Do you feel that  every business decision is down to you and you would like to learn how to stop doing everything in your business?  

Are you involved in every department, every process, every management decision?

Would your business fall apart if you weren’t at the helm, steering it in the direction you want it to go in? 

In this article, we are going to take a look at the dangers of taking it all on yourself and show you how to stop doing everything in your business yourself.

Here at Spero Solutions, we understand that when you started your business, you were probably a one-man band. 

Your business has grown gradually, organically, and you have employed people to take on roles and responsibilities when and where you needed them most. 

But have you given them the authority to take action, or are you still responsible for all the decisions? 

Are you too involved in running your business?

In our last article, we tackled the challenge of spending too much time doing and not enough time leading, so in this blog post, we want to talk about the problem of you being an obstacle in your own business. 

You can become a bottleneck, blocking forward progress and need to understand how to stop doing everything in your business.

Is everything down to you? Why this is a problem

If you have built a successful business that relies too heavily on you, it will create problems both in the short term and the long term:

  • Health issues - you run the risk of burning out from stress and exhaustion
  • Overwhelm
  • You undermine your managers – leading to resentment and ineffectual management
  • You are time poor – there just aren’t enough hours in the day for you to do everything!
  • Low morale – staff feel unappreciated and resentful
  • Micromanaging can produce a toxic atmosphere
  • Poor decision making – from tiredness and anxiety
  • Poor decision making – can result in wasting money/lost profits
  • No time for family, friends or hobbies - work becomes all-consuming
  • Failure to meet your goals – you are on an endless treadmill, getting nowhere
  • Limiting the potential for business growth and profitability
  • Loss of vision – why did you start your own business?
  • Loss in confidence of investors and/or buyers

The result of doing it all yourself is that you become an obstacle in your own business. 

You will stifle business growth and potential if you are involved in every single aspect of the company.

Moreover, doing everything means that you are overworking. 

This means that you risk making mistakes because you either don’t have the time required to make informed decisions or you are too tired to think straight. 

You can’t possibly be an expert in every aspect of running a business, can you? 

When you are tired, you become less visionary, less creative, and you develop habits that can prevent you from seeing better solutions.

How to stop doing everything in your business: The art of delegation

Most business owners realise that they have to stop at some point, and an aim may be to sell the business at the height of its success, realising the best market price. 

Developing a strong management team and scalable systems/processes are, therefore, vital to building a strong business that can operate effectively and even thrive without the owner doing everything themselves. 

This type of business will be much more attractive to potential buyers, who themselves have learned the art of delegation. 

Someone attracted to buying your business won’t want to take over and have to do everything themselves!

How to delegate when everything is down to you

Okay, yes. It is true that nobody knows your business as well as you do. 

BUT is that because you won’t let them? 

If you think that your business could not survive without you, what will happen when the time comes to sell it? 

Effective business management is not about doing it all but knowing how to stop doing everything in your business.

It is important to start delegating in three main areas:

Firstly, delegate the tasks you don’t enjoy doing. Those that you procrastinate, or that you see as challenging because you dislike them.

Secondly, delegate the tasks that you don’t have the knowledge, skills or expertise for. These could be accounting/finances, HR or marketing, for example.

And finally, delegate the tasks that you shouldn’t be doing. These are the tasks that can be carried out efficiently at a lower cost than your time. For example, administrative tasks, customer service, credit control etc. You can employ someone to do these tasks for you at a lower rate of pay than it costs for you to do them yourself.

Delegation is a tremendously freeing process. 

It enables you to regain control of the important aspects of your business and helps you to communicate with the rest of your team.

It rewards team members for their contributions too, so they feel valued and appreciated. 

Empowering others to make decisions, giving them the authority to act along with the responsibility of the role, will lift a weight from your shoulders and enable you to concentrate your efforts where they are needed most.

Delegation is not about relinquishing control – you are not abdicating. 

It is about being efficient and effective. Once you recognise that you can’t do everything yourself, you realise that you can gain back time to focus on growing your business, realising its potential and making it attractive to buyers.

How to stop doing everything in your business: Hiring an online business manager (OBM)

If you are going to sell your business, or just be able to take a step back to do other things, it is essential that it can operate on a daily basis without your involvement.

An OBM has the skills needed for business management to provide business support and build strong foundations, so your team feels empowered to make proactive decisions as and when required.  

An online business manager will implement effective systems and processes for efficient operations, identifying KPIs across all key business areas. 

They will report the results to you, so you can focus on your exit plan, without having to be involved in day-to-day business management.

You can delegate those tasks we outlined earlier in this blog to the online business manager, giving you back the time you need to think creatively about where you want to take your business.

If you are wondering how to stop doing everything in your business, an online business manager will create a bullet-proof plan of action, enabling you to take your business forward, so you can realise its full potential and obtain the best price when you sell it.

Do you feel stuck or on a treadmill that you just can’t seem to step off, or feel your business lacks the structure you need to take a step back and look at it objectively? 

If you need support to implement an exit strategy or simply to free up more of your time, call Elaine of Spero Solutions on 07846 754 747 today, to discuss how to stop doing everything in your business and how an online business manager package can create the breathing space you need to see the bigger picture.