By President & Owner Barry Lipsett
Looking for a new way to grow your company? Who isn’t in this economy. This tip for your company starts with the top down. Yes I am talking about you Mr. President & CEO. To grow your company you may want to try your skills at all the key positions within your company. I am sure you're often selling, but have you also taken the time to learn IT or called for Collections? Who better to fill in if someone leaves or to learn a job before you hire someone new than the Owner?
In the book “Rework” by successful author and business owner Jason Fried, he writes of the value of doing the job first before hiring. He even tells the story of how, at his company, they "didn't hire a system administrator until they set up a bunch of servers on their own." He is convinced that by doing it yourself first then you'll be "supervising people who are doing a job you've done before" and "you'll know when to criticize and when to support."
I can still remember my first week after I started at Charles River so many years ago. My Dad, who founded Charles River Apparel, had to let some of our warehouse workers go for substandard performance. So began my first role at Charles River….a summer in a hot warehouse packing and shipping product. Though I didn’t appreciate it too much at the time, it was an invaluable experience that helped me years later when our sales jumped unexpectedly 35% and my warehouse couldn't keep up. Years later, I was called into the warehouse again to work and I helped put in some new processes and hires. I also helped strengthen the relationships with many of my warehouse workers – many who are still with us today.
One word of caution - be careful not to take on too many different responsibilities at once. Take the challenge one job at a time. When we first started we had one person as General Manager whose responsibilities included Importing, Design, Sales and Sales Management; it was simply too much. It's true that when you first start out you need to wear many hats, but once your growth is underway you need to let some of your responsibilities go. We didn't start to grow until the General Manager left and we built a staff of four managers to replace him. Though we did it slowly...first I was forced into doing all the importing myself (and learning as I did it!). Again, by being involved in the process I was able to develop special overseas relationships with vendors that we still use 20+ years later. As our growth continued, I was able to grow the importing/design department and knew exactly the right person I was looking for to fill the role (and I am pleased to say 15+ years later Stina (Persson) Shaw is still with us in Importing.)
Looking back I have filled in or created positions in nearly every department. My laundry list of roles includes: Warehouse Manager, Customer Service Rep, Import Manager, Warehouse Picker/Shipper, Designer, Marketing Manager, Forecast and Planning Manager, Regional Sales Rep and Sales Manager. The trick to success? Hire at the right time and hire people that can do it better than the job you just struggled with!
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