A well-managed business should not be overly reliant on any one person, including the owner.

Often, the business owner takes on too much responsibility, whether by closing the majority of the deals, providing the service, or having too many decisions flow through him or her instead of to responsible delegates. To maximize their company’s profit potential, owners must find ways to free themselves from work that others can handle. Handing over responsibility is often hard for owners.

As an owner, delegating well means your company can thrive without you overseeing the details. This freedom allows your company to grow without you as a bottleneck while the quality of your work life improves as you no longer must spend your time fighting fires and answering mundane questions. Best of all, your company becomes worth more.

Suppose you aspire to build a valuable, more profitable company. In that case, ensuring your business can operate independently without your constant involvement is crucial. Embarking on this journey can feel daunting. Here are three cost-effective strategies to set your company on a path to autonomy and allow it to thrive without your constant presence.

3 cost-effective strategies that can help your business thrive without you

Broaden your offerings to reduce the cost of replacing yourself

Some owners can’t afford to delegate because it would be too expensive to replace their skills. Replacing the owner’s experience requires a high-salaried employee. If owners can’t afford to replace their expertise, they could niche down their core offerings.

For example, Casey is a retired coach of a professional baseball franchise. Casey opened a baseball training academy specializing in training and managing Double-A and Triple-A minor league players. Initially, Casey ran the academy and provided the coaching himself. It turned out that managing the players was very lucrative if the players advanced to the major leagues.

The good news was that the training created a pipeline of prospective management clients. However, Casey could only do so much training on his own, so he recruited other coaches famous in the industry. Those coaches, however, lost the academy lots of money because Casey had to compete against the salaries of Division 1 college baseball programs and major league clubs to attract top-tier training talent.

Casey found that the second-tier trainers didn’t have the same panache that attracted the top-tier players. Those trainers were nearly as good — if not better, in some instances — but they just didn’t have the same pedigree. However, the combination of excellent training from the second-tier coaches, reduced costs to the players and access to Casey’s management attracted talented U.S.-based and international rookies just fine.

Casey could have charged more per customer to attract the most elite athletes. But those athletes expect the most esteemed coaching teams, and Casey would have to staff and pay for that. The rookies were happy to pay more for access to talent and direction, which sometimes propelled them to the majors, making them great management clients.

When you broaden your offerings, you can bypass the high salary that comes with someone who has a wide breadth of experience.

Create a question diary so employees stop asking you

The owners are often the most experienced workers at the company. It is reasonable for employees to ask you how to perform a task — once. It is difficult for the company to run without them when the same employees keep asking the same or similar questions of owners.

When Jodie was building her Pittsfield based social media agency, she made a conscious choice every time an employee came to ask her a question. The easy thing to do would have been to answer the question, but she forced herself to write each question down. She turned that question diary into a business manual documenting how to perform every task required of employees.  Her manual is a tabbed Excel spreadsheet, each documenting a specific process, like payroll, paperwork, and out-of-office notifications.

When an employee asks you a question resist the urge to answer and move on. Document those queries and turn them into a standard operating procedure (SOP) manual that enables your staff to develop expertise in their role. The staff can then go to the manual for answers instead of you.

A pro tip is to explain the task in detail to the employee, have them take notes, and then submit the procedure to you in writing. This employee engagement will reinforce their understanding and allow you an opportunity to update any stale directions.

List your employees and their roles so people can reach the person they need – not you

Many company websites list only their top employees, such as the owners and CEO. However, this communicates that you are the most critical person in your company, which will trigger everyone, from salespeople to suppliers and prospective customers, to want to go straight to the top by calling you.

An inexpensive and effective strategy for getting your business to run without you is to list more employees on your website. Once upon a time, I used to be a financial advisor. Despite having authored a book on how to increase income, avoid taxes, and keep more of what is yours, providing twice-weekly written and video content on the investment markets, and owning a money management business (Berkshire Money Management), I’m no longer a client-facing advisor. But because my face and name are often “out there,” prospective clients formerly would contact me directly to help them with their retirement.

That has changed. BMM’s website prominently displays its employees and describes their roles and mine. Now, when families call or email BMM rarely does anyone ask for me. Instead, they first visit the “about our team” page and determine which advisor or group might best suit their financial needs.

Getting your business to thrive without you gives you the freedom to cherry-pick the projects you want to work on. Or you could just own your company and collect passive income. A business that runs without you is also a valuable, sellable asset when you move on to a new chapter in your life.

Broadening your offerings, creating SOPs, and accurately describing your role to potential customers are all tactical things you can do today to get your business running more independently in the future.

This article first appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on December 20, 2023.