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The general manager being the owner or partner in his/her business/company can result in both a positive or a negative impact as there may be limited development options for them. Managing your business while being an owner may give you in depth insight, understanding the needs and getting a clearer sense of where the business is headed. Provided, if the right resources, tools and networks are available and utilized properly it may elevate your business towards profitability due to personal involvement and vested interest in the business.
Yet the owners should they chose to act as general manager themselves may not have the ability to analyze and fine-tune their business due to lack of expertise and experience. It would be a huge challenge to overcome financial, personal, work life barriers towards business development and enhancement.
Success however may be fuelled and driven by the hiring of a well-accomplished, experienced and skilled individual to lead as general manager. Professionals backed by such expertise are usually focused towards abiding by an industry-accepted code of ethics and professional conduct and are determined to develop business credibility as well as boosting their own.
For an owner who've decided on managing their own business, the challenges have just begin which revolve around certain factors as such: Marketing, Finance, People, Your Time, Growth etc.
Business Growth is primarily dependant on Marketing as it encompasses everything from Customer Attraction and Persuasion, to product buying, advertising, PR, sales etc. Allocation and utilization of funds and finance is the key factor in making or breaking a company. The right management tools are needed to be used for the right things at the right time.
With business expansion, the owner would require hiring of the right personnel to help with operations and step in the shoes of other organizational goals. From outsourcing to hiring full time employees, effective HR management skills are essential.
Time management may be very notoriously hectic for the business owners trying to manage their own company. There are only24 hours a day,7 days a week,52 weeks a year and that time is needed to be balanced out and distributed between one's personal life/self needs and business. Having an expert general manager can work in the form of having an ally, thus reducing load and pressure and allowing you breathing room and space to monitor and regulate from a distance. Time is quite essentially the most vital resource.
It may be very hard for the founder/owner to relinquish their control of their business/company to a professional manager and assume the risks of their business.
The key answer just might be in forming a strategic partnership and alliance with a professional manager as the adequate needs of the business would be divided between them where both of them would have equal vested interests in the smooth growth and success of the business and its management.
Partnerships present their own challenges, However that is a story for another time. :)
