“On” or “In” the Business

Speciality Bites with

Paul Hargreaves

Chief executive of Cotswold Fayre

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• Undercover Boss
• Can/should bosses really be close friends with their staff?

It’s an old cliché but the best entrepreneurs work “on the business but not in it”.

What do we mean by that?  Well, nearly all business owners and managing directors work very hard, but some of them become too sucked into the day-to-day activities of the business rather than planning and strategizing for the future. i.e. “on” the business.  It is best to direct a vision putting systems and ideas in place rather than attending to individual details.  Generally I much prefer to work on the business than in it, but at this time of year when sales are more than £1/4M per week it is easy to become sucked into the day-to-day.  And perversely whilst this is our busiest time of year it is also the most significant time of year for planning ahead!

So time to put this right. This week I am working from Cuba – actually on a partly government funded UKTI trip to generate some export business to this nation which I think will suddenly going to explode with consumerism as the shackles of communism are being released – significant changes here in laws later this year.  So here I am on a fact-finding mission and to see if we can sell western food products to them over the coming years.  For obvious historical reasons, there is little chance of them buying from the USA for quite a while, so we in the UK we are in a prime position to sell to them.

However, as well as meetings on the British Pavilion at the main trade show of the year in Cuba, I will ensure I have time this week to plan and strategize for 2013 for Cotswold Fayre.  There are many new opportunities that are coming up at present that will result in new directions for the company as well as continuing to develop the growth we have seen over the last 2-3 years in particular. I am hoping some time away from the business will bring some clarity and my thinking this week will become clearer on a whole number of issues that I won’t be mentioning here for quite a while yet!!

I haven’t asked them, but there may well be some employees within my company that think I am doing the wrong thing by being away at this time of year, but I am convinced I am not, and this is the right place to be this week.  I know that by being a perfectionist by nature there are loads of I’s to dot and t’s to cross, which if I try to do it all I will give myself a nervous breakdown.  It’s all down to my excellent management team this week, and I am sure they will cope admirably.  And yes even in Cuba there is internet access for e-mail certainly, although some web-sites are still blocked by the government.(Annoyingly so is Skype it seems!)

So I would encourage you to develop others in your business (or if you are someone reading this who works for someone else ensure that you are developed) in order that the leader has time to plan, network and put her or himself in a place where plans new ideas and creativity can flow.  Now back to the Cuban cigars and mojitos (that’s a joke by the way for those employees reading this!). Well it is for the rest of the week anyway, today was Sunday!