You’re exhausted.
You started your business with a vision and a dream, a dream of impact, service, success, and ultimately, freedom.
Freedom from the 9-to-5, to spend your time doing the things you love with the people you love.
But somewhere along the way, your business started running you.
The entrepreneurial dream slowly evaporated as the demands of running a business mounted.
The more success you achieve, the less freedom you have. The more contracts you win, the later the nights in the office become, as you rush from pillar to post sorting invoices, logistics, communication, payroll, pitching, staffing, and training. Not to mention doing the actual job.
And you do all this while trying to hold onto your vision, the reason you started this whole enterprise in the first place.
So you double down. Work more, work harder. Ignore the toil on your mind, body and soul. If you can just get over this next hurdle, this next challenge, everything will start to calm down.
Stop.
Breathe.
If this hurts to read, I see you.
– I see you doing your absolute best, in a world you were never trained for.
– I see the anguish and suffering in those sleepless nights as you wonder how you’re going to manage those three jobs when you need to be at all three of them and Dave just quit.
– I see the frustration and pain of constantly having to re-do work that someone else should have done.
– I see you wanting the best for your team, your clients, and your family, and how much it hurts that balls keep getting dropped, and people let down.
You know the cost of all this on you and your family. And you justify it. A means to an end. It will all be worth it one day.
You’re the only one that can solve all the problems, so you just have to do it right?
Well, no.
It’s a treadmill you will never get off until you have a heart attack at 40 or 50.
But will it all be worth it?
Here are just some of the ways that you doing everything is hurting your business, your reputation, your income and your freedom.
– You struggle with logistics and communication because the only time you have to think is 11pm after all the days work is done.
– Your employees don’t trust you, because it’s impossible to be consistent. Plans are made and plans change, fires constantly need putting out and your staff feel like they don’t know what’s going on.
– Employee time (and your money) is wasted when they don’t know what they are supposed to be doing, or don’t have the tools they need to do the job.
– You’re stuck doing work that isn’t in alignment, because you have no time to nurture new relationships with your ideal clients.
– You resent your staff for their incompetence, when really you simply haven’t been able to give them the training they require.
– Your employees come and go, and you waste hours, days or even weeks training new staff and rectifying their mistakes.
– You struggle to attract the talent that would take your business to the next level, and constantly have to resort to new trainees or people with enthusiasm but no experience.
– Your customers and clients lose faith in you, because you’re juggling so many balls they can’t rely on you to keep them all in the air.
All of this leads to a lack of safety, trust, and respect. It’s the reason your staff don’t take any ownership. It’s the reason they don’t look after the equipment. It’s the reason you get frustrated and angry at their incompetence. It’s the reason they leave and you have to start again.
I get it. You’re the expert and your name is on the line. It seems like it’s too expensive to delegate. And it’s too vulnerable – based on your experience so far, employees are flaky, incompetent and untrustworthy, so how could you trust anyone to do the important work?
But trying to do it all yourself will eventually cost you your business, your reputation, even your life.
A business owner i was talking to about this the other day realised how arrogant it is to think that you can do fifty things better than anyone else can do one thing. You can’t.
Your job is to be the leader. To run the business. To drive the vision forward and inspire greatness from the people doing the work. To surround yourself with people who are better than you at one thing, and remove obstacles that prevent them doing their best work. To make them feel safe, valued, and inspired to do their best work, so you all get paid.
And when you’re doing everything yourself, you can’t do any of those things.
Here’s the hard truth. The freedom, impact, and income you desire, all exist on the other side of your ego.
The ego that says you can’t afford it. That says no one can do it as well as you can. That gets butt hurt when people quit, do shoddy work, or lack initiative.
What would it be worth to you to get all those hours back? What would it be worth to the business for you to be able to focus on what’s really important?
What is the financial cost of the staff turnover, lack of trust, low employee engagement, lost opportunities, late nights, mistakes, and your own existential doubt?
If you are a business owner who wants to make more money, have more time, and create more impact by letting go, letting people in, and creating an environment of trust, belonging and ownership, reach out. I can help.
Because you can’t afford not to let go.