You started a business to do the thing you're brilliant at, and somewhere along the way you also became the sales team, the finance department, customer service and the only person who knows where anything is. If you can't take a week off without your phone in your hand, this is for you.
Why it all comes back to you
It isn't because you're bad at running a business. The business grew, and the way it runs stayed exactly where it was. Every new customer, job and person adds a bit more weight, and because nobody else owns it, it all lands on you.
I know because I did exactly this. I built my last business from nothing to a team of twelve in eighteen months, and every core part of it needed me. I was in every rota and every decision, telling myself I'd sort it once things calmed down. Things never calmed down. What changed it was stepping back and sorting out how the business actually ran, and these are the same steps I take with owners now.
1. Write down your real week
For one week, jot down everything you do that isn't the work only you can do. The quotes, the chasing, the "have you got a sec?" questions, the admin at nine at night. Don't change anything yet, just write it down.
Most owners are shocked by this. You'll usually find a big chunk of your week goes on things that shouldn't need you at all, and that list is where you start.
2. Follow one job from start to finish
Pick a recent job and follow it from the first point of contact to the money hitting your account. Where did the enquiry come in? Who replied? Who sent the quote, who followed it up, who booked it in, who did the work, who sent the invoice and who chased it?
Every time the answer is "me", or "it waited until I got to it", mark it. Those are the spots where the business is held together by you, and where customers slip through the gaps when you're busy.
3. Decide who owns what
Most of the questions that come to you come because nobody else is sure it's theirs. So for each part of that job, decide who owns it. Not who helps with it, who owns it. If you've got a team, sit down with them and agree it together. If you haven't, it's still worth doing, because it shows you exactly what your first hire should take off you.
4. Get it out of your head
If the way you do things only lives in your head, the job only works properly when you're the one doing it. Write down the steps for the things that happen every week, in plain words, the way you'd explain them to someone on their first day. It doesn't need to be a big manual. A one-page checklist that people actually use beats a folder nobody opens.
5. Sort the follow-up
This is the one that costs most businesses the most money. Enquiries that never got a call back, quotes that went out and were never chased, people who said maybe and never heard from you again. Decide who follows up, when and how, and make it happen whether you're on site, with a client or on holiday.
When I worked with one client on exactly this, three weeks in he messaged me to say he was starting to get booked in advance, and that he'd made a social media video for the first time in months. In his words, “Subconsciously a weight must’ve been lifted.”
6. Put a weekly rhythm in place
Things drift. A new starter joins and nobody shows them how it's done, a big job comes in and the usual way of doing things stretches until it snaps, and three months later you're back in the middle of it all. A short weekly check, where you look at what's moved, what's stuck and what needs a decision, stops that happening. Keep it to the same time every week so it doesn't quietly slip.
7. Know your numbers
You can't step back from something you can't see. Pick a handful of numbers that tell you how the business is doing, like enquiries in, quotes out, jobs won and money in, and look at them every month. If you're busy every day but not sure which jobs are actually making you money, start there.
What not to do first
When it gets busy and chaotic, the natural thing is to throw something at it. More ads, so there's more work coming in. A new bit of software that promises to sort it all out. Someone to help, brought in during a mad fortnight and handed the chaos as it is. Each one makes sense on its own, and each one quietly adds to the pile, because the way a job moves through the business hasn't changed underneath it.
Sort the foundations first, and once those are sorted, everything else starts working, the leads, the software and the people included.
How long does it take?
It depends on the business, but you don't need to fix everything at once. Start with whatever is costing you the most, usually the follow-up or the questions that keep coming back to you, and you'll feel the difference quickly. When I restructured my own business, my husband went from six days a week to two, the team ran it without us and we went from £12k weeks to £20k weeks.
If you'd rather not do it on your own
You can absolutely work through these steps yourself. The hard part is finding the time when you're already doing every job in the business, and that's where I come in, to sit alongside you, untangle it and stop you taking on every role.
If you're not sure where to start, the Sit-Down is ninety minutes where we get everything out of your head and find the three things I'd fix first. If you already know what needs building, that's the Fix. Or tell me what's going on and I'll come back to you myself.