Being Your Own Boss




You need to know how to be your own boss.  What does it really mean to be your own boss?  Can you work without management?  When nobody will direct, guide or evaluate your progress, it's all up to you.  You may take the wrong path or proceed too slowly.  Who will guide you?  YOU’RE the boss.  Let’s look at what it means to manage yourself.

What do managers do?

You must realize that you’re in charge.  Learn what managers must dictate to you. Then, when you are your own boss, you can self-dictate the stuff you need to do to be successful:

Assignments

Managers assign work to their employees.  Assignments are doled out based on relevance, capability and workload availability.   Is the assignment important?  Which of the employees have the skill-set to do it effectively?  Can some of the employees handle additional assignments, or are their plates too full?

Reality check!  You need the skills and the capacity to perform all of the work yourself.  When you can’t, it must be outsourced.  Too much on your plate?  Delegate!

Your To-Do List or Not To-Do List?

Priorities

Proper task prioritization is key.  It’s up to you.  What task should be completed first?  What tasks can wait until later?  Then, what task should be next?  List them in order, by priority.  If you don’t carefully set your priorities before proceeding, business failure may start knocking on your door!

Schedule

Most every task should have a deadline…a due date.  Clients expect punctual delivery.  Market entry must be timed.  Scheduling is a big part of assignment execution and the timeline is up to you.

What do managers expect?

Now that you’re the boss, what are your personal business expectations?  You need a way to measure your own obligations.  As a business owner, expectations must be self enforced.  It’s all up to you!

Performance

How well are you performing as a business owner?  Business startup without management means all of these factors must be met by you.
An honest assessment of yourself should be done regularly.  Evaluate the results of your business.  Look at the plots and charts.  Equate the results to your performance and make adjustments as needed.  Discipline yourself.

Punctuality

Of course your manager will expect you to be on time.  Yes, you should be on time when you arrive in the morning.  But more than that.  Managers expect you to arrive to meetings on time as well.  And if you are meeting with a customer, your manager will expect you to show up early, so you’re well prepared.

Dedication

Your manager will notice if you aren’t dedicated to your work!  If you’re involved in a business startup without management, your lack of dedication will be disastrous!

Flexibility

As schedules and priorities change, your manager will expect you to be flexible.  You must be able to change course quickly.  When new, surprise assignments come up, you must be ready for them.  Regarding business startup without management, this should go without saying.  There is no such thing as a successful inflexible entrepreneur!

What do managers provide?

An exceptional manager will provide you with good comprehensive provision.  They shall take an active role in your career development.  Your boss must ensure you have all of the tools and resources needed to work effectively.  When conflicts arise, your manager must be there for you by mediating the clash.

If you think comprehensive managerial provision is a pipe-dream…if no manager has ever done all of this for you before, you’re in luck.
You control yourself!

You’re the boss of YOU!

As your own boss, provide YOURSELF as many wonderful opportunities as you wish!

Guidance

Your career as a business owner must be self-guided.  Educate yourself by performing research regularly.  Every time you hit a roadblock, learn how to overcome the obstacle.  Every time you encounter a fork in the road, understand each path and make a calculated decision.  When you launch a business without management, your career path is up to you.

Assistance

How can you get the help you need when you can’t get your work done on time?  Normally, your manager will assign some of your workload to another employee or bring in a temp to help with the project.  If you’re unable to afford employees or temporary workers, you might consider outsourcing
 or using a virtual assistant.  Elance provides a wide variety of technical resources.

“Elance is where businesses go to find, hire, collaborate with and pay leading freelancers from more than 180 countries. With a community of over 3 million freelancers and 1 million businesses, on Elance it’s easy to hire a top freelancer. Find a developer, freelance designers or other talented freelancers with the most in-demand skills.”

YOU must provide YOURSELF the tools needed to complete each task effectively.  Know what’ll be required before you launch, as some tools can be very expensive or have long lead-times.  Tools include development software, hand-tools, machines or even books.  It all depends on what you’re building.

Being your own boss means you must assist yourself first!

Conflict resolution

Are you running into conflict with an assistant you’ve hired or a vendor or supplier?  Control yourself.  Temper your emotions.  You must handle your conflicts very carefully.  You are at the highest level.  It can’t be escalated!  It can’t be mediated!

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