PEOPLE SMARTS Are You Technically Challenged?

There are three personalities in every landscape business owner – the technician, the manager and the entrepreneur. Each of these personalities wages a constant battle to become the boss, and the technician usually is the hands-down winner. 

The technician is the one who likes to see things get done. He loves to work, but only on one thing at a time. And he despises his “inner entrepreneur/manager” because they give him too much to do and want to tell him how to do it.
 
As long as the technician can handle the work all by himself, the company remains in what is known as its infancy stage. But once the workload becomes too great for the technician and he realizes he can no longer survive doing things the way he is, the company moves into its adolescent phase. Sadly, here is where many technician-oriented owners quit.
 
The simple reality is that being a terrific technician is insufficient when trying to build a great small business. The over-burdened technician decides he needs help, so he goes out and hires another technician and delegates to this new employee all the tasks he hates to perform himself. The technician calls it delegation but the reality is he abdicates from performing these tasks. The new person, on the other hand, is better at these tasks than he ever was. Gradually, the owner begins heaping more things on the newcomer’s plate. Then things begin to crumble. He gets a call from the bank that he’s overdrawn. Accounts receivable mounts up and he discovers that two projects completed months ago were never billed out.
 
For the technician, these new crises often result in a decision to take the company small again. He reasons the organization has grown too rapidly and he can’t find anyone to come in and care about the business the same way he does. At this point, most technician-business owners are frustrated and on the brink of failure. Their response is predictable – get back to a size at which they can control everything. For them the dream of being their own boss and growing their own company has turned into a nightmare.
 
The startling reality is that 70 percent of small business owners are technicians by nature. Many of us are proud of that because it identifies us as hard working, committed and dedicated to our profession. We think hard work and more of it is the answer to overcoming any obstacle.
 
Sadly, it is at this point that one of the greatest strengths of a small business owner becomes one of his greatest weaknesses. The trap in working harder to solve every problem is that sometimes we fail to anticipate and prepare our businesses and ourselves for the future. We elect, as the popular phrase goes, to spend more time working in the business than on it.
 
The big challenge for owners who are technicians and whose companies have reached the adolescent growth stage is whether or not they can pull themselves out of business long enough to define the plans, steps and decisions necessary to take their companies to the next level. Successful growth is planned for and anticipated. It rarely occurs in a random manner. “The E-Myth Revisited” by Michael Gerber details this management concept and should be required reading for all business owners.
 
Every landscape company has the potential to fall into the traps that lie in wait for the owner who fancies himself an entrepreneur and manager but, in reality, cannot get beyond the technician part of his personality. Entrepreneurs and managers will probably take immediate action to resolve these issues, but technicians may not find the time to do anything. Which one are you? You decide.

The author is president of GreenSearch, a human resource consulting organization. He can be reached at 888/375-7787, peoplesmarts@gie.net or via www.greensearch.com. PeopleSmarts® is a registered trademark of GreenSearch.