes, I do
but compared to the recent years, not as bad as before.
I used to never trust people as much
micromanage every small detail (not my way or the highway, but more towards, always hovering around looking how progress is going)
but eventaully, i was exhausted from exhaustion of overworking.
I do trust people alot more now with their work, i'll set the task and come back when its near done or completed.

 

[t2van]

It's very easy to do too much yourself, quite often it's a trust thing. Do you trust the person you are hiring to be able to be as focused as you, to have your best interests, to be able to problem solve as quick as you do, etc etc etc.

Also, often the person you see in a CV or interview, isn't the same person you actually hire. By this I mean what they are telling you is sometimes only things they want you to hear.

About 4 years back, out of the blue while we were looking for an SEO team leader, a CV came my way from a young lady with an impeccable CV, she was working for a quite well known ( if you are in the industry) SEO agency but they were making her redundant and she was working her notice.

I did 2 interviews with her online, offered her the position that she had applied for.
She came back and said he's like to accept, but could I increase the salary by 5%.
I replied, no, this is what is on offer, but we do 6 monthly performance reviews.

She started with us, 2 months later. Worked a month, got paid on the final day of the month. Start of month 2, my manager allocated her, her work for the month, didn't hear back for the next 3 days. Finally got an email from her saying she'd been asked to return to her employer, so had gone back to them.

Needless to say, we revoked her access to our system and distributed her work to other team members.


It's things like this, that piss you off and stop you wanting to hire in new people.

Then 3 months later, she sends me a Skype message, apologising and asking if we had any positions open.

Blocked and deleted.



So, yes it's sometimes better to do as much yourself as you can.

Well you are going to know better than anyone else on this Forum my reasons for trust with all the conversations we have

One thing I will say during my time off from 'burn out' is my business development manger did step up a fair bit so that's help change things a little.

I've also started to note in a chart all the skills I have and need and then check against them and what I don't have time to do myself this helps going forward with looking for staff.

Do I do too much?
Looking back
Yes, I do
but compared to the recent years, not as bad as before.
I used to never trust people as much
micromanage every small detail (not my way or the highway, but more towards, always hovering around looking how progress is going)
but eventaully, i was exhausted from exhaustion of overworking.
I do trust people alot more now with their work, i'll set the task and come back when its near done or completed.

I have major trust issues with staff, I don't do hand holding or micromanaging really If I have to sit and do that id rather just do the job myself.

I just taken on a little bit too much more so with the growth of the company, and I did suffer a major burn out end of last year which resulted me in almost selling up to a competitor just to cash out and walk away with a win for the children.. but got through it.


I had a real good business friend I used to trouble shoot ideas but hes moved on and away now and our time talking is limited. I guess as they say it's lonely at the top and I'm starting to notice that more, more so when I just like to brain storm new ideas and not use the internal accountant as she just says no to 90% of my ideas lol

 

[Zwielicht]

I have this problem of doing too much as well. However, the problem for me doesn't originate from trust issues, but rather another issue I have.

I trust the people who work "under me" (I don't like wording it that way, but will for the sake of this post) as I know them and they know what they're doing. Because of this, I don't intervene when they're working on something nor do I engage in micromanaging.

However, one of the issues I have is that I have the ability to accurately complete work and tasks very quickly on just about anything and I don't tire out very often. This means that if there's a long list of work that needs to be done for my team, I often end up finishing everything before anyone else can get to it.

This is not actually a good thing though, especially in a team setting. It often makes others working with me feel like they're not doing enough or working as fast, and I don't mean to make anyone feel that way. I like having a team because I value the unique perspectives they bring when they work on something with me. The way I see it, I can complete things and do that well, but the individual spin they put on their work makes the real difference and people notice that. It's like the difference between me making a good art piece versus someone on my team making an art piece that's mind-blowing.

You can see an example of this issue in the changelog on this forum. @Impulse and I are working on this together, but because I don't know how to slow down, I end up doing a lot more. This makes her feel overshadowed and gives off the impression that I'm just doing everything, which is actually what caused issues at the last job; they felt she wasn't doing enough and thought I was just doing everything.

However, what nobody sees is all the background discussions we have on how to complete the work or all the research @Impulse does into issues that she shares with me before I work on completing anything.

I was aware of this problem before, but working on this forum is making me pay a lot more attention to it because I want to ensure I learn how to slow down to make sure everyone I'm working with on this is getting the recognition they deserve. They are doing a lot and they are putting their individual spins on everything; they're helping give this forum more heart than I ever could on my own.

 

[t2van]

I have this problem of doing too much as well. However, the problem for me doesn't originate from trust issues, but rather another issue I have.

I trust the people who work "under me" (I don't like wording it that way, but will for the sake of this post) as I know them and they know what they're doing. Because of this, I don't intervene when they're working on something nor do I engage in micromanaging.

However, one of the issues I have is that I have the ability to accurately complete work and tasks very quickly on just about anything and I don't tire out very often. This means that if there's a long list of work that needs to be done for my team, I often end up finishing everything before anyone else can get to it.

This is not actually a good thing though, especially in a team setting. It often makes others working with me feel like they're not doing enough or working as fast, and I don't mean to make anyone feel that way. I like having a team because I value the unique perspectives they bring when they work on something with me. The way I see it, I can complete things and do that well, but the individual spin they put on their work makes the real difference and people notice that. It's like the difference between me making a good art piece versus someone on my team making an art piece that's mind-blowing.

You can see an example of this issue in the changelog on this forum. @Impulse and I are working on this together, but because I don't know how to slow down, I end up doing a lot more. This makes her feel overshadowed and gives off the impression that I'm just doing everything, which is actually what caused issues at the last job; they felt she wasn't doing enough and thought I was just doing everything.

However, what nobody sees is all the background discussions we have on how to complete the work or all the research @Impulse does into issues that she shares with me before I work on completing anything.

I was aware of this problem before, but working on this forum is making me pay a lot more attention to it because I want to ensure I learn how to slow down to make sure everyone I'm working with on this is getting the recognition they deserve. They are doing a lot and they are putting their individual spins on everything; they're helping give this forum more heart than I ever could on my own.

I'm a little like that I wiz through stuff. I think thats why I've have developed soo many arms to the business it can feel like too much but I see all of these as important to dominating my market.

Don't get me wrong I've built a solid team and now there are certain jobs I just don't do anymore, I don't chase money or accounts, I don't deal with customer services (thank god for that, setting up a CS team was the single greatest thing I ever done) I do less and less on admin, development (back end coding etc) and design than I ever have.

But I think this is where is the problem I'm so focused on growth and gain I seem to be going nuts I get 50 ideas and see which stay with me a week then I think right lets run with the good ones.

My mentors point was I should focus on making every single possible customer mine as that should be the single most important focus, and while I get that the business development side of the company rakes in north of 6 figures for the company so to ditch that just seems silly.

I get on paper it shouldn't work but it does, BUT I think that's because of me.

My biggest issue is growth I'm really struggling to get to the next level and while I do take things slow the more time goes on the more I think this proven formula is right.

I'm sort of stuck part of me enjoys everything I do and I think I should just chip away at it and it will all come together then the other part of me thinks I should stop and just put all my energy here.

I say all this as we are setting up a 3d printer farm to start in-house manufacturing of some products I've created and waiting to take delivery of 2 x 40ft containers of glass to move into another indirect market.

I thrive a little too much on the risk side I think

 

[MR.Spuf]

1. I never knew what vertical & horizontal integration were until I went there. Do you? Without googling? BE Honest, let me know below.

Yes, this is one of the few things I remember from college

2. I never knew what an Ansoff Matrix is. Do you? Without googling? BE Honest, let me know below.

This is very interesting. I need to go indepth and see what's about.

Then 3 months later, she sends me a Skype message, apologising and asking if we had any positions open.

Blocked and deleted.

Karma, love it!

Yes, as a true ADHD, either too much eithrt struggling to do the bare minimum. But as a rule I have at least 2 d8ff biz I am running, similar niche tho amd 100 other ideas to implement.

Yes, as a thumb rule, my biggest pain not hiring more amd I try to automate everything but the automatizations needs supervising as well amd I feel that's what stops my progress.

 

[UnusualSubstance]

I have the opposite problem.

I work far too little.

Improving slowly though.

 

[t2van]

Yes, this is one of the few things I remember from college

This is very interesting. I need to go indepth and see what's about.

Karma, love it!

Yes, as a true ADHD, either too much eithrt struggling to do the bare minimum. But as a rule I have at least 2 d8ff biz I am running, similar niche tho amd 100 other ideas to implement.

Yes, as a thumb rule, my biggest pain not hiring more amd I try to automate everything but the automatizations needs supervising as well amd I feel that's what stops my progress.

If you like I can upload the matrix document he gave me after our meeting if it helps at all?

 

[MR.Spuf]

If you like I can upload the matrix document he gave me after our meeting if it helps at all?

That would be amazing, thank you!

 

[t2van]

That would be amazing, thank you!

It's too large to upload, valid for 1 week:

Ansoff matrix its a pdf download

https://limewire.com/d/Ztwr1#60GewFoIKT

 

[MR.Spuf]

It's too large to upload, valid for 1 week:

Ansoff matrix its a pdf download

https://limewire.com/d/Ztwr1#60GewFoIKT

Thaks mate, highly aprreciated!