Many small business owners are involved with their business on three different levels. Many are concurrently involved as employee, director and shareholder and all of these roles have very distinct responsibilities. In some cases, the lines between these roles can be blurred and this is a common cause of business problems and a lack of progression.

Being a director is an important responsibility. One of the most significant duties of a director is to ‘always act in the best interests of the company’. Quite often, business owners don’t make decisions that are in the best interest of the company because making that decision will affect them as an employee and/or as a shareholder.

If you look at any successful business, you’ll notice that the people who started it will generally hire people that are more skilled than them in specific areas. Some people don’t operate in this way and other business owners simply can’t or won’t admit that they are not skilled, experienced or distanced enough from the business to make the best decisions. Most successful business owners are accustomed to making decisions that put them as shareholders at risk.

As business owners, it’s important that we understand how to respond in each situation given our responsibilities as directors, shareholders and employees. The business must always come first even if it means that the shareholders have to suffer in the short term. The next time you make a business decision, ask yourself if it was in the best interest of the business. If you look after the business first, the shareholders and employees will benefit in the long term.