彭蒙惠英语：Indispensable? Your Biggest Business Mistake（在线收听）

Indispensable? Your Biggest Business Mistake

By Barry Flynn / © 2003, as first

appeared in The Orlando Sentinel,

Knight Ridder Newspapers.

Distributed by Tribune Media

Services International.

Working yourself out of a job may be the best thing you can do

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The biggest threat to your small business’s long-term survival may be someone you would never suspect: you!

If you’re a conscientious owner who works hard, knows every customer and attends to the tiniest detail, you may be making yourself indispensable. And nothing functions when an indispensable part is missing. So vacations, a case of the flu—even the occasional day off—all become crises.

Unending demands

The small-business owner who does everything is more like an employee than an owner, said Michael E. Gerber, author of The E-Myth Revisited. The title refers to Gerber’s belief that most small businesses are not really entrepreneurial.

Owners often get diverted from the entrepreneurial path by day-to-day demands of operating, says Gerber, who runs a Santa Rosa, California, business consultancy.

What’s wrong with that?

For one thing, the business does not function in the long run as well as it could. For another, the demands on the owner never end.

Reduce risk of failure

“Let’s say you’re running this business and you ... get hit by a car,” said Susan Carter, a Minneapolis business consultant. “Can you run it from a hospital bed?... You’re just increasing your risk [by being indispensable].” Carter’s book, How to Make Your Business Run Without You, addresses the problem. Every small business that wants to reduce its risk of failure must become less dependent on the owner, she says.

If you spend all your time doing the basic work of your company, you don’t have time to fine-tune your business or plan for the future. The ultimate advantage to reduced dependence is that the owner can spend less time working. According to Carter, the key is a system that can be a business’s guide.

Vocabulary Focus

indispensable (adj) [7indis5pensEbl] so good or important as to be essential or necessary

revisit (v) [5ri:5vizit] to consider or take up something again, such as a discussion, issue or action

in the long run (idiom) at a time that is far away in the future; in the end

fine-tune (v) [5fain5tju:n] to make very small changes to something in order to make it work as well as possible

Specialized Terms

entrepreneurial (adj) 创业精神的，企业精神的 relating to someone who starts a new business, especially one that involves risks

consultancy (n) 顾问公司 a company that gives specialist advice on a particular subject

system (n) 制度，体系 a way or method of doing things, such as managing or running a business

非你不可？企业经营的最大错误

自工作中脱身可能是你所能做的最好事情

许美鸾 译

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你的小企业长期生存的最大威胁，可能是一个让你意想不到的人：你自己。

如果你是一个认真努力的老板，工作勤奋，了解每一位顾客且事无巨细，你可能会让自己变得不可或缺。而当那不可或缺的部分不见时，就没一件事能正常运作了。所以度假、流行性感冒——即使是偶尔一天请假——都成了危机。

无止境的需求

《再论创业迷思》一书的作者麦可·E·格伯说，一个事必躬亲的小老板比较像是个员工，而非老板。格伯在此书中认为多数的小企业，并不具备创业精神。

老板们常为每日的业务琐碎需求而偏离了创业精神的途径，格伯表示。他在加州圣特塔罗沙经营一家企管顾问公司。

这样有什么不对呢？

首先，长期下来，公司会运作的不如预期；其次，对老板的需求永无止境。

降低失败风险

“假设你经营这家公司，而你……被车撞了，”明尼亚波里斯市的一位企业顾问苏珊·卡特说，“你能在医院病床上继续经营吗？当你让自己不可或缺时，你只是在增加风险。”卡特的书《如何隐形经营你的企业》，谈到这个问题。她认为，每一家想要降低失败风险的小企业必须减低对老板的依赖。

如果你把所有的时间都花在公司的基本工作上，你就没有时间规划未来或调整改善你的企业。减少依赖度的最终好处，就是老板可以花较少时间在工作上。依据卡特的说法，症结在要有一套引导企业的制度。