3
OPINION
Letting go as your grow
L ike many small businesses, my firm, Eclipse Engineering, started as an entrepreneurial company with talented engineers who possessed the ambition and skills to provide engineering services. During those early years, we shared the tasks required to run and operate a small business while outsourcing the heavier responsibilities. This exercise empowers employees and provides clear direction, allowing leadership to let go and focus on success during periods of growth.
Rolf Armstrong, P.E., S.E.
It wasn’t long before schedules filled up with a healthy backlog of work and we felt the next natural step was to hire more engineers to share the workload. Making that first hire introduced new elements of business: recruiting, interviewing, human resources, and management. We often found ourselves with a second job when tasks included committing time for interviews, developing employee review processes, building compensation packages and benefits, and handling employee conflicts. As we gained exposure in our market and broadened our client base, workloads became busier, schedule outlooks were extended, and we faced these options: 1. Work more hours. Typically, the first action item taken by small business owners, and effective for a limited time before burnout sets in.
2. Turn away work. This one sounds easy, but it was nearly impossible to ignore our competitive entrepreneurial spirit and we routinely chased down every opportunity. 3. Hire new employees. This was the natural choice to ease immediate pain, but it required a growth plan and the ability to let go. We decided to add employees, which required us to let go of the hiring process. As we onboarded hires, we were reminded that our new employees brought a wide range of skills, backgrounds, and educational experiences thus engaging us in the business of employee management. When schedules are full, projects need to get done, clients are frustrated, teams are waiting
See ROLF ARMSTRONG, page 4
THE ZWEIG LETTER APRIL 15, 2024, ISSUE 1533
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker