It’s tough to remove yourself from the day-to-day operations when you’re heavily invested and busy. However, if you had to step away with little warning how would things roll? Peace of mind comes from knowing your people and systems are robust enough to cope.
For your business to work for you, it pays to make yourself replaceable. Large corporations have plans in place to mitigate what’s known as ‘Key Person Risk’. But when you run a smaller operation, who is the backup?
The more your team are trained and empowered to perform essential functions without your involvement, the closer you’ll be to stepping away with confidence.
Top Tips
- Think about what your business looks like without you. An exit strategy is often thought of as the way to end a business (which it can be), but it’s also a smart investment for the long term. It forces the mind to think about who and what would be required to keep key things running if you weren’t there.
- Challenge yourself to step away for a week. Which systems fall over? Which procedures get left hanging? Which duties get ignored? Go cold turkey as a test case for the time you may have to leave your business in the hands of others. No one is irreplaceable!
- For mission critical tasks invest in systems that are simple, streamlined, effective and can be used by more than one team member. This helps your business run more efficiently too!
- Surround yourself with people you trust and can lean on. Bring them in to why you do what you do, and your goals for the future. Make them care about the business and feel that what they do matters. Set clear expectations around their roles and what success looks like. Invite their ideas to work better. When your people feel personally invested, and enjoy what they do, they will have your back (and your business) when you’re not around.
- Recognise that you stepping away – so that others can step up – is building value. A business that doesn’t rely on its owner is worth a lot more when the time comes to sell, or pass the reins, to someone else.
We’ve been fortunate to walk alongside many business owners in this very situation. If you’d like to chat about where you’re at – and where you might like to go – we’re here to help.