37. Peter Drucker in his own words interpreted for small business part 9

Peter Drucker’s three questions – although starting with ‘what is our business?’ are essentially externally focused on the customer, how they see your business and what they value. But Drucker also looks a lot at the internal process in terms of releasing the capabilities of people and focusing talents on where they are best employed.

This applies as much to small companies and one-man bands as it does to large corporations – indeed you could argue that poor staff management or poor management of your own time has a bigger impact on a small business than a large. And at least in a large enterprise there is some excuse on the sheer difficulty of communicating to all staff through layers of management. There is not really any justification for staff in a small business not fully understanding the message and impression the owner wants to give. Yet from small shops to telephone answering, how often is the impression given at odds with the message of the business?

With your own time it is even more important to focus on where you make the difference, and to make sure you delegate or outsource what you are not good at – or those tasks that you dislike so much that they sap the energy you can apply to more productive jobs.