5 You’ve taken our POP QUIZ. You’ve checked out yourscore. And you’ve read a scenario describing differentaspects of your current situation that sounds very familar.(You might even see parts of yourself and your business inall three scenarios.) Most important, you’ve done some valuable thinking that has given you more clarity—a kind of“bird’s-eye view”—about where you stand now on the roadto a Self-Managing Company.

That’s a great start.

Now, let’s have a closer look at a Self-Managing Companyand five important areas you’ll want to be very clear onbefore you put any plans in place. Ready? Let’s get going.

Imagine a scenario where you get to do just what you likein your business and it grows and prospers, even in yourabsence. You provide the evolving vision, and your teammakes it real, often in ways you couldn’t have imagined. Infact, many of the results and positive by-products theyachieve amaze you.

We’re not talking passive income streams here, but athriving company where you get to focus just on the part ofthe game of business that’s fun for you—the part that allowsyou to achieve your biggest business and personal goals—and yet frees you from the task of management, which, let’sface it, is not what any entrepreneur starts a business for.

Things YouNeed To Knowto build your Self-Managing Company.

The Self-Managing Company is a company that manages itself to growth. In Self-Managing Companies, not only does the company grow when theentrepreneur is not there, it actually grows more, the more freed up theentrepreneur becomes.

Freed up from what, you might be thinking. Free from everything you findenergy-draining, distracting, frustrating, and tedious—and even those thingsyou do exceedingly well that you’re not really passionate about.

And, more important, freed up to do all the things you’d rather be doing withthat time and energy, whether that’s focusing more on your spouse and kids,making a bigger impact in the world in the ways that matter to you, orfinding and capturing your next really big business opportunity, and the oneafter that.

For example, at Strategic Coach® over the past 25 years, our way of thinkingand our tools have helped many entrepreneurs achieve 10x growth in theirbusinesses, some several times over. Building a largely Self-Managing Com-pany was a means to that growth in almost every case. (And having a 10xvision and 10x goals actually makes it easier to build a Self-Managing Company, which we’ll talk about in a bit.) When you’re not totally occupiedwith what’s going on in your present company, you have a lot more time andenergy to focus on building a future company that’s 10x bigger or better. And you can do it without sacrificing an exceptional quality of life.

By making their companies more self-managing, entrepreneurs in the StrategicCoach® Program have been able to free themselves up to take year-long tripsaround the world with their families, write books, summit multiple world-classpeaks, help thousands of people in less-fortunate circumstances, spend life-transforming time focused on their kids, and transform entire industries—allwhile their businesses continued to grow and thrive.

This kind of entrepreneurial freedom, where your business becomes thevehicle for the achievement of all your life’s goals, is what we’re talkingabout. It’s freedom of time, money, relationship, and purpose: having thefreedom to work only when you want, make as much money as you want,2.

work with whomever you want, and create the kind of world you want. In our experience, most entrepreneurs who achieve this give up anythoughts of retirement. In fact, the notion becomes meaningless since theycan create all the free time they want, and they get to stay in the game andevolve it so it’s continually more fascinating and motivating.

If this sounds like a pretty great life, that’s because it is. Every day, we hear from very switched-on and satisfied entrepreneurs who attest to that.

But here’s the catch:Only a certain subset of entrepreneurs have what it takes to pull this off inthe near-term—and an even smaller number within that subset ever manageto actually do it. (We’ll get into the reasons why shortly.)

The upside is that many more entrepreneurs could experience the freedomthat a Self-Managing Company provides if they’re willing to build the foun-dation. All it takes is a combination of attitudes and experience that arewithin any willing entrepreneur’s grasp.

At Strategic Coach, we’ve had a unique opportunity to observe and identifythe factors that put entrepreneurs in a position to successfully build Self-Managing Companies. Twenty-five years of working closely with more than16,000 top entrepreneurs from over 50 industries worldwide has given us apretty clear picture of how those who succeed differ from those who fail orwho are too daunted to try.

The first observation is that building a Self-Managing Company is a gradualprocess—one where every bit of progress has significant rewards. What itmeans to actually “be there” may differ from entrepreneur to entrepreneur,but simultaneously increasing freedom, income, and quality of life are thebasic objectives. Most of the entrepreneurs we speak to agree that evensmall gains in freedom can cause major improvements in their enjoyment oflife, the growth of their businesses, their peace of mind, and mental andphysical health. At 40 percent more freed up, an entrepreneur’s life mayappear completely transformed from where it was when they started. And,generally, it gets easier and more fun as they go along, mostly becausechanging habits at the beginning is the hardest part.

That said, we’ve found 5 things an entrepreneur must be absolutely clear about inorder to successfully embark on this journey to build a Self-Managing Company.

There are three types of entrepreneurs. The first is someone who’s replacedworking for someone else with working for themselves. Basically, this personhasn’t created a business; they’ve created a job. The difference between thisjob and other jobs is that it’s harder to get fired, but the hours are terrible.The main object is survival, so we call this a Survival Entrepreneur. The vastmajority of people who fall under the broad category of “entrepreneur” areself-employed survival entrepreneurs. It goes without saying that if you’re3.

Are you an achievement entrepreneur?

1.

not amassing the resources to be able to hire, you don’t have acompany, and if you don’t have a company, you can’t have aSelf-Managing Company.

The second type of entrepreneur had a particular lifestyle in mindgrowing up. This involved making a certain amount of money,having a certain kind of house in the right part of town, belongingto the right clubs, rubbing elbows with the right kind of people intheir town, and putting their kids in the right kind of schools. Theymay grow a business to achieve this, but once their income andsuccess hits the level that will give them this type of life, itbecomes about maintenance. They don’t really want to go anyfurther. We call these Lifestyle Entrepreneurs. There’s nothingwrong with being a lifestyle entrepreneur, and many people arequite content in this kind of scenario. But it doesn’t lay the bestfoundation for creating a Self-Managing Company. The reason is

that if your goals only go as far as your own lifestyle, you’re not likely toattract or harness the passions of people who will go above and beyond tomake your business grow. (More on this when we get to the next questionon vision.)

For the third kind of entrepreneur, the main goal in life is growth. When theyreach one level, they have a compelling need to say, “Okay. Let’s go to thenext level.” And the reason they do this is that it’s fun. For them, entrepre-neurship is a game, and their current success level is just the foundation forthe next set of achievements. We call this an Achievement Entrepreneur.

Achievement entrepreneurs are in the best position to create Self-ManagingCompanies. Their past achievements and the fact that they’re alwaysstriving for more mean the pie is always getting bigger in these companies,which is a big attraction for growth-minded team members who want to playthe game with them. Their biggest challenge tends to be the complexity thatgrows with success. A Self-Managing Company becomes an attractive solu-tion to regain simplicity, so building one is well worth the effort. Right now,which type of entrepreneur are you—Survival, Lifestyle, or Achievement?

You might think it would be easier to build a Self-Managing Company fromthe ground up, but in our experience, having a solid financial foundation andskill in growing a company to a certain level of success, as well as greatclientele and a strong marketplace reputation, is vital. Without a solid baseof resources, relationships, market knowledge, and a proven, functioningbusiness model, there’s just too much to do and figure out and not enoughcash coming in to get traction.

After a minimum of about three years, as long as the business is generating ahealthy six-figure income for the entrepreneur, most successful businesseshave enough momentum (and predictable cash flow) that the entrepreneurcan begin thinking about moving toward more of a Self-Managing Company.

4.

Are you experiencedenough?

2.

Survival

3 Types Of Entrepreneurs

Job

Lifestyle Status

Achievement Growth

They know what the business is and that their basic survival needs are goingto be covered, and it’s time to free themselves up to start spending more timedoing only what they’re best at to grow it. The ones who build a Self-Man-aging Company are those who see everything they’ve done up to now as“Stage 1” in their entrepreneurial career and, with that as a foundation, areready to move on to “Stage 2,” where much more becomes possible. Whatstage are you at right now?

In a Self-Managing Company, by definition, you have others doing a lot of thework and organizing, motivating, and scoring themselves toward increasinglybetter performance. How do you get people to do this on their own? Nothingsucceeds in galvanizing effort like a really big, really clear vision. We’re talkingabout the kind of vision that’s much bigger than you, that others can passion-ately get behind because it’s aligned in some way with their own personaland professional goals. And to create this, you have to be passionate andclear yourself. You are the leader, after all. In the Self-Managing Company,leadership, not management, is the entrepreneur’s focus and role. The objectis to inspire and direct and provide clarity when necessary. With a big, com-pelling vision, you unify your team in the belief that you’re creating a biggerfuture together so they can confidently focus on making sure the presentbusiness is running well and headed in the right direction. Think of it likelaying down track for a train. As long as the engineers are confident the trackwill be there and it’s going to the right place, they can do everything that’snecessary to keep the train running with very little input on your part.

At Coach, we can help entrepreneurs clarify their vision and communicate itbetter, but the big part has to come from them. Only you know what you’repassionate about. A Self-Managing Company thrives on big, ambitious goalsthat inspire others. We suggest thinking 10x—even if it’s only in a small areaor single project at first to get yourself firmly into that realm. And, just to beclear, we’re not talking altruism here. This is about creating the kind of realvalue that has never been seen before by your audience, either because it’stotally innovative or just patently superior to what else exists in that space. Inother words, you’re passionate about being a hero to a specific targetmarket by providing more direction, confidence, or capability in some area

5.

Is your vision bigenough?

3.

than they can find elsewhere. In return, they will reward you with things likemoney, referrals, trust, loyalty, a great reputation, and opportunities to furthermultiply your capabilities. This is a game worth winning for all the players,and your Self-Managing Company will be made up of people who enjoy thegame you lay out for them. Is your vision for your business currently a bitfoggy or ho-hum, or is it clear and game-changing?

When it comes to building a Self-Managing Company, rugged individualistsneed not apply. A Self-Managing Company implies letting others, to someextent, run the show (though you get to say what the show is and keep inno-vating to make it better). This can be terrifying for some entrepreneurs—soscary, in fact, that they’d rather stay stuck at a certain level of growth andsacrifice personal freedom to stay in control of things that, if they could onlystep back and see it, are not the most productive use of their time.

You may understandably be reluctant to delegate if you feel that your sup-port team or the level of teamwork in your company are not equal to your biggoals and opportunities. However, consider the alternative: feeling over-whelmed by too much opportunity, or pressured by too many demands onyour time and attention, to the point where you no longer have the strategicclarity, or the time or energy, to create the life or the business you want. Notfun. And yet too many entrepreneurs get stuck in this situation.

It’s a fact of business that success breeds complexity and that, withoutincreasing teamwork and delegation, most of this will tend to fall on theshoulders of the entrepreneur. It’s the ability to counteract this tendency thatmakes the Self-Managing Company so appealing.

And it starts with the ability and willingness to free yourself up increasingly todo what creates the biggest results in your business by letting others takewhat’s “not this” off your hands.

What’s left will be what we call yourUnique Ability®. This is where your skilland passion intersect to create max-imum value for the marketplace. It’swhere you have a superior skill and anever-ending capacity for growth andimprovement that eventually take youinto genius territory. Working in yourUnique Ability gives you energy ratherthan draining it. Think of thosemoments when you really feel “in thezone,” or things that others thank youfor that seem like nothing, because youmake something exceptional seem soeasy. That’s Unique Ability in action.Unique Ability fuels the growth of a6.

Are you willing tofocus on yourstrengths and

delegate the rest?

4.

Self-Managing Company. Identify and focus on your own and delegateeverything else, preferably to others who have a Unique Ability in thoseareas. When everyone is doing something they’re passionate about andgreat at, and you have the clear vision we talked about above as a road mapso people can see where their skills and contributions fit into the bigger pic-ture, the need for management in the traditional top-down sense falls away.

In our experience, if you insist on managing everything, you will always needto manage everything because your team will never get more capable ormore confident. In a Unique Ability® Team scenario, the team gets strongerand smarter by doing, learning, and then doing better, driven by each teammember’s passion for excellence and personal growth.

But first, take a moment to ask yourself this: How willing are you to delegateeverything except those things that energize you AND create the biggest resultsfor your business? Does the prospect of doing this excite you or frighten you?

If you answered yes to Question 1 (Are you an achievement entrepreneur?),the answer to this final question is almost certainly yes, to a certain extent.Achievement entrepreneurs like to learn and grow. The successful onesoften have multiple coaches and mastermind groups they learn from. Theymay be avid readers too.

They’re clearly willing to invest in themselves and in trying new things, andmore than anything, they’re into learning by doing. In fact, a good deal oftheir success has come by trial and error, with the attitude that failure is thepathway to success. They see obstacles to a goal as merely the raw materialthat points them toward the strategies necessary to achieve it.

Why are continual learning and growth so important? Because the ones whogo the extra mile to create Self-Managing Companies are committed not justto their own never-ending learning and growth, but to their team’s as well,and that’s a real test. Are you willing to let your team make mistakes and failin order to learn like you did? Do you trust them enough to make “progress,not perfection” a mantra, meaning that they are free to make mistakes aslong as they learn and do better next time? You may be seeing why a solidfinancial foundation and a great clientele are necessary. There has to beroom for learning.

To be fair, many of the entrepreneurs we’ve seen build Self-Managing Companies did not feel totally comfortable with this at the beginning. Butthey were open enough to the idea and bought into it enough in principle toat least experiment with it, and with results came increased confidence. Insome cases it took some time to get there, and it usually started by taking abit of free time completely cut off from the office, and then some more, andthen a LOT more. In the process, their teams learned to deal with whatevercame up without them. From this, all the other obstacles to self-managementwithin the team became evident and fixable.7.

Are you committed tonever-ending learning

and growth?

5.

The sign of success? When your team is glad to see you go so they canreally get some work done. And when you can truly disengage and feel con-fident that the business is likely to be in better shape when you come backbecause your team’s got it under control and you trust their judgment. Notthat you’re dispensable. They still want you to provide them with the big pic-ture and leadership, and do what you do best to drive the business forward.It’s just that they know you’ll do better when you’re rested and rejuvenated,and when you’re not getting distracted by micromanaging or things that arenot your Unique Ability.

In this sense, the Self-Managing Company is a feat of teamwork betweenyou and your team—one that pays off in multiples of opportunity, freedom,and increased income. The best news is, building it may be easier than youthink. Infusing your team with entrepreneurial energy means you no longerhave to shoulder all the weight of innovation and driving growth. Every bit ofprogress makes your life simpler and your results bigger, which in turn setsyou up to take advantage of even greater opportunities. Don’t worry if at thispoint, you don’t know how to do it. The question is, given that this is one ofthe magic keys to getting your company to be truly self-managing, howcommitted are you willing to be to supporting never-ending learning andgrowth as a central value for everyone in your organization?

What’s the next step?So how do you actually build a Self-Managing Company once you’ve laidthe foundation? The Strategic Coach Program helps experienced achieve-ment entrepreneurs build Self-Managing Companies by:• Increasingly freeing them up from everything that’s not their Unique Ability. • Building and strengthening an entrepreneurial attitude within their team. • Helping them develop a 10x vision and goals that clarify decisions, bringgreat people on board, and inspire and motivate team members to con-tribute the best of their talents and energy.

• Providing simple, practical structures to help team members be more self-managing so the entrepreneur can focus on leadership, innovation, andfully making use of marketing, technology, genius networks, and exponen-tials to grow the business.

Want to learn more about how this all happens?Have a look around strategiccoach.com for more about us and theStrategic Coach® Program for entrepreneurs, our Knowledge Products,free webinars to attend, client success stories … plus! And don’t missmeeting the group of Coach entrepreneurs we captured on videosharing some of their impressive wins—it’s a shot of pure energy.

Questions? Chat? Call us at 1.800.387.3206. Locally or outside North America 416.531.7399.

TM & © 2014. The Strategic Coach Inc. All rights reserved.8.