Useful tips for hands-on leadership:

• Lead from the front. Always be there when you are needed, irrespective of time and place.
• Be there. A successful business can slip when an owner is not there at least part of every day, keeping in touch with how things are going.
• Set an example for working hard.
• Don’t confuse “hands-on” managing with micro-management. Set objectives and offer guidance, but don’t make employees do every little thing your way. Gauge what they do by the results.
• Understand your business down to the last detail.
• Stay in touch with “stakeholders”—including customers, employees and suppliers.