Focus on human capital
GREAT things in business are never done by one person. They are done by a team of people.
During this series of articles, I am highlighting the passions, visions, and missions of young Pacific entrepreneurs and how they are turning these into sustainable and resilient businesses with the hope that these stories will inspire others.
It is a privilege and a pleasure to be working with these young people and I want to thank them for helping to keep me young too.
Today my focus is on people. The right people have to be recruited at the right time – they are often more important than the business owner.
Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life forever.
Recently I was talking with a business owner who was complaining about his staff.
He said they were lazy, not performing, making mistakes, taking too much time off work and so on.
I asked him who recruited them. His answer was “me”.
It is very easy to blame others for something that they have not been trained, prepared or supported for.
Most entrepreneurs and people running small businesses start off either as sole traders or with very small teams, often comprising friends or family members. This is the place to start.
Start to think about the team you will need around you to help grow your business; are you clear what you will need them to do; are you clear what sort of skills and personalities you are looking for?
Then write a job description and get help with this if you have never done one before. Try to avoid employing someone just because they happen to be your aunt or cousin's brother.
In the Pacific this can be a real challenge as the expectations from friends and wantok will be high.
Imagine starting the business on your own, then you need one more person – a 100 per cent growth is a huge step to take. Seek help before you do this especially with recruiting the right person.
Attracting the right person in the first place is a big challenge, and once you have them you have to keep them.
Try following these simple steps:
■ Reward them as well as you can. In the current climate it might be difficult to pay well but find other ways of rewarding them. These could include time off, food, health care, access to travel and transport, help with the garden, school fees.
■ Show that you appreciate them. Share good customer feedback with them and always thank them for their efforts, especially when they do something extra that benefits the business. Genuine praise encourages everyone to try even harder.
■ Listen to them. We all benefit from a good listen to but that is quite rare – most of the time we are surrounded by people wanting to tell us what they are thinking! I get many comments from the young entrepreneurs who I coach remarking on my willingness to listen and also to ask open questions so I might understand more. Before I can help, I need to know their stories!
■ Give them more responsibility. This is the best way to build your team and for team members to learn. As business owners it is sometimes hard to let go, especially if the business is your baby! This is where a mentor can help you.
■ Mentor and train them. I work with one business in Port Vila who started training his team 10 years ago – most of his team are still there and all have stepped up in terms of self-confidence, performance, quality and responsibility.
■ Involve them in decision making. Your team know about your business. Share your thinking with them, and together you will make better decisions.
■ Challenge them. Give them a push in the right direction. Send team members to do things that you would normally do but make sure you equip them with the skills and knowledge first and debrief them afterwards.
Richard Branson had this to say about people – “Clients do not some first.
Employees come first. If you take care of them, they will take care of your clients”.
Next week is the last article in this series and the last for 2020 so I will look back on some of the amazing young Pacific entrepreneurs I have had the privilege of working with during this difficult COVID year!
Have a good week.
Please contact me if you have an interesting story to tell and are happy for it to be told.
Breadfruit Consulting (www.breadfruitconsulting.com) is a Vanuatu-based business providing advice, training, coaching, and mentoring to businesses throughout the Pacific islands. Breadfruit specialises in a range of business development activities including business continuity planning and action, helping businesses to survive in a crisis, designing and starting new, sustainable businesses. Contact chris@breadfruitconsulting.com or hazel@ breadfruitconsulting.com