What Happens When You're Not There?

One of the easiest ways to learn something about a business is to watch what happens when the owner leaves.

Not for an hour to run an errand.

Really leaves.

Takes a few days off. Goes on vacation. Gets on an airplane. Turns the phone off for a while.

For some owners, not much changes.

For others, everything seems to find them.

The employee who isn't sure what to do. The client situation nobody wants to handle. The equipment problem. The schedule question. The decision everyone is waiting on.

Before long, the owner is standing somewhere that's supposed to be a vacation answering texts from the parking lot.

I've talked to a lot of business owners over the years who laugh about this.

"I can't leave."

Usually they say it like it's just part of owning a business.

And for a while, I think it can even feel good.

People need you.

You know the answers.

You're the person who can walk into almost any situation and figure it out.

There's a certain amount of pride that comes with being that person.

The problem is that eventually the thing that makes you valuable can also become the thing that keeps you trapped.

If every important decision has to come through you, the business hasn't really learned how to operate without you.

It has learned how to wait for you.

That's a very different thing.

I don't think most owners intentionally build a business that depends on them for everything. It happens slowly.

You answer the question because it's faster. You solve the problem because you already know how. You step in because something needs to get done.

And you do it again tomorrow.

Eventually everybody gets used to it.

Including you.

That's when being needed starts looking a lot like being required.

There's nothing wrong with being important to your business.

I'd hope you are.

But there's a big difference between building a business where your leadership matters and building one where your presence is required for everything to work.

You usually don't see that difference while you're standing in the building.

Sometimes you have to leave to find out.

Dave