Mickey Mouse Training

It isn’t easy to do, either, for many reasons. For one, pride: You’re performing a job you’ve mastered. You’re the best in the company at it, and you want to remain the best. And you don’t want anyone to screw up and give you a bad reputation.

Money can also be an issue. Why should I pay someone else to do the job I can do so well, and have them take away from my income?

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That particular bit of reasoning can also hurt your expansion plans and tie you up doing menial tasks for way too long – as well as hinder your company’s growth because maybe, just maybe, someone else could do it better and faster, which can be a real blow to the ego (and also miss out on more profits through better production).

Close to a decade ago, when I still had a janitorial company and was becoming a known entity in the stone trade, the Canadian government “encouraged” me into paying all my sub-contractors as employees. Up to that point, I could easily handle payroll on my own and had a system for Accounts Payable and Receivable that was working and simple.

It was at that time that I looked at hiring a bookkeeper to handle my accounts, payroll and make sure that Uncle Jean (the Canadian version of Uncle Sam) got his more-than-fair share. Now, I must say that Mom (yes, my mother) didn’t do things, well, my way.

Did she keep it as simple as I had in the past? Not at all. Did she keep Uncle Jean happy? Sometimes. Did she pay our suppliers like I used to? Nope! Was she as good at collecting as I had been? No way – no how!

But, considering how the business was growing, could I have done it all on my own? Not in the slightest!

Did she eventually get it right? Well … she quit to go work for my brother (who says there’s no such thing as karma) and helped us hire Jane. I say “us,” because Greg had stepped into the company to take over the janitorial operations, as I focused on stone (more in a minute).