As a business owner, it is very tempting to oversee every aspect of your business and ensure nothing is completed without your sign off.
When you start a business from scratch, particularly as a one-man band, that’s fine. But as you grow, that approach will hinder your growth.
In fact, if your plan is to sell your business one day, having a business model hinging around you, will significantly cap the company’s value. Unless, of course, you’re planning to go and work for the new owner!
Having this approach is also detrimental to the growth of your team. Meddling and micro managing your people will seriously de-motivate them. Eventually, they will be reluctant to ever make a decision without deferring to you. Within your own business you can imagine the ramifications of this – poor customer service, quality control challenges, supplier problems, systems issues, to name a few.
Potentially, you are signing up to a huge queue of people at your office door waiting for your decision, or for you to roll up your sleeves and get stuck in.
Typically, business owners who insist on doing it all, find it almost impossible to have any downtime. When they are away from the office they are constantly connected to email, and unable to relax.
If they do take holidays, they cannot switch off, and are answering emails and making phone calls continuously. Not only is this counterproductive, it is hugely distressing for the whole family.
Needless to say, having this high pressured never off lifestyle can take its toll on your health too. Stress is renowned for being the cause of many very serious health conditions including heart attacks and strokes.
I don’t need to point out the irony of this – ill health can force you to step back. But your staff may struggle without you there, having used you as the sole decision maker and “doer” for so long.
How do you step away from this hamster wheel?
You recruit the very best people. It’s sound simple but it is true. You need to find the right people for the business, not carbon copies of you. A team you can trust, who have the skills your business needs.
And you support that, with robust processes and procedures. Document how things should be done in every area of the business. That way nobody can be unsure of the right way to do something, or the appropriate decision.
Outsourcing key activities such as accountancy, marketing and HR can also be really effective. You buy the services of highly trained and experienced professionals, when you need them, not as a full time overhead for the business.
Rest assured, continuing to do it all yourself is not a healthy option for you or your business.