Written by: Greg Weiss
Every entrepreneur has been there: you love your business, but if you have to sit down and do the boring admin work one more time…
What inevitably happens is that the boring admin bits get left to gather dust until you absolutely can’t put them off any longer. Then the bread and butter of your business grinds to a halt as you tackle all of the admin in one go. It’s a recipe for disaster, or at least business stagnation, which will leave you feeling frazzled and wondering why you opted for this life in the first place.
Normally when I meet with clients who are at this point I recommend they find an operational soul-mate, only to be met with “Yeah, we’ll get right onto that.” Or they say something like, “We hired a temp; if it works out we’ll give them a permanent role.”
They assume I’m talking about hiring an admin person, and on the face of it I can see why. In the simplest of terms what they need is someone to fill the skills shortage, so they go out and hire a cheap bod to do the job.
Don’t do that, because an admin person isn’t what you need at all.
More Staff Equals More Responsibility
When ‘Rosie’ came to me she had a flourishing floristry business and was enjoying the creative outlet her business offered. She loved finding clients and providing them with beautiful bouquets. She did not love filling in tax forms and compliance documents, and all the other tasks that come with running a business.
As a result, she found herself caught in that loop of growth and stagnation as she flip-flopped between the parts of the business she loved, and catching up on all the back office stuff.
Even worse: she’d hired an admin person to take over that side of things, only to find that she was now having to supervise and deal with issues that cropped up, leaving her no better off than she was before.
This is because an admin person is a member of staff. Their job is simply to perform admin tasks and they will be looking to you for guidance every step of the way.
A Good Integrator Is A Missing Piece Of The Puzzle
An Integrator is not an admin person. Far from just picking up the slack, their role is to set the strategic direction for the back office part of your business and make sure it happens – i.e., integrate the workflow.
A good Integrator match has a complementary skill set to your own – the missing parts of your puzzle, if you will – and be as committed as you are to driving the business forward.
They should get excited right around the time when you start to feel dread at the thought of a task that needs to be fulfilled. They should also understand your vision and see a path to making it happen.
In this respect, an Integrator is much more like a Captain’s Mate on a ship: while you, the Captain, are keeping your eye on the horizon and determining the overall direction, your Integrator should have a keen idea of what it takes to get there, who needs to be doing what, and how to motivate them to do it.
The relationship between Visionary (you!) and Integrator, then, is one of mutual respect, trust, and possession of a shared goal: to make your business thrive.
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Recruitment
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Greg authored 3 practical Career Books, and 1 Book helping Visionary leaders scale their businesses. He is one of Australia’s most experienced HR consultants and leading career coaches. He is the founder and owner of Soulidify and Career365. As an entrepreneur/business owner, Greg has experienced first-hand the joys and frustrations of starting and growing one’s own business.
