Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / Don’t Be the Momma

Transcript

Don’t Be the Momma · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

• 0:00
  Hi, everybody.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson, the small biz lady, and I wanna invite you to enter the small biz check
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  boss in 12 months or fix your business, or you might even get a chance to win one of my
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  limited edition small business chat podcast t shirts.
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  Don't delay.
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  Subscribe to the small business chat podcast today.
• 0:39
  3, 2, 1, 0, ignition Left off.
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  Ending small business failure.
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  Welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast with a number 1 small business expert Melinda Emerson.
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  Melinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
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  you need to succeed and live the life you dream of.
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  Now here's the small biz lady herself.
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  Melinda Emerson.
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  Hi, everybody.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson.
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  This small biz lady, and I am so excited to be coming to you for yet another episode of the
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  small biz chat podcast.
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  I am so excited to bring you what we call one of my small bus lady diary episodes.
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  So most of the time, we'll bring you great interviews of small business spurts and book
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  authors, but now it's time for me to just one on one, tell you what I think about some aspect
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  of running your business.
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  And today, We're gonna be talking about don't be the mama in your business.
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  And this is actually really important because One of the things that I have seen happen in my
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  own business, and I'm quite sure there are a lot of other boss checks out here doing the
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  same thing.
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  And so What I will tell you is I do not want you to be the mama in your business.
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  And by that, I mean, you know, It is very important for us to hire people that wanna work
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  for us, that wanna work hard, that can think Right?
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  Because what happens in a small business sometimes is we end up with a whole bunch of
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  doers.
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  Can you do this for me?
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  Can you do that for me?
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  And they will do anything we ask but they won't proactively do anything.
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  And what you need in a business that's gonna grow is thinkers.
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  You need people who are going to think about how your business makes money other than you.
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  So it's really, really important that you think through what's going on in your business and
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  how have you empowered everyone in your business.
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  Let me tell you a story.
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  Years ago, gosh, this is now 13, 14 years ago now.
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  In my business, when I got pregnant with my son, I ended up being put on bed rest for 6
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  months.
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  And in that time, I learned what kind of staff I had.
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  And what I realized was, you know, I had staff that would do anything that I asked him, but
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  nobody proactively did anything.
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  And that was my fault because I had become the mama in my business.
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  So I had not empowered people to make decisions.
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  Matter of fact, people were afraid to make decisions because apparently, if they made the
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  wrong one, would jump up and down on them so badly that they would rue the day they even got
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  empowered to even be thinking about making a decision.
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  So it is really important that as we think about the kind of people that we want to hire,
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  as we're writing job descriptions, as we're interviewing people you want to hire people who
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  can think.
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  You wanna hire people that will be thinking about more than the little job box that you
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  give them.
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  You want them proactively thinking about ideas.
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  You wanna have regular staff meetings where you empower people to come forward with ideas.
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  Matter of fact, you wanna incentivize everybody to come forward with ideas.
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  I would be, you know, leave out a box where people could give suggestions, you know, give a
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  hundred bucks or an extra day off somebody that comes up with a great idea that you implement
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  in the company, you want to make sure that you are creating a culture where it is okay for
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  people to proactively see a problem and figure out how to solve it.
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  The last thing you want is on the 1st day of your vacation, and this actually happened to
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  me.
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  To have someone call you and tell you the printer broke.
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  Like, what am I gonna do about that printer from Hawaii?
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  You know?
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  I mean, but honestly, If you don't empower people, if you don't make sure that people know
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  that they better come to you with a solution, They better not come to you with a problem.
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  If you don't institute that from the very beginning, from their very first training and
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  onboarding and orientation, what you could end up having is a bunch of people that are just
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  working for a chat that they could care less.
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  If you don't ask them to do something, they go hide until somebody does.
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  Right?
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  They're gonna do just enough work to look like they doing work, but they're not gonna, you
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  know, and you pay them just enough that they won't quit but but they're not really, really
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  invested.
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  You want people to be invested in your business.
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  You want everybody to be looking for best practices and how to do things better.
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  But if you're not talking to people on a regular basis and asking people for their
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  opinion, you won't ever get it.
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  And it will be your fault.
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  If you become the mama in your business, If nobody can make a decision unless they check
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  with you to make sure their decision is a good one, you will always be making all the
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  decisions in your business.
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  And let me tell you something.
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  It's exhausting being the mama, especially if you're already really a mama.
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  Like, if you have kids, you got a husband, you got stuff going on.
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  You don't want to have to be the person making all the decisions in your business.
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  You wanna hire smart people.
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  You wanna empower them.
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  To make decisions and suggestions.
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  And you don't wanna be the kind of boss that nobody can give feedback to.
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  You don't wanna be that person that people are afraid to speak up for fear of, you know, off
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  with their heads or being talked down to in a staff meeting.
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  You don't wanna be that kind of boss.
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  You wanna be a boss that is respected, and you wanna be actually a leader.
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  You know, sometimes in a business, we get confused about the difference between being a
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  manager and being a leader.
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  And when you are a leader, leaders make everybody look good.
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  Leaders know that they have to mentor their employees, but managers, managers, you know,
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  feed on power.
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  Managers role by fear.
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  Managers are about, you know, letter to the law.
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  You were late.
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  They don't care why you were late.
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  You were late.
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  You're getting written up.
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  You know, That's not the culture that is gonna engender your employees to you.
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  So you wanna make sure that you are really, really thinking about how to empower your
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  employees, how to give them opportunities to step up in your business because you don't need
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  any more people that you carrying on your back.
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  You don't need any more children.
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  You should not treat your employees like children, and they should not act like
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  children.
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  Right?
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  It is time to take away the past buyers.
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  You need to have people that are good at doing their job and that are always seeking to do a
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  good job that are always looking for ways that you could do better.
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  Those are the kind of people you want working for you.
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  If you're just hiring people, you can afford or you got, you know, kinda mediocre people work
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  for you.
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  Why are you tolerating that?
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  You need to think about that because you know, you're paying your hard earned money to people,
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  you know, in their paycheck.
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  And if they're not earning a paycheck or they don't have the right skills to deliver, perform
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  for you, then that's one thing that you really need to think about.
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  But I have to tell you if you are the mama in your business, it is your fault.
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  You did it to yourself.
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  You being a control freak.
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  You thinking nobody can do anything better than you.
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  You are the reason why you are even more exhausted at the end of our it's why you're
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  mentally exhausted.
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  It's why you're having headaches All of these things are happening because you have not
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  empowered anybody else to think in your business.
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  You got a bunch of doers, and you go with that.
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  Can you do this for me?
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  Can you do that for me?
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  But that's not who you want.
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  You want thinkers.
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  You want other people in your business thinking about how your business makes money other than
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  you.
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  You don't wanna have to watch every door.
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  You need to have some people who got your back who are gonna be watching the doors too.
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  So let me tell you, do not sleep on this.
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  Do not be the mama in your business.
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  I'm Melinda Henderson.
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  I'm the small bus lane.
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  I'm gonna leave you with this action point for the week.
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  It is time to throw away the pacifiers.
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  People work just as hard not to get fired.
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  And you know what?
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  You wanna pay them, but you want them to earn their paycheck.
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  Make sure you're hiring smart people and empowering them to make decisions.
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  Otherwise, you're gonna be the mama making all of them.
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  Don't be the mama.
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  I'm willing to ever send a small business lady I'll see you next time.
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  Thank you for listening to the Small Biz Chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
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  For more resources and small business success strategies, visit succeed as your own boss.com.
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  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcast and join us next Wednesday.