Remember to delegate.
I will admit. I don’t do this well.
Things that are really important to me are hard to let go of and turn over to someone else. But, we all have to do this to succeed.
One of our most successful franchisees once said to me that if I am not spending at least 40% of my time thinking about strategy and future moves, then I am not allocating my time wisely. He was right. Every time I get bogged down in details I try to remember that and work my schedule to get back to vision. It is hard to do, because it is hard to let go of the things I thought I needed to take control of that put me under that threshold, but I have to.
All small businesses are that way. The leader normally has gotten there through a process where they found something they do well and they keep doing it. Then they keep doing it when they need to move on and direct the overall business. When I take control of something it is normally for one of three reasons. My vision has gotten lost in my opinion. I want to manage the people involved. Or I want to fix a process. Wrong. The right thing to do is always to trust the people under me to do those things and all business owners need to remember that. I have to keep telling myself that.
A leader that micro manages can always keep the business moving but it gets stale. The leader that trusts the people under him or her and delegates and gets back to the "vision thing" is the leader that grows and thrives in their business. That is a hard lesson, but it is essential to combat stagnation.
What can you do to keep your small business thriving and moving forward?
Want to hear more from our CEO? You can literally hear him in this audio interview about the support we provide new bakery owners looking for the perfect location for their new bakery:
