Rolph Balgobin serves as executive chairman of The Quicksilver Group, a global organisation with subsidiaries operating in an array of different market segments, including education, energy and manufacturing. He is also the founder and current chairman of The Oxbridge International School. This article will look at business leadership and methods for entrepreneurs attempting to run multiple businesses simultaneously.
For existing business owners who are contemplating launching a new venture, juggling those responsibilities simultaneously may seem an impossible endeavour. Nevertheless, some of the world’s leading entrepreneurs have achieved precisely that, growing multinational business portfolios with subsidiaries operating in a diverse array of industries.
Growing and overseeing a business portfolio requires an inordinate amount of time and effort, along with adept strategic skills and strong working teams. However, with diligent work, it is possible to successfully direct multiple companies at the same time without becoming overwhelmed.
The first step to achieving this is scrupulous time management, setting aside certain hours each day to focus on one business and devoting time to each company in blocks. Picking certain times of the week for a specific company ensures that the business leader can give their undivided attention to that venture for an allotted period of time, helping them to avoid getting mixed up.
Rather than attempting to control every operational detail, effective leaders distribute duties across trustworthy teams, investing significantly in building strong management teams for each company. Delegating leadership duties to reliable employees and trusted partners frees up the entrepreneur’s time for strategic tasks. In terms of achieving this, putting in place clear organisational structures and establishing cross-team communication channels can go a long way towards ensuring organisation-wide understanding and alignment with the business’s core objectives.
Any business is only as good as its people. Great business leaders focus on hiring the best employees for each open role, finding capable individuals with the right skills. In a digital world, it is increasingly important for businesses to secure tech-savvy talent capable of deploying advanced tools and techniques to help the venture keep ahead of the curve. Recruiting freelancers or outsourcing to virtual assistants can be an effective means of enlisting support for businesses that are not yet at a stage where it is viable to hire full-time team members.
Owners of multiple businesses need to prioritise ruthlessly, creating a set of goals for each business – mapping this out every quarter – and using them to guide daily and weekly priorities. For business owners, it is easy to become mired in minor operational aspects, losing sight of the bigger picture. The ability to distinguish between genuine emergences and issues that can wait is integral to avoiding burnout. Where similar tasks crop up across multiple ventures – whether its content-planning sessions or a round of contract reviews – tackling these simultaneously can help maximise efficiency.
Organisation is the thread that holds businesses together. It is therefore important for business owners to keep files, workflows and communication in order for each venture, helping them to save wasted hours hunting for lost data or correspondence. Documenting processes and providing clear operations manuals empowers teams, simplifying everything from employee onboarding to scaling the business. Simply spending 30 minutes per week decluttering and clearing inboxes can save hours of wasted time in the long run.
For businesses of all sizes today, data holds incredible value, helping leaders to determine the best way forward and identify what is working and areas ripe for improvement. Insights gleaned through data analytics helps businesses to not only improve their products and marketing techniques but also boost customer engagement and retention. In the current climate, customer relationship management is essential, particularly for leaders running multiple businesses. Customer relationship management systems have become an increasingly popular means of tracking everything from sales leads to marketing campaigns and customer service issues, eliminating the need to rely on guesswork when making important business decisions.
