The common notion is people think it’s hella nice being CEO. Yes there’s a ton of benefits and upsides to being top-dog but you’re also the one who has to take on everyone’s biggest and most pressing problems in the team.
In earlier times in history, people would elect chieftains of their tribes. These chieftains would get many benefits and perks such as the best food, their first pick of where to pitch their tent on, their first pick of women, and so on. But when it comes to trouble and war, they are also the first life on line to face the problem or the enemy.
I have been CEO of SEO Hacker for 12 years. I founded it and I’ve been running it. It’s a colossal blessing to my life and God has used SEO Hacker to bless me and my family and perhaps many others who was inspired by SEO Hacker’s founding history and growth.
Every year we have always seen a healthy, steady growth except for 2020 when the pandemic hit. We shrank by a tiny bit in gross revenue but we maintained our team size in spite of. This is because our people – the team – is very important to us.
However when 2021 hit, we have experienced hypergrowth in the beginning of the 3rd quarter and it has continued on to this year. There was a bit of a bump when January came and we had the Omicron spike but after that, the hypergrowth resumed.
This is a season of amazing blessings from the Lord. However there is one problem that is left unsolved today and this problem plagues a lot of organizations as well. Hiring.
You see, the pandemic has brought about different realizations and habits in the job market. Foreign organizations have started hiring here in the Philippines as well. The thing is, us Filipinos have a very weak sense of patriotism and would rather serve foreign owned companies than see our own nation grow and prosper by supporting local businesses.
This is a sad reality but one we have to deal with nonetheless.
The saddest part about this is, we love our team and we hate to see our team carry heavier burdens because some past employees left them to fend for themselves. Their burdens are my burdens. And the burdens get heavier and heavier for me as the CEO.
We gave our best and sacrificed for all of our people during the pandemic and yet some of them repaid us by burning bridges and leaving abruptly – or leaving dishonorably. It hurts when these things happen. It’s tough too. But if it was easy running a business, everyone would be running one successfully by now, wouldn’t they?
Talking with some friends who are also mid-sized business owners, I quickly realized that the burdens we are all facing are somewhere of the same gravity. Some are carrying even heavier burdens than I am.
The pandemic has stretched us immensely – starting with people getting sick and having to help them through goodwill, having to provide and pay for our people’s safety by putting effective work from home systems in place in spite of having to pay for and maintain the office, having to provide for our people and their family’s sustenance because the government would not provide any, having to take out of our safety net to provide for our people’s salaries even if clients were not paying up, having to provide and come up with ways for the people in the team to still have time for and be in touch with each other, having to strategize and think of ways to be able to stabilize the ways of working, the collections and receivables from clients, the general overall mental health of the team, and the list goes on and on.
I don’t think that any of our people in the team and past employees realize this. I don’t think they even give any thought to all of this. It is the burden of the CEO.
And I have to carry it.
I thank God that He is sovereign and that He says in the Bible that I should cast all my cares upon Him.
“Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.” – 1 Peter 5:7
I don’t have to carry it alone in my spirit even if I have to carry it alone in my organization.
God will carry it for me. Once again I am at Jesus’ feet and mercy. And once again, He will see me through. Thank you Lord!
