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Are You a Small Business Lone Ranger? Take My 10-Question Quiz To Find Out!

Posted in   Team   on  March 14, 2022 by  David Loke0

So what exactly is a “Small Business Lone Ranger?”  A “Small Business Lone Ranger” is a business owner who does all the work themselves.

No matter how big or small the project, the Lone Ranger handles 100% of it. Either because they’re afraid to let go of control or feel they can’t afford to hire help. Can you relate? I know I can!

So what’s wrong with doing everything yourself? Well, it’s tough to grow your business if you’re busy managing every single detail. I know it’s a bit scary to let go of control or to consider hiring help, but I also know it’s necessary if you want to grow your business to its fullest potential.

Take my 10-question quiz to determine if YOU are a Lone Ranger. And don’t worry if you are, I’ve got some suggestions to help you rid yourself of this business-stifling affliction!

  1. Do you work alone?
  1. Do you feel no one can do your work quite as well as you?
  1. Do you often feel there aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done?
  1. Do you maintain your own website?
  1. Do you do your own accounting and billing?
  1. Do you write your own sales and marketing copy?
  1. Do you get your own mail?
  1. Do you buy your own office supplies?
  1. Do you create or deliver all your products and services by yourself?
  1. Do you fulfill and ship all your sales yourself?

If you answered “Yes” to most or all of these questions, guess what, YOU ARE ALONE RANGER! That’s okay; I’ve been one, too.

When your business is small, you have to wear many hats because you may not afford to hire help. But at what point do you decide to start delegating tasks to someone else? ANSWER: When the time you’re spending on administrative tasks involved in keeping your business running prevents you from spending time growing your business.

As a business owner, you should spend at least 60% of your time marketing. You are the BEST person to market your product or service. And marketing is the only way your business will grow and flourish. So if you’re too busy paying bills, getting the mail, responding to email, and running out to pick up office supplies, then guess what? You don’t have time to market. And your business cannot grow.

So what’s a Small Business Lone Ranger to do? Here are 6 tips:

  1. Make a list of all the tasks that don’t require your specific expertise or talent (things like sorting mail, buying office supplies, and filing).
  1.  Make a second list of the tasks that consume a lot of your time but are OUTSIDE your specific area of expertise (things like maintaining your web site or managing your business finances and accounting).
  1. Determine how many hours per week you spend doing these tasks.
  1. Determine what additional sales and marketing, or other business-building activities you would have time for if you didn’t have to do these other tasks.
  1. Estimate how many additional clients or sales you could generate with this extra time spent on marketing and building your business.
  1. Make a decision to hire an assistant, bookkeeper, web site manager or whatever specialists are appropriate to handle these tasks. Determine what you can afford based on your results in Tip Number 5.

You’re probably wondering how you’ll be able to afford it. But really can’t afford NOT to hire help unless we are satisfied with keeping our business small. And don’t get me wrong, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that — I’ve done it for seven years. But if you have a bigger vision (like I do now), you need a team to help you make that vision a reality.

To start with, your team should include an assistant to do the work that is not a good use of your time. It doesn’t have to be a full-time employee; I’m starting with someone just a few hours a week. You’ll also want to get a bookkeeper to manage your finances — they’ll not only free you up from your accounting tasks, but they’ll also help you keep more of what you make.

About the Author David Loke

David Loke is the co-founder and CEO of ReadySpace, a Cloud Service Provider in the APAC region. In 2003, he started ReadySpace with the vision to provide customers with reliable, secure, affordable and simple online apps. It then evolved into what we call Cloud today. Being through a decade of running ReadySpace, it has now grown into a regional business serving business owners and its managers across various industries to their success.
Right now, he is taking his wealth of experience to help over 700 business owners as mentor and coach with an ultimate goal to multiply wealth creation.

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