Most people don’t start a business because they’re particularly good at running a business.
They start because they’re good at something.
They might be a brilliant creative, engineer, accountant, marketeer or tradesperson. They understand their industry, know their customers and have probably reached a point where they believe they can do things differently or better themselves.
Then suddenly they’re a business owner.
And that requires a very different set of skills.
It was something that struck me during a recent conversation with Jess and Nick Bain from Halo Associates on the Evolve to Succeed Podcast.
When they bought Halo through a management buyout in 2022, they knew their industry incredibly well. What they hadn’t done before was buy and run a business.
As Nick reflected during our conversation, one of the most important lessons has been learning to really understand the business and, importantly, the numbers.
I see this frequently with the business owners we work with.
You can be exceptionally good at delivering your product or service, but ultimately the numbers still need to work. You need to understand where you make money, where you don’t, your cash position, your margins and what needs to happen to make the business sustainable.
But the transition goes much further than finance.
Moving from doing to leading
One of the biggest challenges as a business grows is learning to stop doing everything yourself.
It sounds obvious, but it’s incredibly difficult.
The skills that helped you build the business in the first place can eventually become the things you need to let go of.
Nick spoke very openly about this. His instinct when something needed doing was to step back in and sort it himself. Over time, he’s had to learn to delegate, recruit good people and trust them to deliver.
I think most business owners will recognise that.
There is a comfort in doing the things you know you’re good at. Leadership requires something different.
Your success gradually becomes less about what you can deliver and more about what the people around you can achieve.
Jess summed that up particularly well:
“Your team doing well is actually the true success of leadership.”
I think there’s a lot in that.
Have a plan, but take people with you
Another thing I noticed throughout my conversation with Jess and Nick was how much emphasis they placed on communication.
When they took over Halo, they didn’t immediately arrive with a long list of things they wanted to change.
They listened.
They spoke to the team, asked what was working, what wasn’t and where people saw opportunities. They then continued doing that as the business developed.
Four years later, they are still creating plans and, importantly, communicating those plans to their people.
I made the point during our conversation that I think more businesses would grow successfully if their leaders did this well.
Serendipity can take you so far.
At some point, you need a plan, some focus and people who understand where you are trying to go.
You don’t have to work it all out alone
Jess and Nick both spoke about the value they’ve found from being part of the Evolve Peer Group. Not because somebody else has all the answers, but because sometimes you simply need somewhere you can be honest.
Running a business can be lonely. There are challenges you can’t always share with your team, decisions where there isn’t an obvious right answer, and times when you simply need another perspective.
It’s one of the reasons I’ve always believed that when you put likeminded people together, great things happen.
You don’t have to have all the answers yourself. Sometimes the most valuable thing is having the right people around you to share the journey, challenge your thinking and help you work out what comes next.
If that sounds like something you could benefit from, you can find out more about the Evolve Peer Group here.
