Schools out for summer! Your social media feeds are about to become peppered with other people’s sunshine selfies and your inbox with out-of-office emails. But none of those will be yours. Why? Because you struggle to take time off. Your company just cannot run without you, can it?
If your business takes priority over family and personal time, this blog is for you. As a business owner you should never worry about what’s happening in your company when on holiday or feel guilty about not spending enough time with your kids. It’s important to take a break to recharge and refresh. Your business will thank you for it. In fact, a business owner’s ability to step away from their business can actually add value to the bottom line.
Your business doesn’t need you to be there all the time
When you position yourself at the heart of your business things cannot happen without your influence, input or decision-making. You become so involved in every process that you cannot dream of taking a holiday and your employees cannot take action without your input. You think your business needs you, when in reality you have become a bit of a control freak.
The key to building a profitable business and being able to spend precious moments with your family is to decentralise your business. Think of this like the spokes of a bicycle wheel. Currently you sit right at the centre of the wheel. All the spokes stop at you.
Imagine if each spoke was a team member or department and you started to push back and delegate work to each one. As the work and responsibilities spread outwards, the wheel becomes a solid whole, and much stronger as a result. The wheel could probably function effectively without its central fulcrum. You could take that holiday knowing that your business is in safe hands.
Build your business to run without you
Getting your company to a position where it can run without you can be a real game changer. According to Value Builder research, companies that can sustain a three-month absence of their owner are more than twice as likely to receive a premium acquisition offer. Now we’re not suggesting you immediately book a three-month holiday, rather gradually work your way up to it.
To achieve this you need to do two things: focus on your strengths and learn to delegate.
1 Play to your strengths
Do you understand what your leadership strengths are? You may have used these when you started your business. As a business owner it is your responsibility to motivate, lead and grow your team. There may be people in your team who are better equipped than you to handle certain tasks. There might even be things you loathe doing that someone else loves!
Knowing where your own strengths, and strengths of your team, lie is useful. Why would you need to call a customer when you have someone with a polite, calm manner who knows them too? Why do you need to be around for a stock check when you have a team leader with pinpoint attention to detail who can oversee it?
Formal strengths assessments are not essential, though they are a useful tool to learn more about each other and to realise how you can work more effectively as a team.
2 Delegation
Effective delegation means learning to share your workload and hand over control and responsibility for critical tasks and decisions. So many business owners retain control of mundane tasks and involve themselves in minor decisions when a colleague could easily be shown how to take these off their hands. Quite honestly the thought of micro-managing in this way would make anyone yearn for a holiday!
Taking steps to share your workload empowers your team to solve their own problems and will gradually strengthen the trust between you. Start small with tasks that build confidence in both parties, so that they feel comfortable doing the work and you feel happy trusting them with the responsibility. Training, feedback and learning from mistakes are key parts of the learning process.
Sharing your workload through delegation can build a more profitable, successful business that is likely to command a higher price when you decide to sell. When potential buyers see a business operating effectively and profitably without the owner’s presence it becomes more sought after and more valuable. If the opposite is true and the owner is heavily involved in day-to-day operations, this can devalue the company and make it more difficult to sell.
Putting distance between you and your business is healthy and profitable
But it relies on your ability as a leader to delegate and work to your strengths. Download our free ebook ‘4 degrees of delegation’ for more guidance on this theme.
If you can learn to delegate and focus on the work you are best at, it won’t just be a case of school’s out for your children. Mum or dad will be free to enjoy time away from the daily grind and create precious memories with their loved ones.
Taking a holiday from your business has benefits for mental and physical heath, as well as your business. When you switch off you are more likely to have new ideas and find inspiration to grow your business. You’ll be in a refreshed frame of mind when you return and find more enjoyment in your work, which can only be a positive thing for your people and your customers.
Preparing for exit
Being able to take a holiday from your business is an excellent step towards planning your business exit. If you would like to discuss exit planning with one of our team, you can contact us here – after your holiday, of course!
