Is It Time to Fire Yourself?
Do you find yourself in a position where you are the final decision maker in every aspect of your company?
Be honest:
- Do your customers insist on speaking to you instead of your employees?
- Can your managers make financial decisions without your approval?
- Who brings in your new clients?
If you find yourself in a position where the flow of operations and client communications must pass through you, then you might want to consider shifting your structure so you can increase the value of your company.
Why? Because a business that can thrive without the owner at the center of all its sales & operations is more valuable. After all, if you’re selling the company, you’re removing yourself from these processes. The more you can prove the company can operate and flourish without you, the more you’ll be able to increase the value of your company.
Therefore, in order to increase the value of your company to its highest potential, you should ‘fire yourself slowly’ by slowly removing yourself from sales & operations.
How? Here are some helpful tips to make the business less about you and revolve more about the company
How To Increase The Value Of Your Company By Eliminating Yourself
Rebrand Your Company
If your name is in the company, you’ll probably want to rebrand. Why? If your name is Palomo Marketing, customers and clients will insist on speaking to Mr. Palomo. The best way to keep customers within the company guidelines is to remove your name from the equation. Also, if you have a website that displays the names & bios of your key staff members, then you’ll want to re-rank based on alphabetical rather than title hierarchy.
Hire A Decision Maker
Hire a person to become the President of your company. By giving this individual the title of president, you’re showing that they have the authority to make decisions and solve problems for both employees and customers. This process actually makes your life easier, because now your job is to manage this one person rather than an entire organization. The more time and effort you invest, the less needed you are in day to day operations, the more free time you have, and the more valuable your company becomes to business buyers.
Create a Repeatable & Scalable Support Structure
Use your team to help create systems and processes. Then utilize technology, like Slack and Trello, to help create a decentralized & collaborative structure for workflow & communication. Another good idea is to use your CRM system to set up autoresponders – automatic responses to anyone sending you an email explaining that you are unable to answer their questions immediately. This will help train your customers & employees to direct their questions to the person best suited to answer them quickly. The less available you make yourself, the more you’ll force these new systems and process upon your customers and employees.
Rock The Ship By Playing Hookey
Is this new process working? One way to find out is to set up a home office so you can spend more time away from your location. If you’re not around, employees will be forced to go to their managers and customers will be forced to work with those physically at the shop. Then you can see what areas are working and where improvement is needed.
Summary of How To Fire Yourself To Increase The Value Of Your Company
For a company owner, removing thyself from the day to day operations may seem sacrilegious. The steps above can be complicated and feel counterintuitive & illogical. Most likely, they will even have a short-term negative impact on your company’s sales. But if you’re looking to increase the value of your company, then you have to take the necessary steps to get your employees and your customers trained to go to the proper people. Then, you’ll be able to scale up further and ultimately maximize the value of your business.
If you have any questions about ways to increase the value of your company, feel free to contact us.