EP14: How Do I Get Back to the Work I Actually Love?

OPERATIONS

Oct 26

How to delegate as a business owner so you can get back to the work only you can do**

46 years, that's how long one guy ran his company. This September, he handed it over to someone who started there 13 years ago doing design work. Why? So he could go back to the one thing he loved.

Who Is This Story About?

His name is Steve Jackson, and back in 1980 he started a game company in Austin, Texas called Steve Jackson Games.

If you've ever played Munchkin with your kids, that's his company.

A writer covering his story put it perfectly: Steve was a designer first and a business owner because somebody had to be.

For 46 years he ran the whole company, then this September he stepped down as CEO to go back to designing games, handing the business to Sabrina Gonzalez, someone who'd been there for 13 years, starting out doing design work and taking on more and more until she was ready to run the whole thing.

What Does This Have to Do With Your Business?

When I read that story, I immediately thought of our own operations manager here at Primavera.

She started out helping with customer service, our first office hire, answering calls and client questions.

Over time she kept taking on more, learning the business, our clients, our team, until she'd worked her way up to running the entire operation.

Now when something comes up day to day, she makes sure the team handles it and only loops me in on what I actually need to know.

I'm not rebuilding the schedule when someone calls out or answering every client question.

I get to focus on growth, vision, strategy, where the business is going.

That's my game design.

And I only get to do it because of the team around me.

What's the Part of Your Business That's Actually Yours?

Maybe it's coaching your team, or leading, getting everyone pulling in the same direction, or vision, sitting down with a notebook and planning where the business goes next, or connecting, building partnerships in your community.

Whatever it is, that's your game design, the thing only you as the owner can really do.

When Was the Last Time You Actually Got to Do It?

If you're like most owners I talk to, your day looks more like this: your phone goes off before 7am, someone called out, now you're rebuilding the schedule, a client texts about something that got missed, a technician needs your approval, payroll's due Friday.

By six o'clock you never touched the thing you're actually good at.

Every day you spend putting out fires costs you in more than one way.

The work you love keeps getting pushed to tomorrow, then next week, and you end up wondering why the business hasn't grown.

Your team pays a price too, since they never get the chance to grow into more.

And you take all of it home, half-present at dinner because your mind's already on tomorrow's schedule.

Most of us didn't start a business so we could spend our evenings worrying about who's covering a shift.

So What Do You Actually Do About It?

Don't try to get yourself completely out of operations tomorrow, that just overwhelms everyone.

Start smaller.

Ask yourself: what's one thing you keep doing that somebody else could learn to do?

For the next week, open a note on your phone and every time you get pulled into something, write it down in a few words.

I had to move three jobs because someone called out. I answered a billing question. I talked to an upset client.

At the end of the week, go through the list and circle one thing you do over and over that doesn't actually need to be you.

Who Do You Hand It To?

Look at the people already on your team.

Who's dependable, who asks good questions, who seems ready for more?

They don't need to be ready to run the whole company.

Sabrina didn't start out as CEO, and our operations manager didn't start out running Primavera. They were given opportunities and grew into bigger roles over time.

If you don't have a team yet, this exercise still helps, because now you know exactly what your first hire should actually take off your plate instead of just hiring someone and hoping it works out.

How Do You Actually Hand Something Off?

Take call-outs as an example.

If you've got five employees and one calls out, that's 20% of your workforce gone for the day.

Sit down with someone on your team, walk them through what you look for, how you decide what to move and who to move, when clients need a heads up, and record your screen while you do it, talking through your thinking out loud.

It doesn't need to be a fancy production, you're just showing someone how you think through it.

What Happens When They Make a Mistake?

This is where a lot of us mess it up.

Someone makes a mistake and we think, it's easier if I just do this myself, and we take the task back.

But someone learning a job isn't going to do it exactly like you on day one, that's part of the process.

When something goes wrong, sit down and figure out what happened.

Did they miss a step? Was the instruction unclear? Did something come up you never showed them how to handle?

Fix it together, maybe add that example to the recording or the SOP so the next person doesn't get stuck in the same spot.

Once they've got that one thing down, give them something else.

That's how you buy back your time, little by little, and build a team that can grow the business without you having to be there every minute of the day.

Steve started his company because he loved designing games, and 46 years later he finally gets to spend his time doing just that, because the right people were there to help run it.

You don't have to wait 46 years to make room for what you love again.

This week, find one thing you're still carrying, pick the person who could learn it, show them how, and move on.

If you want a simple way to create and organize your SOPs, check out Sophie at sophiehq.com