This will shock many people but you know how we do it here at CEO Warrior: while the rest of the world goes in one direction, we go in another.
Let’s talk about your business and how exciting it is.
The thing is: people want an exciting business. Just go online and you’ll hear from business experts all the time who talk about the challenge of running a business, or how hard you need to hustle, or how being a business owner is like living on the edge of your seat.
And it’s true that there are times when that’s going to be the case. Maybe you show up to work and find out that one of your trucks was vandalized. Or maybe a major storm moves into your area and suddenly it’s “all hands on deck” as your team scrambles to serve everyone. So, there can be really exciting moments in running a business.
But guess what: your goal should not be an exciting business. Your goal should be a boring business.
Here’s why…
A boring business is one where people know what is expected of them and they do it.
A boring business doesn’t need you making massive decisions daily.
A boring business shouldn’t be about putting out constant fires.
A boring business is a predictable one: where you wake up each day and have a pretty good idea what your business will be like that day—what the numbers will be, what challenges will occur, what opportunities will present themselves, and where each of your people are going to be.
A boring business is one that runs itself, allowing you to stop dealing with the day-to-day nonsense that tends to hijack your to-do list, and allows you to hand off that day-to-day work to your team while you spend more strategic time doing “Warrior Work”.
(Not sure what “Warrior Work” is? Well, there’s 2 kinds of work: “Warrior Work” which is the work that a business owner should be doing. This is where the business-growing magic happens. There’s also “Mule Work” which is still important work to be done but it shouldn’t be done by the owner; it should be handed off to others. We talk about this at Service Business Edge, and people tell us often that it’s one of the most valuable takeaways they have!)
Back when Rob and I owned our service business, we wanted to grow it but we knew that we needed to stop dealing with the day-to-day work of running our service business in order to do the Warrior Work we needed to do. So we built a boring business—a predictable business—that could be run by someone else with no surprises, which even allowed us to actually stop having offices at our headquarters!
The boring business gave us the space to focus on bigger strategic thinking. The bigger strategic thinking led to massive growth. The massive growth led to an industry-record-breaking sale of the business.
And it all started with us trying to get the most boring business we could.
Even if you don’t want to sell your business right now, and even if you’re still skeptical about whether a boring business is the right business to own, consider this: what kind of family time do you want? Do you want to have family time late in the evening where you get home stressed and worried about the crazy day and the unexpected things that happened? Or do you want a boring business that lets you get home earlier so you can spend more time with your family?
BOOM. Right there is the number one reason why you want to have a boring business.
I’m not saying you should have a boring life. Go out to the shooting range or buy yourself a sports car if you want excitement. But when it comes to your business. Boring is better.
Here’s a little test for you to do for yourself:
Before the day starts, just jot down in bullet points a few notes about what will happen that day, how much money you’re going to make, and what each of your team is going to do. Then at the end of the day review that list. How accurate were you? What unexpected things came up during the day that weren’t on your list?
