Tycoons, stockbrokers, e-myths and Ah Ha!

Brian Miller, Creative Director, Luxgraphicus Design Agency

I had one of those “ah ha!” moments a while ago. It was about how to run my business.

Not that I hadn’t thought long and hard about the subject before. I have a shelf full of business plans to show my dedication to planning, thinking and considering. Perhaps that was the problem!

My business has had the basic structure and model to allow for it to expand and become more than just a one man show for some years now. And to a small degree, I’ve used this capacity where tasks were beyond my own technical capability, bringing in outside suppliers for things such as printing production, or back end website development.

But I have always been reluctant to get any of the design work done by others. It’s my design business after all!

Like every small business person, I have read the e-myth, and know the difference between entrepreneurs, managers and technicians, and understand that my entrepreneurship has faltered when attempting to go beyond that flash of inspiration and planning which started things off.

I know I should be growing the business and not spending all my efforts on the technical production stuff, but I like that bit, and I’m good at it too.

So what does it take to push you past that point of resistance?

A regular Saturday morning activity for me is to read celebrity stockbroker and market commentator, Marcus Padley, in the Sydney Morning Herald. His weekly article often has gems of information to assist the investor in their pursuit of success in the world of stocks and shares.

One week however, in a recap of a discussion he had with the richest man in England, he revealed less about the stock market and more about business. So much more in fact that it bought on the above mentioned moment.

The bits on education were interesting, scaleable business models even more so, but then the cruncher.

And here I paraphrase – “Skilled and clever people willing to work for a certain rather than a variable sum… There can simply be no greater return on capital than capital employed”

In other words, don’t do it all yourself, get others to. They’ll work for the certain sum, allowing you to mark up their services to your clients, and leave you to get on with running the business.

I could now become the manager, salesman, or even the entrepreneur. Ah ha!

Turns out I’m good at that bit too. In the time since this moment I have taken on twice the work I could have comfortably handled otherwise, have even more in the pipeline, and feel quite relaxed and in control of it all.

Many thanks to tycoons, stockbrokers and e-myths.