| Small business owners often share personality | | | | Failure to Delegate - Closely tied to our Superman |
| traits, like confidence and determination, and we | | | | Complex, we are prone to do things we shouldn't |
| operate under similar circumstances, like limited | | | | be doing because we feel its too much of a |
| time and high stress. These commonalities lead us | | | | hassle to delegate or we think we can do a |
| to also share a set of behavioral defects that hold | | | | better job than anyone else. The business owner's |
| us back and limit our success. | | | | time is a limited resource that should be carefully |
| What's more, over time these behavioral defects | | | | spent but it is often frittered away on low level |
| become habits that we are often blind to. Listed | | | | tasks that anyone else could do just as well. |
| below are the 7 most common flaws of the small | | | | Solution: Force yourself to delegate. Maintain |
| business owner. See if you recognize any of | | | | awareness of what you are working on. Get a |
| these weaknesses in yourself. | | | | virtual assistant and commit to delegating a |
| Superman Complex - Caused by our confidence | | | | certain amount of work each month. |
| and the necessity to function as the | | | | Working "in the business" Rather Than "on it" - |
| jack-of-all-trades in the early days of our | | | | We tend to spend our time working for |
| business, the Superman Complex is typified by | | | | customers or doing maintenance work while the |
| the belief that you can do anything. While not | | | | big picture and long term plans are neglected. Our |
| necessarily a bad thing, it often leads to us taking | | | | time is spent reacting rather than being proactive. |
| on projects we shouldn't. | | | | Solution: Schedule time for progress and treat it |
| Solution: Know your weaknesses, your limits, and | | | | as sacred. Forward progress only happens when |
| remain humble. Make a list of things to "stop | | | | you make it an unshakeable priority. |
| doing" to remind you when to say "no." | | | | Creative Impulsiveness - Our work is dictated by |
| Pattern Persistence - We are so busy we tend to | | | | inspiration. We are inspired by our latest idea and |
| stick with existing solutions and ways of doing | | | | our time and energy is directed there leaving |
| things out of habit and simply because we don't | | | | countless worthwhile projects half-finished on the |
| have enough time to stop, reflect, research, and | | | | backburner. |
| implement better ways of doing things. | | | | Solution: Keep a list of projects that you |
| Solution: Schedule a time to rethink existing | | | | continually prioritize. Make a rule that you will only |
| processes. Keep a journal of problems as they | | | | work on the top one or two projects at a time. |
| occur so you can reflect on them later. | | | | Perfectionism - We have high standards for what |
| Burnout-Mania Cycle - We come to rely on "elbow | | | | we will attach our name to or associate our |
| grease" and "burning the midnight oil" as the de | | | | company with. We take pride in our work and |
| facto approach to moving things forward. | | | | have a hard time saying, "Good enough." As a |
| Unfortunately, the brute force approach to | | | | result, we slow our progress as we continually |
| progress can only go on for so long before we | | | | edit details that few others would notice. |
| become burned out. This leads to periods of | | | | Solution: Become obsessed with the idea of |
| extremely high activity followed by periods of low | | | | making things happen rather than making things |
| motivation and avoidance. | | | | perfect. It's not necessary to lower your |
| Solution: Take time off and relax before you | | | | standards but putting your focus on the act of |
| want to. By the time you want a break from | | | | delivering will keep you moving rather than |
| work, the damage has been done and you've | | | | spinning your wheels on details. |
| already lost motivation. | | | | |