It’s not laziness that keeps small businesses from breakthrough success. A small business owner’s days are full with answering email, managing social media, working with clients, sales calls, and lead generation. The day to day to do list is long. So long, realistically you can’t even get to most of it.
I know. I too am a small business owner. But here’s the problem. Working on the day to day business simply maintains your current business numbers.
Business growth does not come from managing the day to day operations of your small business.
For business growth, the small business needs a CEO.
A small business CEO and a large corporation CEO will have similarities and differences in their responsibilities. The corporate CEO has more money and resources to pull from. The corporate CEO has no other responsibilities in the company other than the CEO responsibilities.
The small business CEO is a different story. They oftentimes have to run all of their departments with a very small team. They usually still have hands on responsibilities in the day to day business operations. The small business CEO is sometimes trying to run a marketing plan with an almost non existent budget. It is a challenging, and rewarding role.
Here are 5 CEO responsibilities in a Small business.
- Create and implement growth strategies. In a small business, it’s common for people to wear many hats. A receptionist, might also empty trash cans. An owner of a dental practice, might also be the main dentist patients are seeing. And it is common in small business for most eyes to be focused on how do we make it through this week. The CEO responsibility is to make sure the business is successful in 6 months, a year, or even 10 years from now. The CEO is working today for what will generate revenue in the future.
Clarify and clean up the brand. Many small business owners never hired a branding company to create the brand. They usually got a graphic designer to make a logo, and a web developer to build the site and just ran with it. However branding is so much more than just a logo and website. It is the core messaging of your company. It is how you remain true to your customers wherever they interact with you. In small businesses, that has a tendency to get very fragmented. It is a CEO responsibility to make sure there is one cohesive message that is broadcast from every platform. If you client interacts with you on twitter, your website, in your office, and with your call center, they should have a completely congruent experience. If you want more information on branding, check out our article, Great Branding is Like Your Favorite Pair of Jeans.
Clarify and clean up the brand. - Champion Systemization. Business just works better with systems. But many small businesses put them off because it takes time, money, and effort to build great systems. The CEO responsibility is to make sure that systems are constantly being built and updated to find more efficient and inexpensive ways to run the business.
- Building the team. The solopreneur model is one of my least favorite ways to do business. The business owner spends large amounts of time doing low income producing tasks. It caps company growth. Small businesses thrive when they have the right people in the right places, at the right time. A CEO responsibility in a small business is to create the hiring plan. The CEO determines what jobs will create the most revenue growth. The CEO may not be responsible for hiring and training, but they are responsible for ensuring that the company has a hiring and training process in place.
- Inter Departmental communication. Sales, Marketing, Fulfillment, Finance, Administration, Product Development, and Leadership and Scalability are essential in every business. Most small business owners I meet have not yet created departments inside of their company. The CEO responsibility is to create the departments, and make sure that they are all working well together. The CEO ensures that the company has strong communication systems in place so each department is getting what they need from other departments. And ensuring that each department is providing what the other departments need in a timely and professional manner.
Every business needs a CEO. If you are a business owner and see that you need assistance in building your CEO Skills. Consider joining us for one of our CEO circles. Click here to learn more.