I once had a potential client who ran a logistics company.
Smart guy. Built the thing from nothing. Knew every truck, every driver, every client quirk by heart.
He came to me because he wanted to step back. Maybe sell one day. Get his life back.
So I asked him: “Who handles operations when you’re away?”
He laughed. “Nobody. That’s why I don’t go away.”
Then I asked: “What about your senior manager? Could he run it for a week?”
He shook his head. “He’s good but he doesn’t do it the way I do. Nobody does.”
Not because he was wrong. He was right. Nobody could do it like him. His standards were impeccable. His knowledge was irreplaceable.
And that was exactly the problem.
He’d built a business that was a perfect prison. Every decision flowed through him. Every problem landed on his desk. Every fire needed his hands.
He wasn’t an owner. He was the most overworked, underpaid employee in the building.
And he was adamant that he didn’t want to “be out of the loop,” so I didn’t take him on as a client.
It’s simple math.
You can be perfect at tasks that will do nothing to help you sell the business.
In fact, it’s a hindrance because unless you convincingly include yourself as part of the deal no one in their right mind would want to own anything that falls apart when you’re not doing it.
The owners who build freedom learn to trade perfection for leverage.
Getting it done by someone else at 80% is worth more than getting it done perfectly by you at 100%.
Because 80% frees you to focus on those areas that should require your 100% focus.
Additionally, 80% means the company survives your absence.
80% is what buyers look for when deciding if your business is an asset or just a very stressful job.
So standards aren’t the problem. Your grip is.
As for the owners who don’t release the grip?
They stay trapped. Wondering when the “freedom” part of ownership finally kicks in.
If you’re ready to loosen the grip and build something that doesn’t need you in the room every day, that’s what we’re building inside Fall in Love with Your Business Again.
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P.S. Feeling trapped in your business? Turn it into an Asset you love to run – and that investors want to own.
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