Working Manager Vs Managing Manager

When you open up your small business, one of the questions you need to ask yourself is do you want to be a working manager or a managing manager? A lot of people start thinking, what does that mean? What and how do I benefit from this? Which way should I go? The real question is, what direction do I take the function of my managing business?

A working manager is someone who gets his or her hands in every area of the business and does everything. From meeting people, marketing, to even throwing out the trash. A managing manager is some who tell people what to do where to go and how to do it.

At the beginning of all small business, the working manager is the way to go but as your company grows a managing manager is what you end up doing. Now it depends on your business and what direction you want it to go with your small business.

I’ve seen a lot of one-person businesses grow and thrive by one person and the business is about 5 to 10 years old and that is good. But I’ve also seen small business going into a 10 person operations and that is good also.

You must and see all aspects of your business. You must look at the future of your business and see where it is going. Or you also have to think, do I keep it as a one-person operations or do I start hiring people to cover all areas of my business. Again, it depends on the nature of your business.

Example: I’ve seen a one-bake shop person go into a 15 person operations. I’ve seen a one assistance type of business stay at a one-person operation. I’ve seen a one-person business card dealer stay as a one-person operation and I’ve seen a basket making business going to a 5-person operation.

The list goes on and on, I’ve spoken to all of these business owners and they made a business decision when they had to, from going to a one-person operation to a 20 person operations.

But all of them have told me, that they started as a working manager and they let the nature of their company grow to what ever operations they needed to go.

Benefits of being a working manager, is that you control everything and you see what is going to happen and you are responsible for all of it. The benefit of a managing manager, you have staff that does it all for you and they take charge of the duty and job and you just over see what is going on.

No matter what direction you take, there is no mistake here. Only that you let the nature of business go in the direction it needs to go. When you allow that, it will flow easily and you will get it right.

The decision is yours, working manager or managing manager. Which one is your method of working with business?