In a previous column, I wrote about the CEO I brought in to take my company to the next level. After hiring an expensive staff of senior managers, the CEO's next idea was to take business away from our strategic partners. He intended to terminate one of our joint venture agreements and hire about 100 people to replace our partner. I personally don't like growing a business by hiring more employees and acquiring more office space--it's too expensive.
That leads me to this month's lesson: A person with an employee mind-set tends to expand a business by hiring more employees. Our former CEO was a highly paid employee who fancied himself an entrepreneur. Because he had the mind-set and values of an employee, his way to expand my business was to hire more employees and managers and increase office space.
After he moved on, I took back control of the business, rehabilitated some damaged relationships and began expanding the business in a more efficient and cost-effective manner. Instead of employing more people, we are expanding by selling businesses via franchising. With this method, we get paid to have people work for us rather than paying employees.
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