I own one business now. Within the next couple of months I am starting two businesses at the same time, one being manufacturing and the other one is a restaurant. I have already hired two managers but what is the best way that I can spend my time making a success of all three businesses. Any advice will be great?
This is an ambitious, but not unachievable challenge!
Planning
The only way to ensure the success of all three businesses is to plan ahead. My advice would be to create a detailed 90 day plan for each of the businesses, outlining the goals and objectives for the first three months, with detailed monthly, weekly and daily actions required by each team member to achieve these goals.
If you have a written, documented, detailed plan in place, then you and your managers can execute and implement the plan without wheel spinning.
KPIs
Key to the plan is a detailed job description for each of the managers with key performance indicators (KPIs). KPIs outline exactly what is expected of each team member, so they can go about their daily tasks without requiring intervention from you.
Outline roles and responsibilities and empower your managers to be accountable to make decisions within a framework. Agree on daily, weekly and monthly reports that you require from your managers to keep your finger on the pulse of the business.
Systems and processes
When you rely on a manager to run your business for you, it is effectively allowing your business to run on auto-pilot. For auto-pilot to work effectively, you need all the right systems and processes in place to ensure that things will run the way you want them to run, even when you are not there. At the outset, you need to document your systems and processes so there is never any doubt about how things should be done.
Default diary
Keep a default diary that allocates time to each business. You will have to strike a balance between being accessible to assist your managers with teething problems, and being disciplined about the time you need to take care of your existing business.
Wishing you great success on this very exciting time.