By Jeff C. Leffew, Founder and President
In the business world, what is focus? Is it important? Does better focus result in more success? Maybe you have asked yourself these same questions and have come to the same conclusions as I, or maybe it means something entirely different to you. Regardless of what “focus” you need to gain in your life, realize that the only way you will find it, is if you’re intentional about finding it.
As a perfectionist personality type, aka “anal-retentive,” sometimes I get caught up in trying to control every aspect of my business. Of course, this is not possible in today’s business climate. (Certainly not if you want to have more than just a self-made job!) Therefore, I realized that I need to gain more focus. I decided that I need to get rid of, or outsource my non-core, yet essential, operational functions.
This journey to excellence and better focus began with getting an outsourced or part-time controller. Thanks to Tim Garrison and his team at The Controllership Group, we have a second -to-none financial structure that we would have never gained on our own — not without an immense amount of stress and distraction from our core focus. Our next move was to outsource our marketing to Raquel Richardson and her team at Silver Square. These folks live and breathe marketing; not me, we are HR people! Let the experts shine, pay them what their worth and then capitalize on your newfound focus to capture more market share in your industry.
What are you focusing on? Certainly, the result of more focus can be more time, time to work on that “wish list” set of projects that seems to always elude you, but could have the potential to revolutionize your company for the future. More focus could mean you have the opportunity to be more intentional about what you do in your work — you know, having more days you control than they control you! Focus may mean a clearer mission and vision for your staff to embrace. Or, it can mean a clearer picture for your client prospects as they try to better understand what makes you distinctive in the marketplace. And for many, better focus might mean more time at home enjoying the truly important things in life, things we will be remembered for long after our businesses have disappeared.
At Servant HR, our tagline is “Creating Freedom to Focus.” We create this freedom by becoming a full-service outsourced human resource department for small to mid-sized companies. What we do is not rocket science, but it is essential and can yank you off the success ladder if not done right. The freedom we hope to create beyond just helping eliminate HR administration headaches is great. We free our clients from the off-the-charts stress that comes with limitless business risk. We gladly share some of that risk.
The freedom to focus concept understands that different people will value this in different ways. Some of our clients came to us because they wanted a single-source organization to manage all HR administration — eliminating their need to deal with the hassle of multiple vendors. Others were dealing with a specific need such as payroll or employee document management and now they enjoy a full-service solution. Still others bought HR administration and stay because of our HR coaching and counseling. Imagine if you had skilled HR people that understand entrepreneurship and the struggles of business, coaching you on how best to coach your staff to success, without paying extra! Many have told us that this is freedom to focus. Be sure you’re focusing on your top priorities. It’s the only way to grow.