I have started writing a series of articles in my newsletter on this topic of working less and earning more because I think this is ultimately the goal of every business owner and can become the ultimate dilemma as well.

Businesses go through growth stages like a human being and I am not necessarily talking about the sales growth or market share growth. You can be number one in an extremely small niche market and still work alone or with an assistant. And today you can have virtual assistants through websites such as www.elance.com or www.guru.com.

What I mean by growth stages is going from a solopreneur to an organization of hundreds or thousands of employees. The transition process can be very difficult and very few out of those who start out actually are able to survive. Most people end up just keeping things manageable by limiting the growth and having just enough people so managing does not get too difficult.

But growing a larger organization can be exciting and rewarding because it provides you with the opportunity to build an independent organization that you can sell or that can function without you. It also provides a great opportunity to grow as a person and leader. Through the process of organizational development you can see your vision being realized through the combined efforts of a lot of people. I think that this is really the biggest reward that one can have because building that kind of organization requires developing yourself and your people. In the end or along the journey you become something you were not before and so do the people you bring along for the ride.

So where are your journeying too and what do you want the ride to be like? How do you want people to get along on the journey? Should it be a competitive journey or a smooth and fun ride most of the time. The answers would depend on what most motivates you and what you want to experience. When this is clear you can attract those that share the same values or feelings about the kind of organizational climate they want to work in.

Multi-level marketing is another way to earn more and work less if one can become successful in building an autonomous organization with many solid functioning levels. Those that succeed in this type of business all express how they have grown through the process. The reason is because to stick it out and go through the hard stuff you need to work on yourself, your attitude, beliefs, weaknesses, etc. You need to dampen your fears and accentuate your strengths and qualities. Very few out of those start are able to succeed and last. Maybe they have a higher pain tolerance level than those who quit. It’s like the top athletes, who can stand the most pain to push yourself that extra little bit?

To summarize here are the main points an entrepreneur who wants to build an autonomous workforce needs to consider.

1. Have a vision for what you want to create and accomplish.
2. Understand yourself and the people you want to join you.
3. Define how people will behave in their jobs and what kind of organizational climate this will create.
4. Learn how to manage your state in order to ride the difficult periods and situations.
5. Keep developing all aspects of yourself so you are better equipped to deal with bigger issues and challenges.
6. Hire and train the best you can find and afford. Make managers out of employees and leaders out of everyone.
7. Track what is important to measure.
8. Encourage others to solve their own problems so you can concentrate on new ideas and strategies.
9. Praise and recognize those that merit it.
10. Celebrate your successes big and small.

If this makes sense to you, stick this list on a wall (I am doing it now) so you can see it everyday and remind yourself of what is really important and if you don’ do it, who will?

Stephen Goldberg, sgoldberg@optimusperformance.ca

Contact me, I can help