Every Business needs someone to wear the hat of the manager. This hat is the hat of responsibility and procedure. Doing things right is the motto of the manager. He gets the right stuff done at the right time in the right way. Admin, finances, forms, legal and taxes are all done in the correct order. This is often a neglected area of a small business as most owners do not wear or even own a managers hat.

To get the business in a place of sustainable growth the manager needs to visit the business and get these tasks completed. If this is not part of your skill set then outsource these to a bookkeeper, accountant and labour broker before you find yourself having to fill out forms with a lawyer. Manager people do often lack any sense of humour, marketing ability or the risk taking gene. They struggle to grow a business using any dynamic form of marketing or new concepts.

If you are looking for a manager to join up with you can often find them in phone booths adding up numbers just for fun, or drop by the queue at the SARS office, they are the people standing in the line with a smile on their face. I am married to a Manager person, there is not a day that goes by that I do not give thanks for my wife. She keeps my business on the even keel and can find a form filed years before in just a few minutes. Her filing cabinet is her friend, as are all the window envelopes that arrive each day.

Next week we look at the Share Holder Hat.