Our Journey From Business Operator to Owner

Authored by: Dirk Vander Noot

When we started our business, we had a dream of sharing our talents with the world. However, for continued growth and success, we realize that the business must evolve beyond just us. Let's explore our journey from running the business to becoming true business owners. 

Eventually, each of our businesses will require us to become true business owners—individuals who don't need to work in the business daily and can step away without disrupting operations. This transition grants us the freedom of time and the ability to pass a successful business to new owners, whether through a sale or by handing it down to the next generation.

The journey to becoming a true business owner does not happen all at once. It involves four key steps that may take months or years to accomplish. We all begin as the operator in charge of performing the daily tasks required for our business to run. The next step is becoming the manager overseeing the operators. After the manager we have the leader who is determining the path forward and making sure everyone is on it. Lastly we have the owner who defines long-term goals but is otherwise free to step away without disrupting business operations. 

Each step from operator to owner serves as both a benchmark and a necessary role within our business team. To advance from one role to the next, we need to delegate our role to a team member.. For example, if you don't have a manager and are managing the operations staff yourself, you are the manager. To become a leader, you must delegate your managerial duties to a new manager. Typically, when starting a business, we all begin as operators, handling the customer-facing tasks essential to running the business.

Where We All Begin: Operating Your Business

Hiring your first team members and stepping into a managerial role is one of the hardest and most crucial steps in your business journey. This transition often marks the first time you must trust someone else to join your business and serve your customers. It requires learning new skills such as hiring, onboarding, team development, effective management, human resources, and payroll accounting.

Even more challenging is learning to trust someone else with tasks you've handled yourself, setting high expectations for their completion. There's a common fear that without hiring someone exactly like us, the customer experience will suffer, leading to potential losses. This fear can keep many of us as solopreneurs, hesitant to take the leap.

However, avoiding this step stalls business growth. As you learn to build and trust your team, you can transition to a managerial role, focusing on ensuring your employees' success.

Managing Your Business

As your team grows and you step into a managerial role, you may find yourself just as busy, if not busier, than before. Delegating daily operations can often lead to new tasks filling your schedule, making it difficult to find time to hire a manager. However, to ensure your business continues to grow, it's essential to bring in a manager to oversee your team of operators.

A great starting point is to consider someone already on your team, someone you know and trust, who has been working as an operator. This person will already have a solid understanding of your business and its intricacies, something an outsourced professional might lack. While it may seem easier to hire someone with prior management experience, they will still need time to learn your specific processes and fit into your culture.

Promoting from within allows you to focus on developing their managerial skills rather than teaching them about your brand and workplace culture. This approach also fosters a culture of internal promotion, motivating employees to stay and grow within the company. Once your new manager takes over your managerial duties, you can confidently step into a leadership role, focusing on strategic goals and business growth while reducing your involvement in daily operations.

Leading Your Business

As a leader, you will be future-focused, identifying growth opportunities and planning to avoid potential roadblocks. However, your business still needs your involvement, and your managerial team requires your direction. The final step in this journey is transitioning to the position of owner. To fully assume this role, you need to appoint someone to take over as the leader.

This individual must be someone you trust to guide the future of your business. The best leaders have a strong understanding of your company's culture and vision. They prioritize developing your team to meet future needs and may identify opportunities you hadn't considered. Ensure that the leader you choose has small business experience in your field. Many small businesses make the mistake of hiring someone with corporate leadership experience, only to find that the skills needed for success are different in a small business environment. Corporate and small business operations are distinct, and a leader with corporate experience will need to learn new skills to effectively lead a small business team.

Owning Your Business

Once you find and onboard a new leader for your business, you can begin your transition into true ownership. This allows you to spend your time as you choose, whether working on this business, giving back to your community, investing in other ventures, or spending time with family, all while retaining the profits from your business. With your team operating independently, your business is also prepared for a merger or acquisition, whether you choose to sell it to new owners or pass it down to the next generation. Achieving this level of ownership is the most challenging step for an entrepreneur and may take many years, even with a plan, but it is a goal that all successful business owners strive to reach.

Conclusion

If your goal is to build a business that isn't reliant on you, you're likely working on a long-term plan, perhaps five, ten, or even twenty years, to create a self-sustaining team. Along this journey, you'll find that while your vision will guide you, the steps ahead are challenging, and you can't do it alone. You will need operators, managers, and leaders.

If your business starts to feel like a cage that drains your energy instead of a vehicle that drives your vision, it's time to change that. Together, we can transform your business into that vehicle. Let's discuss building a process and integrating systems to identify the right team members you can trust, helping you reach the status of a true owner.