Making your own business less dependent on you means making sure fewer day-to-day tasks, decisions and customer relationships rely on you personally.
This looks like delegating work, systemising key processes, automating repetitive tasks, and giving your team clear responsibility and accountability.
But how do you actually make this happen – without losing control? Before we show you how, let’s start with why stepping back can be so difficult.
The irony of business owner freedom
People go into business for many reasons. Becoming their own boss, monetising a passion, financial freedom, and enjoying greater work-life flexibility. But you soon realise the irony of the latter!
Running a small business can be relentless. Balance – what balance? In between doing the work, answering the questions and solving the problems, that extra time never comes. You have long hours and less time.
This can leave you stuck. You don’t have time to work on the business, only in it. So new business ideas and improvements don’t happen. Growth becomes harder. And those days off and holidays you wanted are shelved.
See also: Aligning business and personal goals for success
What’s holding you back?
In recent research by BizCover, nearly a third of business owners say they have never taken a single full week off work while running their business.
This just shows how difficult we find it as business owners to step away from our responsibilities, even temporarily. Why is this?
Here are a few common reasons:
- “I can do it faster myself” – When you’ve done something 500 times, explaining it, training someone and checking their work can initially feel like more work and effort.
- “It won’t be done properly” – It’s not necessarily that you don’t trust the person. You’re worried things won’t be done to the same standard as you would do them – and if something goes wrong, you’re still ultimately responsible. When your reputation is on the line, letting go of control can be hard.
- “I like to be in control” – You like to make the decisions – and always have. It feels safe. Plus, your business is part of your identity and stepping back can feel strangely like losing ownership.
- “Everything is in my head” – You know how things work because you’ve been doing them for years. You know which clients need a particular approach, how to handle the tricky situations and when to bend the rules.
- “I can’t afford to change it” – Even if you were to delegate, you don’t have people or systems to delegate effectively to – which means developing, hiring or buying. If your cash flow doesn’t support this, what can you do?
Some of these can be overcome with mindset; others need practical action.
Figure out what tasks rely on you
Practically, making your business less dependent on you begins with identifying the work that only you currently do – and writing it down.
Think about the tasks, decisions and relationships that regularly come back to you. What do you have to approve, decide, check or fix because you’re the owner? What would stop or slow down if you weren’t there for a week?
This could be approving proposals or major purchases, handling important customer issues, signing off on projects, making pricing decisions, dealing with staff issues and deciding which opportunities to pursue.
Don’t worry about changing anything yet. The aim at this stage is simply to see where your time and involvement are currently needed.
Determine which tasks to delegate, systemise, automate
Once you’ve identified what your current responsibilities are, look at which tasks could be handled differently.
Some tasks may be straightforward to hand over to someone in your team. Others could be streamlined with a better process or automated altogether. For example, you could:
- Delegate day-to-day customer queries, project management or staff scheduling to an appropriate team member.
- Systemise processes such as customer onboarding, handling enquiries or managing projects so everyone follows a consistent approach.
- Automate repetitive admin tasks such as appointment reminders, customer follow-ups, invoicing or routine reporting.
If the capability isn’t there, you may need to develop internally or recruit someone with the right skills.
See also: Are you embracing digital? Growth begins with mindset
Capture how key tasks and decisions work
Once you’ve decided what can be delegated, systemised or automated, capture the key information needed to make the change work.
For straightforward processes, this could be as simple as creating a short standard operating procedure (SOP) that sets out what needs to happen and who is responsible.
This might include:
- The steps involved and who is responsible
- Key decisions or judgement calls
- What needs to happen when something falls outside the usual process
- Any important deadlines, rules or customer requirements
- When an issue needs to be escalated to you
The goal is to make sure the task doesn’t keep coming back to you simply because you’re the only person who knows how it works. Delegating reduces owner dependency and also builds capability in your team.
Work out what you can afford to change
It’s all very well for us to say delegate, systemise or automate. But what if your business doesn’t have the cash flow to hire another person, invest in new software or rebuild its processes? Start with your numbers.
Financial forecasting can help you understand what you can afford now, what you may be able to invest in later and where you need to improve profitability first. Ask:
- Are your prices and margins where they need to be?
- Where are inefficiencies eating into profit?
- Are there unnecessary costs you could reduce?
- Which customers, products or services generate the best returns?
The aim is to improve profitability and free up cash, allowing you to invest in the changes that will give you more capacity and control.
See also: The business value of financial forecasting
Need a financial review? Get in touch
Put changes into practice
Importantly, you don’t have to change everything at once. Start with the areas that eat into most of your time or create the biggest bottlenecks. Then give the relevant team member clear responsibility and accountability for their area – or hire in.
Be specific about:
- What they own
- What they’re expected to deliver
- How you’ll measure whether it is working
Make sure they have the authority, information and resources they need to get on with it without bringing every issue back to you. Don’t micromanage!
Where relationships are involved, introduce team members to your key customers and suppliers and give them the chance to build those relationships directly. You don’t want to remain the only face of the business.
For new processes or automation, test the change before rolling it out more widely. Check that it is actually saving time, improving consistency or removing a task from your plate.
See also: How to find good staff when you’re stretched thin
Keep an eye on the business, not every decision
Stepping back shouldn’t mean losing sight of what’s happening. Use a simple dashboard (like Xero) and regular reporting to track the KPIs that matter, such as revenue, profit, profit margin, cash flow, sales or customer retention.
Regular check-ins with key team members can also help you stay across what’s happening, what’s working and any issues that need your attention.
If the numbers and performance are on track, let your team get on with it. If something is off track, you can step in where you’re needed.
The goal is to stay informed without becoming the default decision-maker for everything.
Benefit from a business that can run without you
Making your operations more self-sufficient isn’t an overnight change. Depending on the size and complexity of your business, it can take several months to cut that to-do list, and often longer. But it’s a goal you can achieve.
And when you do, you can unlock some of those other goals: more time to spend with family or play golf, and more time to think about the bigger picture and future business plans and strategy.
It could also help if you eventually choose to sell. A buyer is likely to be more interested in a business that can run without its owner, potentially giving you a stronger sale price.
