‘For your business to work for you, you need to make yourself replaceable’. There are several proven strategies to run a successful enterprise. But what if the business runs you? ‘Own the business; don’t let the business own you’.
What does it really mean? Some owners answer by asking a question. If you decide to step away from your family business for a week or a month, what would happen? Would the business thrive or suffer catastrophic failure? Many owners recount how they have spent years learning how to step back and let the business run without them.
In order for your business to work for you, you need to make yourself redundant and replaceable. To reach those goals you must think deeply about two things; what you want to do and what you are uniquely qualified to do. And then after thinking this through, you commit yourself to doing only those two things.
You have to create a flexible support infrastructure to run the daily operations of your business. You must embrace innovation, technology and crucially, enlist the support of workers to do the work you cannot do. Employees are hired for a reason. Let them do their jobs and get out of the way, say experts familiar with the final points of delegation.
When team members are empowered and not micromanaged, they are inspired and productive. ‘There is no better way to see how the company runs without you than leaving it’. When you come back, evaluate where the issues arose and unanswered questions linger. These bottlenecks will show you how you can and should empower your team.