The Work You Shouldn't Be Doing Anymore

One thing I've noticed about business owners is that most of them are pretty good at getting things done.

That's usually how they got where they are.

Something needed to be handled, so they handled it. Someone called in sick, so they filled in. A problem came up, and they figured out how to solve it.

In the early days of owning a business, that's often exactly what it takes.

You wear a lot of hats because there isn't anybody else to wear them.

But something interesting happens as the business grows.

The business changes, but sometimes the owner's job doesn't.

You're still answering questions that somebody else could answer. You're still handling little problems that have been coming up for years. You're still doing things because you've always been the person who did them.

And because you're good at those things, it's easy to keep doing them.

I've talked to owners running businesses that are several times larger than when they started, but they're still spending their days doing much of the same work they were doing ten or fifteen years ago.

They've added employees, equipment, clients, and locations.

But they haven't really changed their own role.

I think that's one of the harder parts of growing a business.

Sometimes the things that made you successful in the beginning aren't the things your business needs most from you today.

That doesn't mean those jobs aren't important.

They absolutely are.

But there's a difference between being capable of doing something and being the person who should still be doing it.

I know owners who can press a shirt faster than anybody in the plant. They can handle a difficult client, fix a piece of equipment, or jump behind the counter without missing a beat.

And there's something to be said for that.

But when you're spending your time doing all those things, what aren't you spending your time doing?

That's the question I think gets overlooked.

Every business reaches a point where the owner has to become something different from the person who started it.

Not because the work is beneath them.

But because the business needs them somewhere else.

And sometimes the hardest job to give up is the one you've always been good at.

Dave