Many business owners focus on growing profits or hitting sales targets. But have you ever considered making it your main goal to set up your business so it can thrive and grow without you?
A business that doesn’t rely on its owner is the ultimate asset. It gives you complete control over your time, allowing you to choose which projects to pursue and when to take vacations.
When it’s time to step away, a business independent of its owner is far more valuable than one that depends on the owner. Here are five ways to set up your business to run smoothly without you.
1. Give Employees a Stake in the Outcome
Create a culture of ownership within your company. Share your financial results transparently with employees and allow them to benefit from the company’s success. When employees feel like stakeholders, they act more like owners, which makes the business more capable of running on its own.
2. Encourage Employees to Think Like Owners
If you’re not comfortable opening your financial books to employees, try a simple management technique: respond to every question with, “If you owned the company, what would you do?”
This approach encourages employees to think like owners, solving problems the way you would. Over time, they’ll begin to handle issues on their own, freeing you from micromanagement.
3. Vet Your Offerings
Identify which products or services require your personal involvement in making, delivering, or selling them. Evaluate each offer on a scale of 0 to 10, based on how easy it is to train an employee to manage it. Items requiring minimal attention from you should score higher. Over time, phase out offerings that depend on your personal involvement, and commit to stopping the lowest-scoring items. Repeat this evaluation regularly.
4. Create Automatic Customers
If you’re the company’s best salesperson, you need to step away from that role to make your business independent. One way to do this is by creating a recurring revenue model, where customers automatically buy from you. This could involve offering service contracts or subscription-based services, ensuring steady sales without needing constant personal involvement.
5. Write an Instruction Manual for Your Business
Finally, create clear guidelines for your employees to follow. Write an employee manual or Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for repetitive tasks within your company. This will help employees handle routine tasks without your direct oversight and make it easier to replace someone if they leave, ensuring the business continues running smoothly.
Making your business independent from you brings numerous benefits. It creates a more valuable company and frees up your time for other pursuits. Plus, your business can scale more easily because it no longer depends on you, its bottleneck. Best of all, it will be much more appealing to potential buyers when you’re ready to sell.
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