Businesses go through change — lots of change. Recently I was reminded of this fact when looking through the photos on our company Facebook page. Like any old photo album, it reminds you of the past: company events and holidays, past projects, old offices (we’re on our third) and especially people.
Companies and the people who lead them are always talking about how to attract talent and keep the people we hire. There’s always the next great book, white paper or webinar on the topic. We hate it when people leave and know it’s going to be expensive to replace them. In fact, we often place so much emphasis on our employees that we forget about ourselves.
Here’s the thing, though: I believe that as owners, we have to look at the bigger picture of what we want not just for our company or employees but for ourselves. What kind of company do we want to own, manage and grow? In looking at all of the people in those photos, I was reminded of a lot of great times, some bad times and depending on who was in the photo, a resistance to change.
The Vision For Your Company Is Yours, Not Theirs
Your vision for your company can change. When I first started my agency back in 2011, my vision was to help small businesses with SEO. But that changed once I saw the opportunity to build websites, provide pay-per-click management, social media, graphic design and video production services. Almost overnight, the vision changed to being a full-service marketing agency. And we hired the people needed to fulfill that vision.
Years after becoming a full-service agency, my vision changed again. I got sick of going from project to project. Feast or famine is a lousy business model, and at the end of the day, it’s the owner (in this case, me) who is responsible for paying the bills. I’d seen the managed services model with monthly billing taking off, and we had been testing such a model for our websites already. Yes, for certain services we offered, we’d been requiring monthly retainers for the work we did, but consistent growth was proving elusive. Focusing on websites would mean more security and steadier growth.
So that became my vision — focusing on websites and charging monthly for them. It seems simple enough, but it meant fundamental changes to the way we operate. We needed to sell more websites, and the best way to do that was by focusing on a specific industry. To increase the average monthly value of a client, we needed to figure out how to bundle all of the services we wanted to sell into packages. And we needed to streamline how we built websites and delivered our other services. Changing the vision meant changing the core of how we did things.
Change Can Mean Hard Choices For People
Inevitably, when you make major changes to a company, not everyone is going to be on board. That’s the situation I had to confront. It was either continue to do things the way we had been, which numerous people who had been with my agency for years wanted, or make the changes that I felt were needed and deal with the consequences. In the end, I reminded myself that it was my company, not theirs, and that I should be building what I want, not what they want.
What followed was painful but necessary. The first people to leave did so of their own accord and in quick succession. Most were long-time employees who wanted nothing to do with my new vision. A couple told me so in no uncertain terms. Others I let go because we needed to adjust our staff size and skill set. Our new model either didn’t need them or I thought that they weren’t really buying into what I wanted to do. They were just hanging around until they found something else.
When it was all finished, we ended up with a core team that two years later is almost all still together. A few have moved on to new opportunities, and new people have taken their place. But everyone believes in the direction we’re going. They’ve had to step up, learn new things and take the lead on others. My vision and the changes that were necessary turned out how I’d hoped, and I’m excited about our future.
You Are The One Constant
Remember that at the end of the day, it’s all about you. That may sound selfish, but I believe that the company you build should be based on what you want, not your employees — not just because it’s yours but because long after they’re gone, you’ll still be there.
Change will happen. People will come and go. All you can do is your best to treat the people who work for you right. Give them the pay and benefits you can afford and a comfortable work environment, and cultivate a culture that people want to be a part of. And most importantly, make clear to them the vision you have for your company.
