The E-Myth trilogy concludes: Part III

Before I launch into the timeline below, I want to offer the disclaimer that it is completely from my own limited perspective.  As I typed it out, I noticed I was focusing on the things I personally did and the changes I personally tried to enact.  Looking back now, I see that this "heroic technician" attitude is symptomatic of an organization in its infancy, trying to graduate to adolescence.  I tried to take everything on myself.  Albeit I did work with others in the organization, and I sought counsel from my mentors, but largely I took action independently, trying to "save" the school.  Too many business-starters or school-starters make the mistake of doing it all on their own.  I was being a statistic.


Cloverleaf's timeline on our journey from infancy to adolescence:

• May 2013.  I left off in my last blog with the proposal naming one of our founding parents as interim executive director-- an attempt to fill the hole in the "manager" role that our organization lacked.  She was willing to serve in the most "managerial" role in the school, yet we brought her in knowing her background was in higher education, not management.  She had been a professor, and her ability to run the school as a strong manager was limited.  But she was the best we had at the time, and we were desperate.  She was willing to lead the school on a volunteer basis for the 2013-14 school year as long as the school worked toward paying her a salary in the 2014-15 school year.
  
  
• October 2013.  Role tensions and management gaps remained.  I approached the executive director about a promotion from teacher to "lead teacher," taking on scheduling, meeting facilitation, and most of HR (including navigating employee grievances).
  
  
• February 2014.  I pitched a new org chart to the board that would allow the educational director and I to split time, half in the classroom and half in administration.  I would shadow the executive director to learn the role with the intent of taking it over for the 2015-16 school year.
  
  
• August 2015.  I took over as executive director & renamed the role executive director & principal to better capture all it entails.  Over the course of the next few months I unearthed a series of managerial mistakes from the past: an employee was never issued a contract and subsequently quit with no notice, leaving us understaffed.  The bookkeeper had embezzled $4500 from us, and our accountant didn't catch it in his audit.  My own insurance benefits had never been submitted to payroll, so I owed the school $1200 in backed payments that I didn't know about.  Our renovations team was less familiar with county code than they had indicated, resulting in a 5-month delay on our school move and a 3-fold cost increase.
  
  
• January 2016.  By this point, we had remedied most setbacks.  We hired a new support teacher, new bookkeeper, and new accountant.  We straightened out employee benefits and our financial books.  We fundraised over $100,000.  We made it through the extended renovation project (including an extended stay at our old location that was falling apart, a 4-week stay at a temporary location, 2 "homeless" days of fieldtrips, and a flood on day 1 at the new space).
  
  
• February 2016.  I called an emergency board meeting because the school was running out of money, and the staff was exhausted after the many trials.  The board treasurer and I worked together on an in-depth financial analysis to identify exactly what moneys we'd need when.  We identified our fundraising targets to be $11,000 by the end of April, $42,000 by the end of May, and $38,000 by the end of June.
  
  
• March 2016.  The business coordinator & I met with our fundraising consultant to plan a course of action.  She helped us weave this year's fundraising needs into a bigger picture of a 5-year campaign to build out and purchase our building.  The board and I called a whole school meeting to celebrate our fundraising progress and spotlight our remaining fundraising needs.  It was a call to action for 100% community participation.
  
  
• As of today, the renovations are behind us, the books are straightened out, all current staff have committed to return next year, and morale is finally beginning to slowly rise again.  We weathered the storm.  We still have fundraising goals remaining, but at least that's one large hurdle to cross instead of multiple simultaneously.  I had a free call with an E-Myth business coach last week, and I'm planning to write a grant to afford a year of working with her to systemize everything we do.  I want to move on after next school year, and working with a specialist to fully systemize and document our program will allow me to leave the organization in a healthy and stable place.
  
  

I learned to become the manager persona that the school needed, through trial by fire and sheer necessity.  I also learned it is not who I want to be.  My talents lie in the entrepreneur and technician arenas, and I'm ready to begin finding a place where I can work in my areas of talent and passion rather than in an area of necessity.  Being who others need me to be rather than who I feel I am meant to be is exhausting and draining.  It is time to set a change in motion.

Thanks for sticking with me through this three-part blog series, I know it was lengthy and detailed.  It was helpful to gather my thoughts about where our organization has been, where we are, and where we are going (which will soon be down separate paths).  Hopefully I'm not the only one who gained something or learned something from this blog journey.  :)  Thank you!