Are you being the CEO your business needs? All businesses need someone at the helm to help steer the business in the right direction and ensure it has the right team, strategy and plan in place to achieve the goals you want.

But it isn’t always easy being a CEO, especially if you’re used to working alone. Many small business owners struggle to take that step up and go from being a one-man-band to a fully-fledged business. You’re so used to making plans and doing all that’s needed to achieve them on your own.

And that will work for a while, especially if you don’t have big plans for your business. However, if you’re looking to make a decent full-time income from your work or even hit a 6 or 7-figure income level, you need to be able to step into that CEO role.

So if you’re wondering how exactly you can do that, here are some pointers that will help.

Stop trying to do everything yourself

The CEO your business needs is someone who knows where their own strengths lie. They don’t spend valuable time working on any task that isn’t within their zone of genius or doesn’t directly need their input.

This is the step that often trips business owners up, as it can be a really difficult habit to stop! It can easily lead to micromanaging others and struggling to outsource. But if you want to be a CEO, you need to stop doing it all yourself and start delegating and outsourcing everything but the essentials from your task list.

Spend time working on your business, not just in it

As CEO, it’s your role to get clear on the financial goals of your business, as well as the strategic plans it needs, to improve operational performance. It’s about you working on your business, not just on it. You need to be able to get organised and get stuff done as a business owner whilst also giving yourself the space and time to work on the strategic plans for your business too.

Give yourself the time and space to visualise and plan

Every business needs a big vision person, the person who can dream big and see the possibilities. And that needs to be someone who can step into the CEO role – ideally, that needs to be you! As the CEO, your business requires you to be the visionary it needs to help set its course and steer it in the right direction.

You can always hire an Online Business Manager to be the practical implementer and manage the day-to-day operations within your business. That then frees you up to work in your zone of genius and also spend time working on your business, not just in it!

Have the right team in place to support you and your business

As mentioned above, an OBM can become an essential part of your team. Because all good CEO’s and all good business owners know they can’t do it alone. They know that, in order to have the space to plan, visualise and dream, they may need to grow a team that is bigger than just them and a VA.

It’s also essential that you learn how to be a good leader, managing others and delegating tasks as needed. A good team will give you the proper support and help give your business the best possible chance of success.

The CEO steers the business in the direction it needs to go

Because it’s the CEO’s role to steer the business forward. The CEO is the main person who strategises and plans, helping their team and their business to reach goals set and achieve maximum performance.

As the CEO, you get to decide on the company ethics and standards and ensure everyone is adhering to them. Bottom line, it’s down to you to ensure you’re building your business on the right foundations and making your business as healthy and profitable as possible.

If you need a little help taking the helm of your business and getting everything organised and under control, we have a programme that will help. The Getting Organised Programme covers everything you need to put you in control of the critical areas of your business, so you’re running your business (and not the other way around!). It helps you to create the business you love on the solid foundations it needs. You can find more about the Getting Organised Programme here.