How are we winning at business?

Kristin:

How is it that we don't get sick of each other?  We've been together almost non-stop for 11 months because of COVID.  11-months of living, working, and parenting together. And we actually share an office too.  So, how do we make this business work?

What do you think is the key to making the business side of this work?

Jeff:

I'm going to go to another personality test here. In our previous post in this series, I was knocking them.  But this one, I like a little better. It's not really a personality test. This test measures how you work.  It's the Kolby A assessment.

This assessment was eye-opening to me because it really confirmed why I'm successful.  In all the jobs I've had (tech analysis, product and project manager), I've done stuff that I am very good at doing. 

This assessment really helped me understand how I work.  I learned that I'm a visionary creative person.  And I'm very good at coming up with solutions.

So once you know how you work, you need to figure out how you and your partner complement each other. Figure out what holes in your business you need to get help for so that your business can move forward.

Learning how you work will help you be more effective.  Overworking won't.  You need to work with your strengths.

Kristin:

I think the Kolby A was really helpful. Knowing how we work and when our best time to work is, has really helped us know how to split up childcare.

Jeff is not a morning person.  I'm more of a morning person than he is.  He is more focused in the afternoon. Whereas, I tend to lose focus in the afternoon. So one thing that we did when splitting up childcare, is that I work in the morning and Jeff works in the afternoon. That way we are both working during our optimum focus time, and taking care of Erik when we are not working.

Take a look at your strengths

As you look at your strengths, you'll eventually need to hire people to fill in the gaps. For right now, Jeff's going to be taking over the ads because that's a very creative thing, but it's also an analytical thing. It's a perfect type of job for him to focus on.

I'll keep on handling the front-facing and the sales piece of our business. We have people behind the scenes who handle a lot of the detail stuff for us. Because even though I'm an accountant and I can do details, I don't Like them. Because we're both big thinkers, planners, and idea people, we need detailed execution people on our team.

Define roles to help with winning at business

Kristin:

Once you identify what your strengths are, it's really important to split up the roles. You must have very defined roles that determine what you're going to do, and what your spouse is going to do.  Have it written out, especially as your business gets more and more complicated.

It's like having an organizational chart, with the roles that you'd like to have someday in your business or that you're doing.  Then you can fill those roles out with the people you have right now. And hopefully, you can hire out.

But you need to make sure that in every piece of your business, there is a responsible party for each role.

Outsourcing will help with winning at business 

Jeffery:

Outsourcing is so important.  Hiring someone is much more affordable than you think.  You can hire someone for five hours a week. They're not going to be an employee for you, but a contractor.  You can hire someone providing hours a week or for a project.  For example, if you need someone to do a bunch of images for you for a new product launch, hire someone to do that for you. You don't have to do all of the work.

Kris and I try to get everything done and be the person that gets everything done. However, we need to check each other on that because we both have a tendency to fall into that role.

Kristin: 

You can pretty much outsource anything these days. Hire a virtual assistant to do some projects. You can hire a bookkeeper if bookkeeping is not your thing. It's way less expensive than you think.

But you need to sit down and see what all the components of the business are. Figure out who takes what. And then figure out what to outsource.

Work in your zone of genius 

Jeffery:

Work in your zones of genius too. For instance, Kristin does know technology stuff, and she could probably figure out some technological solutions for most of the stuff we've done.  But she doesn't have to worry about it or do it. She can ask me.

It can get frustrating at times though because I don't know the answer. There's a lot of stuff going on and I don't know how to use all the tools anymore. And sometimes that will cause me to be annoyed and I have to catch myself and pull back.

But it's realizing your strengths and being able to go and surrender sometimes. Realize that you need to step back and look into it or apologize.

Kristin:

It goes back to trying to find those win-win solutions. When we looked at all the components of the business, Jeff and I agree that Jeff would be really good at the ads piece. Not necessarily writing all the copy or doing the images, since we have people on our team who can do that.

But he can focus on his zone of genius and come up with a strategy for what we are doing, the angle to take, and working with our team to put it together and then monitoring it.

In order to make that happen though we need to figure out what we can take off of Jeff's plate.