Sit Down! Speak Up! Cash In!

Lonely at the top? You don’t have to be! —Roger Goodell, Commissioner, National Football League

I have yet to find a comprehensive how-to manual for running a company. I believe that is because there is no exact science in doing so; running a business is not cookie-cutter. If it were, more people would do it and we’d all be successful. But no two situations are exactly the same. There are nuances that are all different at any point in time, like the competition, your team, and the economy, to name a few. With those differences, solutions are not the same.

It can be very lonely operating as an owner or CEO, particularly if you do not have a partner or partners and when there is no manual. Who do you talk to? Who can you confide in? Who can check your thinking? Who can inspire you with new ideas?

The short answer is your peers can help you help yourself and your company while you simultaneously do the same thing for them. That’s simply the beauty of joining a peer advisory group. As I said earlier, the benefits work on both a surface and a deep level. The benefits are the sole reason you’d participate.

I’ve been including snippets from the so-called trenches of business to assist in making my points. Let’s go into some depth now, where you’ll find several detailed illustrations to think about. First, meet Bill! He’s having a very bad day!

News from the Trenches

It’s shortly after seven o’clock in the morning, and as usual, Bill is already putting out fires. While driving his company truck to his first peer council meeting, he’s on a conference call with his management team. Bill needs a solution to his latest problem: how to please the general contractor without cutting into his construction company’s profits. Why does Bill always have to be the one to have all the solutions, all the right answers? Why can’t his senior project manager, Todd, fix this? Todd has been with him for a long time and should know how to do this.

He wonders why Todd hasn’t taken care of this issue and, instead, let it get this far. As a business owner, have you ever felt like Bill? When there is a mistake in your company, who owns it? Who makes it right? Who ensures it doesn’t happen again? And who pays the price? As in Bill’s situation, he will bear the consequences because he is the owner. It’s always the owner’s money, reputation, and expense at stake. As CEO, Bill has experienced this scenario far too many times. Bill’s problem was this: his largest client, a general contractor, wanted to change the design from the initial blueprint that Bill based his bid on. The underlying problem wasn’t just the change—in this case, it’s the way the situation is being handled by Todd. This wasn’t the first time Bill had to intervene to solve a client issue after Todd had mismanaged it. Todd has shown a consistent lack of communication and an inability to anticipate problems.

At times like these, Bill felt exhausted, knowing that he carried the burden of creating solutions. That certainly wasn’t what he envisioned when he started his business. Every day, another unknown or obstacle seemed to appear. Bill wished he had someone he could count on to provide him with advice and a different perspective. He wanted to make the right decisions, but he knew he didn’t have all the answers. Plus, he had nobody to share his concerns that understood. He couldn’t share his company setbacks with his wife, nor could he confide in his employees or his competitors. Bill needed unbiased feedback, but he’d quickly learned that business owners like him lack a supportive network. It was, indeed, lonely at the top.

Does Bill’s morning sound familiar? Do you hit the ground running before you even get your foot out the door in the morning? Are your workdays twelve to fourteen hours long on weekdays and/or on weekends? Long hours are a common complaint among business owners, who often need downtime more than anything. At the meeting, Bill had several problems he needed to solve—not only to enjoy the benefits of owning his own company, but also to keep his business growing. Bill already knows how to run a successful business, but he knows it can be even better, more successful.

When I met Bill, he was frustrated and tired of being tired. Bill had confidence from owning a multimillion-dollar business, but he wanted it to be so much better. I could see Bill was confident on the outside. Unfortunately, every decision Bill made was the result of trial and error. Bill has a good business that provides a quality service. But he knows that there is no handbook that tells business owners how to overcome the daily challenges they’re certain to face. The security and flexibility he thought would come with being his own boss were nowhere in sight. Unfortunately, Bill’s predicament is all too common among business owners.

As Bill began attending the council meetings, I noticed a change come over him that I’d seen before. He and his peers shared the angst of owning or running a busy company with each other, and the discourse offered on how to best manage the negativity, the operations snags, the ineptitude of others that occasionally created problems, the joys and triumphs of successful ventures, the freedom entrepreneurship can bring, and so much more contributed toward an ability for everyone in the group to form close bonds. In Bill’s case, he felt much less isolated and adrift in indecision.