I bought a multi-tool the other day. Since I no longer have my own bike shop to fix up my bikes I bought a multi-tool designed specifically for fixing bikes. It even included spoke wrenches. Eighteen tools in one little package. I got my first chance to use it a couple days ago. You can probably guess what happened. Like most multi-tools, it did a competent job (except for the spoke wrenches that failed miserably), but it wasn’t all that easy to use. Having the individual tools for each job would have been a whole lot better. It leads me to ask this question …
Is it better to be a Jack-of-all-trades-Master-of-none, or incredibly amazing at one skill?
If you’re an indie retail store owner, you’re probably going with Jack. You wear many hats. You have to know your Products well enough to be a competent buyer. You have to understand Retail Math to get your books balanced, keep your inventory in check, and keep the cash flowing. You have to know something about Marketing and Advertising and Public Relations to keep attracting new people. You have to know Human Resources so that you can hire and train a staff to help you run the store. You have to understand insurance and leasing laws and tax rules. You have to know how to manage people, products, and crises.
In fact, you’re so busy playing the role of Jack, you have a hard time getting really good at any single element of it.
That’s the life of an indie retailer. At least that’s what many indie retailers believe. But let’s look at the big picture.
If you play the role of Jack and do everything mildly competent, what do you have? A mildly competent retail store. If, however, you hired someone fantastic at one element, while you were mildly competent at the rest, how would your business look differently? How would that change if you found several people, each with a specific skill you lacked?
Sure, it is a risk to hire someone else and turn over parts of your baby, your business, to that person. At the same time, it is the only way to grow past mildly competent (and that’s assuming you are mildly competent at all elements of running a store).
Sure, it is an expense to hire someone else to do a job your’re already doing. At the same time, if they are truly a Master, they will more than pay for themselves by taking your store to the next level. Plus, they will free you up to spend more time getting better at the things you do.
Jack can get the job done, but only a Master will get you to the next level.
Here’s my challenge to all of you multi-tool Jack retailers out there. Go find a spoke wrench that works incredibly well at truing a wheel. Go find a socket wrench, too. And maybe a fantastic screw driver with a solid head and a perfect grip. Hire someone better than you to do jobs you’re only mildly competent at doing. Then take your free time to become a master at the stuff you’re already pretty good at doing.
Not only will your store grow leaps and bounds, you’ll have a lot more fun running it.
-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com
PS I’ve been a Jack most of my life. It is hard to accept that you aren’t great at everything and that more often than not, you are better off getting help from someone better. Fortunately you do not need a twelve-step plan to break free of this Jack habit. Just two steps will do.
- Pick one of your job duties or requirements that you either hate doing, or recognize that you aren’t that great at doing.
- Hire someone else that is incredible at doing that particular job or duty and let them do it.
It pays more than it costs.
PPS The key phrase in all of this is “someone better than you” at that particular skill or job. Next post I’ll talk about how to find that person.