Building Trust as New Owner of a $3m Business

It doesn't matter who you are. That attitude was there, but it wasn't showing. And because I was not familiar with the cultures of the people we employ I didn't know how to get through to them and crack through.

And the managers that we elevated, they were of that background. So they explained me how it works in their cultures and what is acceptable, what is not acceptable, how they think. And so I started changing my thought process to think like them.

Yeah. How fascinating. Yeah. Shifting gears a little bit, but still on your operations, the you've been working, you know, you said, first in, last out, Philo, and you.

So you're working and, you know, actually doing the work and going out with the crews and so on. So you're working very in the business. Part of that was, as you just finished explaining that that was kind of building camaraderie with your team.

Yes. But also, also I will assume that part of it was like you, that's just. You were just doing work that needed to get done. Where I'm going with this is how do you think about your ability to work on versus in this business?

And. Yeah. And can the business survive without a super, super active owner? That whole question, which is of course a very central one in so many. And a great question, by the way, I kept.

I keep thinking about it all the time. You know, I didn't buy the business to be kind of working like. Like this.

Right. So I bought it to grow it. And if I'm not paying attention to the strategy of the business or the growth factors of the business or other elements of the business which are more managerial in nature, are basically saying we're not working on the business, then I'm not leading towards that goal. But what the way I thought about.

It and convinced myself is that first six months I got, I gotta slow things down a little bit. I gotta make sure that I am first comfortable with the business itself and sustain it before I start thinking about growth levers and things like that. And the way for me to do that is build that connection with my team first and foremost.

That obviously doesn't come overnight. People don't start trusting you just because now, one fine morning, you are their boss. So you need to build that trust in them.

And for me to do that, I needed to give that time to it, which I did. And obviously you're right that there were operational needs as well, that I was fulfilling at the time. But it has come down to a.