The Harbour Pilot

In the 1800s, the attraction of natural resources in North America proved irresistible to a certain breed of person. The forests fed the European need for material for their ships, and the mines were a direct source of wealth, and then the underpinning of a primary manufacturing sector. The life for the (mostly) men who worked in these fields was brutal and often, short. It was a time when excesses of drive and greed fuelled the economy (no, not last week…). The success of these entrepreneurial activities demanded resourcefulness and self-sufficiency. As important as the support efforts were – food, blacksmithing, medical, transportation – none of it was of significance if the lumber was not cut, or the ore not broken.

In mining, there is a crude measurement of productivity. Known as the rule of men-at-the-face, it is the percentage of manpower that is directly used at the “face” of a mining work heading in a stope. These men FACED a rock wall – to be drilled, packed with explosive, and blown to rubble for removal. These were the men that broke the ore. No ore – no product. This measure is still used today. One of my mining clients strives to keep 30% of its workforce at the “face”. This has some value in thinking about any business, and can be very valuable in considering independent business.

No matter what line of business it might be, there is generally some initiating activity that drives the overall wealth of a business. In car manufacturing, it is the assembly line. In food distribution, it is the supply chain. In home building, it is hands doing construction labour. In appliance manufacturing it is the press facility. If you have trouble diagnosing what the activity is – consider which one cannot be outsourced. This is usually the “face”.

Independent business typically must keep a very high percentage of its human resources at the “face”. It is a primary way for it to compete with larger enterprises which have the advantages of scale. In an enterprise of 10 people – probably nine will be at the “face”. With twenty, you might have 18. At this level, 90% of the workforce is at the “face”. As you approach a workforce of 50 people, the infrastructure demands almost inevitably lead to a reduction of this level. You may have added a purchasing agent, a bookkeeper, a hiring staff member, and perhaps two salespeople. Now you have 6 people (including yourself) who are not at-the-face – 12%. By the time you get to a hundred ( the typical high boundary for so-called small-business), you are likely to be down to 75%.

Moving back to the start-up and micro business level, it should be apparent what the challenge is. There is often only one person to handle all of the work that is not at-the-face.

• sales
• product development
• marketing
• hiring/disciplinary/firing
• planning
• information acquisition
• bookkeeping, payroll, banking
• regulatory compliance
• maintenance
• purchasing and inventorying
• quality control

The list is endless. Not only is there one person to do this work, the array of required knowledge and skills can be enormous. If your business started from holding a particular line-of-business key skill (you are a construction framer), your challenge can be significant. True – you can outsource the problem, but that both costs money, and requires you to judge the quality of the service you have engaged.
All of this discussion is prelude to identifying one of the most common sources of stress for independent business owners – it is

the stress of insufficient resources to handle these diverse and competing demands

. You are constantly juggling tasks that come from multiple sources, attempting to prioritize and sequence. Do I pay the bills first, or order the material for job, or do some training for the new guy, or try to get the next contract… The tendency is to play to your strengths. Those demands that are outside your normal comfort zone are relegated to late nights, supposed holidays or down time. Sometimes, they are layered on top of other tasks – while driving, you are talking on the cell phone to suppliers or prospective clients. I hope your insurance is in good shape.
One of the most frequent complaints of business owners is that they themselves do not get to actually do the thing that they opened the business to do! This is the nature of the beast.

The stress load is enormous. There is no one to delegate to.

Bear in Mind

Keep non-productive work under tight control, or delegate it, to reduce stress.

Question ?

How many tasks to you do that are not directly productive and can you reduce them.