I build businesses for a living. Businesses that start with one or two people in a one-room office and continue to double and triple its numbers of employees. Building businesses is hard. But not because building products is hard, or finding markets is hard, or servicing customers is hard. Building businesses is hard because people are very complex–and your partners, employees and customers are people.
I find that people fall into one of two classifications: Doers, and Communicators. When you first start your business, you want Doers. Folks that will just dig in and get things done. People that are really smart, flexible and can handle any challenge.
Unfortunately, as your company grows, you need your Doers to become Communicators, and this transition is very hard for Doers. For Doers, the idea of putting concepts in writing, explaining to other people the how and why of what they are doing, of collaborating before they start building, is almost impossible.
You need your Doers to become Communicators because as you grow, the scale of tasks exceeds the capabilities of any single individual. You have too many customers, too many contributors, and too many challenges for one person to handle on their own. Instead, each team member needs to communicate with others, which fosters collaboration and is necessary for success. Building businesses is hard because you need to transform your Doers into Communicators, and at the end of the day some of your Doers will get it and some may not.
This same dichotomy applies when dealing with your customers. When you begin a relationship with a customer, they want you to be a Doer: customers are often coming to you so that you can solve a problem. As the relationship matures, they need your company to evolve from Doer to Communicator. They want to know why you’re making the decisions you’re making; what approach you’re taking; how you plan to collaborate. They want you to communicate.
And even now, in today’s online world, one of the best ways to communicate is still by making a simple phone call. To grow your business, pick up the phone and call your customers–share ideas and plans; become a better Communicator. You will be surprised at how powerful voice communication is in today’s impersonal, disconnected world of text and images.
