Build a Strong Business Support Team in 4 Easy Steps
Building a strong business support team can be the catalyst for your business’ success. Whether you run a large company with dozens of employees or run your own solo business, you rely on a support team of vendors, customers, employees, contractors, and other associates that help you carry out your business goals.
And discovering the strengths and weaknesses of each of these support functions is an important part of ensuring your business runs as smoothly as possible.
But building a strong business support team includes in-depth evaluations of your current team. You can support your vendors or employees by encouraging them as they learn new skills and built their experience or you can pivot and search for a better-suited individual to help support your business.
Today, we’re sharing a fun exercise you can use to discover the strengths and weaknesses of your business support team.
Step One: A Fresh Start
This exercise starts with a blank sheet of paper and a pencil.
Start by drawing a small circle in the middle and labeling it with your name. The circle represents you.
Next, you’ll want to draw a larger circle next to your circle and write down the names of all your employees and their roles.
Repeat this process for your:
- Contractors
- Partners
- Affiliates
- 5 largest vendors
- 5 largest clients
- Business mentors and coaches
- Any other major groups related to your business
Once you’ve completed this step, you will have created a representation of your business and all the necessary people you rely on to get the job done.
At this point do you think you have a strong business support team? Let’s keep going to find out!
Step Two: Indirect Association
Now that you have outlined the people directly linked to the daily operations of your business, we’re going to repeat the process for groups you belong to that indirectly affect your business.
This group could include a professional association where you are a member, a licensing agency, or a networking group you take part in.
You will make large circles for each of these groups you feel connected to and then, inside each circle, write down the key names of individuals that make up each group.
Step Three: Personal Support
You’ve now created a visual representation of the people who directly and indirectly affect your business in one way or another. The next step is all about personal support. These are people who impact your personal life, apart from your business life. The personal support circle could include:
- Childcare or nanny for your children
- Personal Chef
- Gardener
- Esthetician
- Wardrobe Consultant
- Makeup Artist
- Nail Artist
- Hair Stylist
- Nutritionist
- Personal Trainer
- Butler or Home Manager
- Chauffeur
- Masseuse
- Travel Agent
The sheet now represents all the important people that form the foundation of your strong business support team in one way or another. It’s a lot, isn’t it?
Step Four: Putting It All Together
Now is where the aha moments come in! This next step is all about taking stock of the gaps in your team. When you look at your page full of circles, is there anything missing? Are there job openings or roles that you are ready to fill to bring in more support?
At this time, grab your highlighters. We’ll go through each of these circles to note the following:
- With a yellow highlighter, mark these openings or potential openings.
- With a green highlighter, mark the people who provide the most support to you or who are perhaps the most supportive or uplifting. This may be a great time to show how much you appreciate them!
- With a red highlighter, mark anyone who is costing you more than supporting you. It may be time for a change in team members.
- With a purple highlighter, list the five people you most look up to and can count on for great advice. These people should either have expert advice or be ahead of you in business.
This process should spark a deeper consideration of those around you, both personally and professionally. Evaluating the relationships you have with the people in each of your circles is an excellent practice in evaluating your potential.
When you look at your circles, do you notice certain patterns? You might have a few more names highlighted in red than you were anticipating. Consider asking yourself the following questions to gain some more insight:
- Where are you fully supported?
- Where could you use more help?
- Where do you need to make some replacements?
- What else do you notice about your business network?
- Would you consider this a strong business support team? And if not, what changes can you make?
After you’ve jotted down some notes, take a list of action items you can do to strengthen your business support network.
At Cindy’s Mobile Bookkeeping we are constantly working to improve our networks and support our client’s small businesses in any way we can. If you’re ready to improve your ever-important tax support in your business, schedule a call today!