Although the prospect of owning multiple businesses is certainly an attractive one to many prospective entrepreneurs out there, there’s no getting away from the fact that it’s an almighty juggling act–particularly when your endeavours span multiple industries.

The aspect of scaling, managing processes, and hiring talent across different sectors can be a profoundly difficult challenge, but by taking certain measures it’s possible to become a success whilst leading highly-functional teams.

As we can see from recent data published by Gartner, matters of growth remain the top priority area for CEOs in 2023, while areas relating to workforce have risen dramatically up the list of priorities in recent years.

Securing growth and managing a productive workforce are key areas for entrepreneurs to manage when controlling multiple businesses across different industries, but there are five techniques that can help to ease the burden when it comes to managing different endeavours.

Let’s take a deeper look at some of the most effective ways to manage multiple businesses across different sectors:

Consolidating Aspects Which are Common To All Businesses

Here, the first thing to note is that this can be a difficult technique to master at first. For multiple businesses that aren’t in the same niche, some processes are impossible to combine–but you may be surprised at how easy it is to bring endeavours together across many different areas.

This streamlining process can help entrepreneurs to oversee processes like the creation of business plans, marketing and sales initiatives, utilising the same online tools like Slack and Monday, and combining the same analytical platforms can help you to remain in control of your businesses without having to feel like you’re juggling different tasks.

Take the time to analyse the businesses that you operate, and explore their respective processes to see what can be streamlined. To keep on top of this, look at the similarities that your companies share. When it comes to matters relating to pay and HR, much of these actions can be undertaken across multiple businesses. This could include sharing personnel who perform functions such as: administration, financial control logistics, which are needed in all businesses.

Create an Efficient Legal Structure

One popular approach for keeping multiple businesses together under one umbrella is to create separate LLCs or corporations and place them all within a holding company. This technique is a common one among businesses that are ultimately looking to be acquired, but they can also help entrepreneurs to better monitor their respective companies.

However, one thing to keep in mind is that establishing a holding company can be a complicated and costly process which also impacts your taxation. With this in mind, entrepreneurs should always consult an accountant or lawyer before taking this approach in combining multiple businesses to gain a stronger insight into whether this is the right option to take.

Hiring the Right Team has Never Been More Important

You may be heavily dependent on your own visions for your company, but it’s not worth much if you’re unable to set your ideas in motion. Many of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs rely on building highly skilled teams to oversee their different businesses at the same time.

Rather than attempting to conquer the world all by yourself, set about building the ideal team to help manage the day-to-day challenges that your businesses will face. To do this, you’ll need to look for the right soft skills, as well as the best levels of experience to allow staff to hit the ground running.

By seeking out determined individuals who are communicative, collaborative, and ready to solve problems, you can actively lighten your own workloads.

Once you’ve found employees with the right skills to suit your needs, set up clear work processes so each team member is aware of their daily tasks and what specifically they’re required to complete as part of their job role.

It’s also imperative that you create a solid learning environment that helps your teams to continue developing and enhancing their knowledge sets and skills. This requires you dedicating more time to sharing your expertise by being more flexible with how you approach your processes–whilst also maintaining sufficient boundaries between yourself and your staff.

Create an Efficient Reporting System

When managing multiple different companies, it is worth setting up a running to-do list of every action that needs to be completed each day, with every item flagged based on their priority levels.

Before each new day, either in the evening or morning, be sure to revise your plans based on the level of priorities that you’ve set up and make adjustments wherever needed. When you’re looking after multiple businesses, plans can change very quickly. Be sure to continually keep ahead of the curve by making the necessary adjustments to ensure that your attention is allocated to where it needs to be in good time.

Create a mechanism of report from each business that gives you the essential information you need to be on top of the important issues.

Avoid the Temptation of Micro-Managing Everyone

Although you’re managing your businesses, it’s important to avoid burning yourself out by attempting to become the CEO, MD, and Chairman of all of your endeavours. Although this gives you comprehensive control over your processes, it’s a sure fire way to burn yourself out on the job.

Always remember where your strengths lie and avoid spreading yourself across different roles just to maintain your vision for your company. You may be an expert in terms of how you want your business to grow, but this doesn’t mean that you’re the only person who can guide your venture.

Here, it’s important to build a network of experts who you can trust, and who can become leading voices in your company. Every good endeavour deserves to be given the care and attention it needs to continue to grow, and you can help to make this happen by knowing what you should and shouldn’t be managing on a day-to-day basis.

By continuing to manage your commitments based on their priority levels, and by installing a strong, skilled, and determined workforce to support you, it’s possible to manage multiple successful businesses and scale them accordingly.

However, it’s also important to listen to your body, and to understand when you’re attempting to do too much. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the demands of managing different ventures, always remember that you can delegate tasks to your skilled team at any time.