How to Run Your Business for Results, But With an Iron Fist

Your business is a testimony to how you use resources, build systems, manage people, and get the ball rolling. Running a business isn’t exactly like a loose, free-for-all party – it cannot have loose strings, it can’t afford mess, and your business certainly isn’t where people can goof off. You can get a hangover after a party; the only thing you’ll get when business goes bad is failure. It makes sense to guard, protect, and run your business with an iron fist.

Now, running a business with tight control might not let you get the best from your resources. Without control on your business you might build chaos instead of creating a brand. Running and managing a business is a fine art. Not everyone is born to do it, but everyone with enough mettle can learn.

Your business needs to grow, scale, and profit. For doing that, you’ll need to run your business for results better than your competition can while customers love you eternally and respect you for it. How do you do it? Here are a few ways to create a business that’s built like a tank and grows like a vine:

Streamline and define processes for everything

You should typically work on your business as if you’d look at franchising as an option tomorrow. While you might never want to go for the “franchise” model, it’s important to develop systems, bring in defined processes, and create systems to make things happen. What happens after you meet a customer? Develop a process that lists out the exact steps to take from meeting a customer to closing the sale and then route it to customer service.

If your business depends on a set of processes to ensure delivery of products and services, develop systems for that. Establish particular ways for everything that has to move, things people have to do, and ways to go about every process.

That’s just the way business works.

Don’t trust anyone

You’d not want to do business by hiring family and friends. So, you’d typically hire strangers to work for you. In that case, you’d do better if you don’t place your trust on anyone completely. It’s a fine and tight rope you’d be walking on: you’d have to trust your employees to get work done, to deliver results, and to let them work their magic, innovate, and pour in ideas.

Yet, you’d not trust them completely. You’d still want to keep your eyes on them. Install surveillance cameras or a complete surveillance system and let your employees know. Keep security policies in place on Internet usage, and bring in other measures to protect your business.

According to Tony Schwartz of HBR, employees are adults, and you’d still have to treat them as such
The debate whether this is the right thing to do or not will rage on, but it’s your business at the end of the day and you should do what you can to protect it.

Hiring is just the beginning; there’s more to people management

Most business owners think that hiring employees and giving them a job description is more than enough for them to hit the road. It’s not. You can be a better manager and an effective leader only when you can give clear instructions, master the art of delegation, work with your staff to achieve results, and bring out the best in them.

Now, it’s the “bringing out the best in them” part that’s tricky for managers all over the world since people are different. Tactics and strategies that work for one might not work for the other. Management is a highly paid profession for that reason alone – finding the buttons in people that you can push.

Just how well you delegate, get things done, and earn the trust from your employees is the key to success, according to Jonathan Moules.

After hiring and delegating job roles, you’ll have to also manage for results. This would mean effective onboarding, training, and working together as a team.

Find what you need to control, and leave the rest

Depending on your business, there might be a few departments, functions, or aspects of work that you cannot give away for others to work on. These could be certain Intellectual property, research, clients and their relationships, product design, launch plans, and many more. Strive to maintain control over these crucial business functions and give up control (not completely) on lesser important functions in your business such as payroll, hiring, training, regular business operations, and accounting.

You could still keep a tight leash on the less crucial aspects of your business. Lisa McQuerrey of Chron Small Business suggests developing a tracking system for all work, planning regular reviews and feedback sessions.

Bring in the transparency habit

Communication – just as it is for everything in life – is the stronghold of your business. Being able to communicate well and effectively works for the benefit of entire organization. Work to bring in transparency across all business communication and for all staff and/or contractors in communication. Train staff – with you in charge – to communicate clearly, promptly, and without restrictions. Internal and external business communications ought to be out there in the open for anyone to check, audit, and to refer to.

Some of the best businesses in the world operate on all of these cylinders. The best places to work lists on Forbes don’t have policies that are weak – these are businesses that mastered the fine art of control while giving employees freedom to do well at what they do. These businesses mastered the art of getting things done but with restrictions in place.

How do you run your business? What systems or processes have you put in place to keep your business secure and profitable? What are the things that worked for you when it comes to getting things done but still not giving away control over your business?

Share your thoughts with us.