Afterall wasn’t that one of the motivations for setting up your business in the first place?
If the success of your business depends on your hands-on involvement, then there’s some foundation work that you need to do to get you from ‘employee’ mode to ‘business owner’ mode.
With that, we’ve put together some tips that will get things running smoothly without you, and help you on your way towards independence…
Building and nurturing your team makes for a motivated and effective workforce… the secret ingredient in every successful business!
By providing your team with the right tools and support, you’re empowering them to make informed decisions in your absence. This gives you the opportunity to step back and look at things from a bird’s eye perspective. And from this you can put in place any additional structure needed to help your team to do their jobs.
If you put the right people in the right positions with the goal of making your own role in the business redundant, then you can set yourself up so that you never have to sort another invoice or take another customer call again.
When you have hundreds of people working for you it’s practically impossible to monitor day to day activity – so stop trying.
If you put specific standards and protocols in place, not only does this give you the ability to observe and make improvements objectively, but it means that you can make decisions that avoid the need to be pulled back into the cogs of the machine.
With a focus on giving your teams more autonomy, you want to create systems that they can work with that make their jobs easier. Benefits for the business owner include:
This can be done with:
The idea is to replicate processes so that your business functions without you.
Putting systems in place gives better measurable outcomes, and this gives you the ability to make continuous adjustments.
It’s never been easier to automate so many daily tasks that take the time away from what you do best.
Once the menial tasks are automated, your team will have more time for more important work, and you will have a much better focus on where to take your business next.
Areas of your business where automation can do plenty of leg work for you include:
Where smart systems and processes become a roadmap for your team to follow, automation takes the low-skilled, repetitive tasks completely out of the equation so that everybody has more time to focus on the important stuff.
You can see where this is going.
Ultimately you want to be in a position where you can oversee your business from afar – from a laptop, in the Bahamas with a margarita in hand… if you so wish!
“If your business depends on you, you don’t own a business, you have a job”
(Michael E Gerber)
The delegation process can be a challenge for some (particularly if you’re guilty of trying to do it all yourself). But smart people delegate and the secret to having your business function without you, is to move away from the micromanagement mindset as early as possible.
The best way to spend your time is on the things that matter. Put your trusted team in the driving seat and allow them to run with the processes and systems that you put in place.
Not only will your staff be empowered by the work that you delegate, but you’ll also be released from the grind to work on the money generating side of the business (or employ someone to do that job for you). If you’re doing the work that someone else can suitably do, then delegate or outsource.
Getting your business to function without you means taking a leap of faith. Like an overprotective parent – you might be scared to let go of your baby, but at some point you know you must. Stepping back from your business can be just as scary.
By making a start in adopting the approaches we touched on, you can make progress towards the end goal. If that means hiring or training up teams to run the business to your standards, then that’s a step towards breaking the hold that your business has on you.
You want to get to the point where your amazing team (and automated systems) are running the show for you. This gives you the freedom to check-in from wherever in the world you choose to be.
If you are interested to find out what services and support we can offer you, click here to learn more.
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