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Most of these ''recession-forced-me-into business'' owners are skilled people with high levels of personal skills but little business experience. Most of them had plans to open up businesses as retirement or self-actualization plans, but the recession forced them to show their hands, and many were caught unprepared and off guard. The struggles of starting and developing a small business within a raging recession are quite different from those under not-so-adverse conditions, and it is quite common to find your small business owner-employer behaving clueless and relying more upon you than you find it to your liking. Strange behavior is common in strange situations, and stressed behavior is common in a stressed economy. Corporate backgrounds are not of much help when beginning to work for a small start-up. However, as the statistics show, chances are more than ever that a small business would offer you a better or may be your only chance for a job, and it is essential for you to understand how to adjust in, and provide support to, a small business workplace.
What does a new business start-up expect from a new employee?
Miracles. Despite practical and visible understanding of workplace dynamics, new business owners keep praying for miracles, and keep expecting the same from employees. Don’t be fooled just because your employer knows how to play the cool guy and control his or her emotions. Inside, every new business owner is extremely stressed and whatever you can do to put his or her anxieties at rest secures you a better place and helps to support the business. When working for a new business start-up, one has to think ahead and assume the unstated needs of the business owner.
How to help a small business owner
Not every new business owner is fully aware about the small details of workflows and mostly they are not habituated to ordering people around and getting tasks done. You have to attribute the final ownership of every task to the business owner, for it is his or her business, but do not look for leadership from a small business owner in the manner you would seek leadership from your superior in a corporate framework. Mostly, it is the duty of each employee in a small business to assume a leadership role, use their personal expertise to tune workflows and help to create a system that delivers.
Small business owners are usually subject experts thrown into a situation where they find that they have little time to use their subject expertise except to form a birds-eye-view of things and most of their time is taken up in essentially secretarial duties. Lack of experience in delegation or excessive possessiveness over tasks and verticals caused by having the greatest stake in the productive process for the first time takes its toll and commonly confuses the time management of a small business owner. To help develop the business it is essential to offer to carry the duties, which the business owner never thought of delegating but are truly time-wasters, as, they are not in line with his or her core competence.
To work for a small business owner, you must be prepared to face emotional outbursts and micromanagement, but it is your duty to keep your cool and free the owner from unnecessary workloads. Constructive help provides quicker returns and longer-lasting dividends in a small business than in a corporate environment. Remember that subject experts who have the courage to strike out on their own feet also possess the seeds of greatness, and they can go miles if they manage to find the right support. There’s nothing small about a small business started by a subject expert. After all, Microsoft too, started from a garage.
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