Clay Mathile - Run Your Business, Dont Let It Run You: Learning and Living Professional Management

RUN YOUR BUSINESS, DONT LET IT RUN YOU

L EARNING AND L IVING P ROFESSIONAL M ANAGEMENT

C LAY M ATHILE

Run Your Business, Dont Let It Run You

Copyright 2013 by Clay Mathile
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First Edition
Paperback print edition ISBN 978-1-60994-895-5
PDF e-book ISBN 978-1-60994-899-3
IDPF e-book ISBN 978-1-60994-897-9

2013-1

Interior design: Laura Lind Design. Copy editor: Elissa Rabellino. Cover
design: Richard Adelson. Proofreader: Henrietta Bensussen. Author photo:
Pianki Photography. Indexer: Stimson Indexing. Production: Linda Jupiter
Productions.

This book is dedicated to my heroesbusiness owners, whose noble acts of placing their personal capital at risk and creating jobs raise the quality of life for all.

Dream no little dreams for they have no magic to move mens souls.

J OHANN W OLFGANG VON G OETHE

The greatest myth about running your own business is that you have to do it by yourself. Coupled with the belief that all it takes to succeed is a fierce desire for independence and the willingness to work hard, this myth motivates many of us to roll up our sleeves and do whatever it takes. We focus on the tasks at hand. Were diligent, and we dont give up until the work is done. Sometimes it almost seems easy, taking on its own momentum. From all the effort and dedication, you start seeing results; suddenly youve got the business growing.

Maybe its grown fast and youre losing confidence that you can keep handling the pace. As it gets harder, you dig in, keep doing the same thing youve always done, muscle your way through. But after a while, thats not enough. You are hitting a wall, or maybe you can see that wall coming. You have an indication or intuition that theres some danger ahead of losing key employees, customers, or vendors, and it feels as if there are other problems on the horizon. You realize that what got you and your business to this level of growth and success wont get you to the next levels. Thats disconcerting, to say the least. Something has to shift. You keep thinking that theres got to be a better way.

Your intuition is right. There is a better way, and something does have to shift. It begins with your mind-setyour intentional choice to work on your business, not in your business. That may be an unfamiliar construct that you cant fathom right now, but it is the key shift. And like turning the right key to open a door, it will help you to forge a new path on which you will set a course for your company and regain the freedom, confidence, and control that you may have felt slip away.

This book introduces Ailerons Professional Management System for applying and maintaining professional management in your business in a way that works for you. Aileron is a nonprofit organization created to help privately held businesses grow. Professional management is a well-known, established approach of employing proven fundamentals in the running of a business. It is not hiring an outside company to run it. It is learning how to incorporate proven fundamentalsprinciples and processesinto the everyday workings of your enterprise and applying them to achieve your goals.

Ailerons Professional Management System is based on the principles of professional management as explained by many thought leaders. What distinguishes it is the DOC (Direction, Operation, Control) structure. It simplifies professional management and makes it practical for private businesses. This book is for you, the business owner, unsatisfied with the status quo and eager to better your business, to learn a new way to grow your company. And it is for your teamsenior leaders, managers, advisors, and even your family. Our experience is that although you will be the champion of the process, you will want to get the early buy-in of everyone.

Each private business owner has a unique perspective and specific needs. To make it feasible to incorporate professional management, I think each business and each owner needs to start right where you are, identifying a place to apply it in a way that works for you and in a way that solves a problem as soon as possible. There is no one-size-fits-all way to do it. The principles provide a framework, and you adapt that framework as you implement professional management in your business and your life. If you choose to adopt this approach to running your business, I believe that it will be more profitable and successful, and you will have discovered a way to run a sustainable business, just as I did with The Iams Company for many years.

Throughout the book you will meet real business owners, many of them Aileron clients implementing professional management. In our interviews with them, they shared stories of the challenges and fears they faced, as well as the learning, discoveries, and successes they experienced. Their stories wont be exactly like yours, but I think that you will see yourself and your own companys challenges in many of them. They are here because I think it helps to know that you are not alone. There are business owners all around the country who share your heartfelt aspiration for building a successful business that stands for something, and they share your struggles. They understand what you are going throughthe real problems you face, your desire to grow your business, the risks you are taking, and the fears you are feeling. They have made the shift, and they are developing vibrant, sustainable businesses through the learning, awareness, capacity-building processes, tools, and support of professional management. Their stories exemplify the ways they have incorporated this system into their companies and the difference it has made in their lives, as well as the lives of their employees, families, and communities. You will meet people like these: