Being a small-business owner can sometimes be a daunting job that seems to offer little to no rest. But if you own your own decorated-apparel shop or promotional products distributorship and you feel like you’ve been working 24/7/365, it might be time to shift your focus. Instead of working in your business, you should try working on your business instead.

You can make 2021 the year you switch gears to a more managerial stance, with a plan to grow your business. Here are three areas where you can make the switch from working in your business to working on it, including delegating, revamping your business plan and engineering your cash flow.

1. Don’t Be Afraid to Delegate
Many CEOs and managers know they need to delegate so they can focus more of their time on business-growth activities. However, those same people often don’t know how to delegate properly, resulting in either their tasks not getting done correctly or them taking on too much of the workload themselves.

The solution: First, hire the right team of people, whether it’s employees or outsourced contract help, whom you can trust to handle the day-to-day operations of your business. As McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc said, “You’re only as good as the people you hire.”

That’s what makes finding the “right” people so important. Building your team with employees who are self-motivated, have great character and are eager to learn, will be crucial in helping you to let go of doing some of those everyday tasks and focus on growing the business. Of course, hiring the right people is a whole process — putting out a job ad, reviewing resumes, conducting interviews and hoping you find the right matches. Here are some ways to make it easier:

• Get really specific in your job ads. Prequalify candidates by listing the exact qualifications and experience they need to be considered for the role. Detail the job duties, schedule, wages and benefits.
• Interview like a boss. Conduct first-round Zoom interviews with the candidates whose resumes make the most impact. Then, invite your second-round shortlist for a walking tour around your shop where you discuss their experience and your expectations.
• Set the stage for a great relationship. When you’re ready to make the offer, find out what will keep your new hire with you for the long haul. Is it the opportunity to advance? Not being micro-managed? The ability to work remotely at times? Learning what they’re looking to get out of their new job will help you determine if your business can keep them satisfied in the long term, preventing high employee turnaround rates.
• Communicate your expectations. When you hire someone and offload a portion of your work, write down detailed lists of what and how you want your employee to do the work. If you take the time to be specific when you’re communicating with your team, you’ll save a lot of time later.

If you’re a newer or smaller business, you’ll need to outsource time-consuming, but necessary, accounting and bookkeeping. Don’t be afraid to hire an outside company to take that stress off you.

2. Upgrade Your Business Plan
As a business owner, you probably feel that you never have enough time to tick off all the growth activities on your list. However, you’re probably getting in your own way.

The solution: First, embrace a true CEO and pro-growth mentality. If you want to scale, start thinking like a bigger company, not like a mom-and-pop shop. Then, here are some ways to get your time back:

• Rethink your goals.To truly go to the next level, you need to expand your business plan to include both granular and future-looking points. Your goals should break down into annual, monthly and weekly goals. Then, you can parcel out your weekly goals into daily tasks that work toward those growth goals, whether it’s adding a new decorating service or breaking into a new market. Next, take a look at your tasks. If they don’t match up to your goals, eliminate or delegate them to an employee. You should get used to thinking, “Is what I’m doing now a $10 or $150 an hour task? Will this grow my business?”
• Review your data. Build a bigger vision for your business by analyzing your data and numbers on a regular basis. You should check in with your business plan to see if you’re meeting your weekly, monthly and quarterly sales goals. For example, many entrepreneurs meet regularly with their accountant to see where they should spend or save to push the business forward, whether that means investing in new equipment, hiring a new employee, or dropping a certain tech plug-in that isn’t serving you.
• Keep your team in the loop on a regular basis.Praise your employees if they’re meeting or exceeding current goals. Inspire them if there’s work to be done to meet the business plan. If you’re transparent with your staff and get them involved, they’ll be more excited to help you meet your business’ goals.
• Invest in technology. Your company should have an ERP or CRM system so that everyone across all departments can see customer accounts and workflows in real time. In addition, revamp your e-commerce site so that customers can upload their artwork, see their designs and place their orders.
• Transition to a true management position. That’s why it’s time to transition out of working to get orders completed yourself, to working with your managers. You need to keep your eye on the totality of the business with areas such as marketing, business development and expanding product lines. All those areas need your direct attention. Your staff will manage the day-to-day operations.

3. Take Control of Your Cash Flow
Lots of small businesses struggle with having the money they need to survive and grow, since they’re often trying to pay the bills while waiting for their checks to arrive.

The solution: Switch to upfront payments. This is a clean and easy solution. Other businesses have no issue asking for money first before handing over the product — Amazon is a great example of that, and since the world is getting used to that business model, it should be easier to get your clients to as well.

Here are some ways to make it happen:

• Get your pricing on point. Review your pricing list and be sure that you’ve worked your production and overhead costs into your jobs so you can make a profit.
• Ask for 100% upfront. Many shops send invoices after they’ve delivered the goods and often wait up to 30 days to see the money. However, that leaves you on the hook for your bills, from your rent to equipment payments to employee salaries. If a customer doesn’t pay, that leaves you in an even more precarious position, especially during a pandemic. We recommend asking for 100% upfront payment. If you’re not comfortable with that, ask for at least 50% upfront and 50% upon delivery.
• Talk to your vendors. To ease any cash-flow woes, reach out to your suppliers to see if they’ll invoice you at 45, 60 or 90 days.

A High-Level View Fuels Your Growth
The future of your business will depend on your ability to focus on growth. To really take a closer look at some of these important issues, it’s important that you try to stop working so much in your shop, and more on it instead. Focus on growing your business beyond your local customer base and start thinking bigger. Once you free yourself from worrying about the small stuff, you’ll be able to start growing and reap the benefits of your years of hard work.

James Andres is content manager for Top 40 supplier S&S Activewear (asi/84358). Contact: jandres@ssactivewear.com

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