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The other day I went to my friend Burt Hanna’s new candle factory in Fayetteville. He had read and written a testimonial for my new book, Confessions of an Entrepreneur, so I wanted to give him a signed copy when it was published.
So I entered the parking lot Hannah Candle Co. The plant and offices on South School Avenue — a renovated building that formerly housed the commercial printing firm The Standard Register Company — and the new warehouse Hanna built next to it. Who do I see working on the lawn in the yard, covered in dirt and sweat? None other than Burt Hanna himself. I asked him what he was doing there. He said he is showing his son what hard work looks like.
Hanna owns a company that made over $80 million in revenue last year. Hannah talks to everyone as she walks through the plant. He knows how everything works and can explain each process to you. My point is that Burt Hanna is connected to the business. He is actively involved in everything from securing multi-million dollar contracts from retail to fixing machines that break down on the day.
As the Northwest Arkansas Vistage chair, I’m on a listserver with other Vistage chairs around the country. There is a constant exchange of information between us. A few weeks ago, a colleague mentioned three small business owners in his area (about $3 million in revenue) who should work on their jobs, not their businesses. That’s a constant Vistage mantra I hear from business coaches and experts – you need to work on your business, not in it.
What is my response to this statement? You had better do both. One of the main causes of small business failure that I have observed in my (very) long career is owners who do not work in their business. They think they can do it remotely or with hired managers, or their time is too valuable to bother with the day-to-day work of whatever the business does for its customers or clients. With three owners in a $3 million company, I’m sure they’re working in the business. It’s crazy.
Only by working in the business can you learn what your business is doing well and what it isn’t. You will also learn who is good and who is not in your business. You experience firsthand the problems your people face every day. And you’ll form better relationships with your people who see you as one—a contributor rather than taking everything out of the company, milking everything out of the company but keeping nothing.
People who think they are going to be CEOs who step outside of the day-to-day operations of their business and focus on things that are “big picture” or “strategic” are bound to have a lot of problems.
Mark Zweig is the founder of two Fayetteville-based 500/5000 companies. He is also an entrepreneur-in-residence teaching entrepreneur and group chair at the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas. Northwest Arkansas Chapter of Vistage International. The opinions expressed are those of the author.
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