How to Be Objective as an Owner (what REALLY matters)

You’ve been working hard to grow your company, but do you feel your effort is in vain? The reason may be a lack of focus on the right things. A value creation focus is one of the most effective techniques for success, and it requires objectivity.

Objectivity means being aware of your company’s strengths and weaknesses and how to analyze the data to find a strategy that increases both value for yourself and your company. Owners are in charge of creating value for themselves, but it is also essential to create value for their employees, customers, suppliers, shareholders, and communities. This ensures they can always continue creating value.

How to Focus on What Matters

Understand Your Priorities

Your capabilities and the priorities you set may transform your business. Your priorities are directly linked with your company’s objectives. Your focus determines when and which resources will be used for the company’s benefit. This brings us to ask what a business owner’s top priorities should be.

• As a business owner, you must trust the people you work with. Train them and trust them to do their jobs. When employees are treated well, they become the workforce behind your value-creation journey.
• Networking is as important as business knowledge when growing a company. Meet people, grow through referrals, and connect with as many relevant contacts as possible.
• Keep learning and be transparent. Prevent unpleasant surprises with regular industry research and education. Clients prefer well-informed company owners. Being transparent with your employees and clients is an excellent quality to have. Also, always ask for feedback. An owner who values others’ opinions is both generous and humble.
• The end goal is to grow your business. And your business is made of the people who work to run it, so the betterment of these people (employees, clients, suppliers) should be your priority. As an owner, it is your job to see what your employees require to function at their best. And it is your responsibility to provide them with the facilities and support to upskill themselves.

Focus on Your Company’s Priorities

When you ask top executives about their companies’ capabilities, you’re likely to get a laundry list of information regarding technology, markets, and products. When you ask them about their companies’ goals, you’re likely to get vague answers or clichéd mission statements. Your company’s capabilities are critical to generating value, whereas its priorities are essential when focusing on what the company does.

Priorities take precedence over abilities because priorities establish your company’s restrictions. How often have you thought about what your company cannot do? Understanding the constraints that your priorities impose on your company has significant strategic and innovative ramifications.

Business priorities might assist you in achieving your objectives. A mission statement describes a company’s vision or aims. Setting business priorities may assist you in achieving and exceeding your objectives by focusing on a single outcome. An owner should be aware of what their business demands and, hence, have a clear idea of essential business demands.

Many opportunities will present themselves, but calculate all possibilities before taking action. Selected opportunities should align with your business priorities. Evaluate opportunities to determine whether they will benefit the business in profit, development, and value.

Understand the Value of Your Tasks

Sometimes, we neither enjoy a task nor feel motivated to do it. Have you ever considered the reason behind that reluctance? You might credit that reluctance due to a lack of interest, but other variables may influence that feeling. These may include an unreasonable deadline, lack of resources, or simple disinterest.

A study by Ganesaraman Kalyanasundaram titled “Why do Startups fail?” states that nearly 90 percent of startups fail. According to the research, the time to MVP (minimum viable product) cycle, time to revenue realization, complementary skillsets of founders, age of founders with domain expertise, personality type of founders, attitude toward financial independence, and willingness to seek mentorship at critical stages will all help to distinguish failed and successful startups–the conclusion: several variables create a profitable journey for a business owner.

Understanding the importance of all variables is a pain point observed in most startups. It most typically occurs as an organization grows and transitions from a centralized decision-making structure to autonomous teams. As a result, information rarely flows freely throughout the organization, and priorities may become jumbled. Team X may decide to ignore or discount Team Y’s work because it does not fit within Team X’s priorities. This may generate a lot of aggravation in organizations since it looks like others are interfering with their jobs. In addition, as companies develop, teams and individuals may be misinformed about the importance or urgency of tasks.

Steps you can take to overcome this situation include:

• Ask why, when, and how should the project be handled?
• As to whether the opportunity brings any value?

With the decreasing cost of a starter kit and DIY communities, anyone can start a business venture. Owners who decide to start up their own business and, more importantly, grow a successful business need to find ways to build value.

With every project or task you accept, ask yourself, “How can I bring value to this?” Measure and record the results every time you achieve one of these value-added outcomes. For example, how much money did you save or earn? How much did quality or efficiency improve? What are the long-term consequences of resolving or preventing that issue?

Understand that value creation leads to business success. The value you create today as an owner will come back to you in the form of success.

Smash the Obstacles

While the focus is crucial for most successful entrepreneurs running small companies, retaining an open mind and examining alternative viewpoints is critical. Small business owners prepared to attempt new techniques and investigate different ideas are more likely to achieve success on multiple levels.

Successful entrepreneurs evaluate how much time, money, and personal commitment they want to put into a company right from the start. They understand that they must look out for themselves and their families throughout the business’ discovery period, and they have devised a plan to do so. They reject the mental paradigm that pursuing one’s passion entails putting one’s life on the line. They decide how and to what extent their enterprises fit into their lives, not the other way around. They are well aware that they are not their companies.

There will always be roadblocks, but you will undoubtedly slow down if you don’t strive to get rid of them. Connect with Quantive to start your value-creation journey. Our advisors are experienced professionals with a successful history of guiding entrepreneurs to success. They are all ready to assist you in your value-creation journey.