Jay Sachetti joined Jeff O’Brien, partner at Husch Blackwell and Dyanne Ross-Hanson, president of Exit Planning Strategies talked about the market for mergers and acquisitions, exit planning opportunities for companies that don’t end up for sale and how companies can maximize their eventual sale price during an early October panel at the first Upsize on Tap event at Summit Brewing Co. in St. Paul.
When the state Legislature passed a law requiring employers to provide paid leave and safe time for employees, Justin Bieganek started hearing differing details from friends, colleagues and peers.
That was the somewhat joking comment made by the moderator of a recent panel featuring four local entrepreneurs in digital publishing, who had interesting advice for business owners.
“My real goal over the last couple of years is to get out of everybody’s hair,” said the former New York Times journalist whose site ranks and reviews outdoor products for readers.
“Just by the matter of bootstrapping it, I know every little thing that’s going on,” he says. “My thing has been to let go, hire good people, and let them do their job. I had been stretched out of the writing into helping produce events and run social media, so I tried to pull back and be the journalist I was trained to be.
“This year I feel my machine is well-oiled. My staff two weeks ago hired somebody and I hadn’t met her. So that was a great moment,” he said, prompting the response above from the quick-witted moderator.
It’s a common refrain from entrepreneurs, and one I hear often when meeting with Upsize Growth Challenge participants, our annual project in which we match two winning CEOs with experts to help them meet ambitious growth goals. (You’ll meet this year’s participants in a later issue this year.)
She was planning to start boxing kits in her basement with interns, but an expert said no way — nobody wants to work out of your basement. She ended up delegating the execution of the new project to her trusted office manager, in a professional setting, while she kept working the branding angle, her specialty.
I’ve found the opposite is usually true— that people, especially people earlier in their careers, welcome the chance to dig into something difficult and juicy. As for doing it better yourself, I’m definitely not sold on that point of view. If you’re doing it yourself after 25 years, you’re likely repeating what you’ve done in the past and missing out on a creative flourish that you haven’t thought of yet.
She told Chris Farrell of Minnesota Public Radio about an intriguing way to tap young talent that she can’t afford yet to add to her staff.
Berglund’s business is to sell beer, and then use all the profits to donate to community causes. She gets loads of volunteers, but she doesn’t use them for exclusively mundane tasks. Rather, she might take a budding professional who is low on a corporation’s executive ladder, and give that person a marketing director title as a volunteer. Talk about a great way to create excellent work for Finnegan’s and also to provide a great boost for a younger person’s career.
I’m not necessarily recommending you stop getting to know your own employees, but what are you doing that somebody else could do better? Where do you make a unique contribution to your company? Put your attention there, and tap others to do their best thing, too. And when you know you’ve really made it, let me know how.
Beth Ewen
Editor and co-founder
Upsize Minnesota
be***@*******ag.com
