Could somebody else run your business?

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Laura

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Jan 29, 2007
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Hopefully, I am not the one with this on my brain!

How many of you could step away from what you are doing, and things would still run properly in your business?

There are days that I really feel focused on getting things going so that I can remove myself from the majority of my daily activities and focus on other (new) things, but putting the documentation and procedures in place so there is no guesswork involved for that person seems like a daunting task.

And then there's my concern that if I'm not there, who will innovate? If I focus on getting things going so that someone can do what I do without guesswork, who's going to be constantly churning ideas on how to do things better than we do them now - faster, easier, and to make more money at the same time?

Where are you all in this process? Are YOU your business? Would it survive without you at the helm? Are you doing anything to try and change your current situation?
Laura
 


I run a website design and development company, and we're under a year old. There's no way I could step away from the business. It would fall apart instantly.

You make a great point though. Many businesses fail because they get stuck at this point and don't evolve past it ever.
If you ever read the E-myth (Amazon.com: The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It: Books: Michael E. Gerber,
then you know its all about developing a turn-key business to make it successful. I realize this, and I'm trying really hard to make sure my business will get to this point in the coming years.
(There are still a lot of 100+ hour weeks ahead of me though.)

I don't know how much of this applies to online marketing though. A lot of online marketers are a one man or woman show, but have developed their business to earn them money even when they're not working. That's the big difference between online marketing and other brick and mortar businesses. A B&M would fall apart if its not in the right stage where the principal can step away. An online marketer could see their revenue stream trail off, but as soon as they step back into "the office," there's money to be made.

My goal in the next few years to have both working for me. Online residual income stream-man at night, and beloved local business owner by day! haha!
 
They say to get a promotion you need to train someone to take your spot...

I think this fits here too..

At the moment no... I'm needed.. But i've also started teaching some people I work with the ropes, so they could hopefully help run some of the day to day.
 
Rich Dad, Poor Dad talks about this extensively. To truely become wealthy, you need to get to the point where other people are working for you. This is the difference between being self employeed and being a business owner.

Laura, Have you thought about an end game strategy? For instance, if I can ever get to the point where I am bringing in significant cash, then I am going to take that money and put it into Real Estate and hire a property management company to take care of it. This will allow me to retire with a nice monthly paycheck and own something I can leave to my children.

Another idea is to take your money and buy a traditional business that someone else takes care of. A franchise or a convience store or something like that.
 
Atomm said:
Rich Dad, Poor Dad talks about this extensively. To truely become wealthy, you need to get to the point where other people are working for you. This is the difference between being self employeed and being a business owner.

Laura, Have you thought about an end game strategy? For instance, if I can ever get to the point where I am bringing in significant cash, then I am going to take that money and put it into Real Estate and hire a property management company to take care of it. This will allow me to retire with a nice monthly paycheck and own something I can leave to my children.

Another idea is to take your money and buy a traditional business that someone else takes care of. A franchise or a convience store or something like that.
Click to expand...

A good plan, unless the market crashes, devaluing all of your investments and leaving you competting in a saturated market with mortgage payments.

Sorry, don't mean to be blunt, but it's happened to a lot of people.

I believe in the 20/20/20 rule.

- $20 million in investments returning 5% per year (to make $1,000,000/yr)
- A business earning $20,000,000 per year (where you can take 5% every year - $1,000,000)
- $20,000,000 in paid-for real estate, where you can feasibly draw $1,000,000/yr

Those numbers are very conservative for the most part, but it's better to plan hard and be pleasantly surprised as opposed to plan optimistically and get shot down.
 
The only issue with that idea, which has crossed everyones mind at some point in time is that Nobody will Look after your Money and Business like you would. Sure there is capable people to help run a business, but is it really in the best interest of them to make sure that your business continues to grow and become more profitable every week?

Thats the only issue I see, as I know people who outsource certain aspects of there businesses but still maintain the overall duty to make sure that all aspects are running as smooth as possible.

I see it as a good thing to hire someone to help you run your business if you are letting them do some of the stuff that frees up more of your time to make the biz grow and maintain numbers in the black.
 
Thanks for the thoughts, guys.

IMO, my business is not worth nearly as much if *I* am a part of what makes it valuable (beyond the numbers, of course). So if someone can't take over what role I have in it, then it's not really in top shape.

That said, I totally agree that it would be difficult to expect someone to have the level of scrutiny that I do, but that's another issue. I think I just have trouble letting go a lot of the time. It's a control freak thing.

I learned a TON running a business that did $4 million in sales in the the first year. It was like overdrive learning. But still, I don't think I did it justice for lots of reasons - the first being that it nearly killed me the 4 years that we owned it. That's not right.

So now I am trying to make a very conscious effort to run whatever I am working on with the voice in the back of my head reminding me that I can't do everything all the time, and if I want let the business grow naturally, I have to find other ways to do things.

As it is now, I manage one full-time employee and a bunch of contract people for various things - plus a real estate investment company offline. There are a lot of balls to juggle, and I love learning what other people are doing and who they are tackling the same issues.

Laura :)
 
If someone else could run my business, why wouldn't they be running their own business doing the same thing?
 
Actually I was just thinking about this last night as I was getting to sleep, and concluded that almost everything is currently in my head, I'd need to spend quite some time putting all the details down for someone to stand a chance of taking over. Quite apart from the day to day facts - there are all the creative/idea/DRIVE issues, that are basically what I draw on to create new projects.
 
On a somewhat related (and definitely morbid) note, what would happen to your business if something happened to you? Do you have a family member, colleague, power of attorney, or executor who is familiar enough with what you do to be able to keep your business afloat or sell it for what it's worth?

You may not be able to ensure continued innovation and growth if something happens to you, but depending on the size of your business and your ability to trust and delegate, you should be able to prevent your business from failing. It's hard to take attention away from daily activities to document things like passwords, account info, and procedures, but it's essential, especially if you have a family who relies on your business income.

Darren Rowse wrote a related article a few months ago - food for thought:
Blogging Wills - What happens to your Blogs When You Die?
 
barman said:
I run a website design and development company, and we're under a year old. There's no way I could step away from the business. It would fall apart instantly.

You make a great point though. Many businesses fail because they get stuck at this point and don't evolve past it ever.
If you ever read the E-myth (Amazon.com: The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It: Books: Michael E. Gerber,
then you know its all about developing a turn-key business to make it successful. I realize this, and I'm trying really hard to make sure my business will get to this point in the coming years.
(There are still a lot of 100+ hour weeks ahead of me though.)

I don't know how much of this applies to online marketing though. A lot of online marketers are a one man or woman show, but have developed their business to earn them money even when they're not working. That's the big difference between online marketing and other brick and mortar businesses. A B&M would fall apart if its not in the right stage where the principal can step away. An online marketer could see their revenue stream trail off, but as soon as they step back into "the office," there's money to be made.

My goal in the next few years to have both working for me. Online residual income stream-man at night, and beloved local business owner by day! haha!
Click to expand...

Quite a long post, yet devoid of meaningful content or coherency.

Small business is for small brains as I say. When I think of small business I think of those losers who peddle shit on ebay and have 3343434+ ebay pwer points of whatever the fuck they are called. 40 years ago they were called tupperware clubs..now its business..HA
 
What I am doing right now, I could not really train anyone to do it specifically.

I could teach someone enough to oversee it and keep things from blowing apart, but the chances that the business would likely be able to grow and expand would be minimal.

I always wanted a business with no customers and no employees, who knew I would get one. :)
 
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