As a founder, allowing others in the business to lead and make business-critical choices can be the greatest challenge. However, recognising where others excel and where your founder-led expertise can make the biggest impact is critical to taking the business to the next level.
When starting a business, a founder has to be everything to everyone – you wear multiple hats, juggle competing priorities and are responsible for the success of your brand and team. As you realise your vision to scale, you also realise you have to sharpen your focus on how you can have the greatest impact. Leading TAXIBOX, one of my greatest business lessons has been to surround myself with an exceptional team of leaders, who have complementary skills and who I trust to take ownership of their individual sections of the business and accelerate success.
With TAXIBOX now in its 13th year of operation, as a founder, I have to be really clear about where I allocate my time and creativity to ensure I continue to make a meaningful difference in the business. It’s not so much a process of stepping back as it is stepping sideways, building and nurturing a team of leaders who can support the ongoing growth of our business and take it to new heights.
If you’re a founder reading this article, here are three things that have worked for me in my business that may be of use for you as you continue to scale:
Embrace process
Process optimisation may not be the most glamorous business concept, but it is one of the most important. One of the best investments you can make in your business as a founder is refining its processes and documenting them, while ultimately building a business that can largely run without you. The aim is to create something that doesn’t need its founder to be hands-on every day to succeed. Not only does it mean you can make time for much needed breaks and not worry whether the business will survive, it gives your people the confidence to make key decisions, take action, and grow the business in your absence.
Before I started TAXIBOX, I had a role at Accenture focused largely on process optimisation and strategy, which often involved workflow and process mapping for big companies. When I started TAXIBOX, I effectively wanted to run it like a McDonald’s, where every single thing was process-mapped and anyone could pick up a manual and understand the business. We spent the best part of the first eight years in business heavily investing in refining and documenting the process.
This process also enabled us to identify areas that can be automated, where we can use technology to improve and help scale the business. For example, in the early days of operation we used to have a five-page document on booking a TAXIBOX that involved Excel files and handwritten quotes. Today, we have an industry- leading, tech- driven booking system, which automates a manual process allowing team members to focus on exceptional customer service.
As your business scales, success cannot rely on a founder’s hustle alone. Nail the basics to set yourself up for long-term growth.
Recognise your value
A founder is in a unique position to think creatively about the business – but only if they have a trusted team looking after its daily operations, giving you the headspace to think big and innovate. As the saying goes, to grow a business you need to work ‘on’ the business rather than ‘in’ it.
A key part of scaling is recognising your value – that unique point of difference no one else can bring to the business. For me that is building out our strategic partnerships, such as our international expansion with U-Haul in the US, developing our properties, as well as expanding our footprint in the local market, with TAXIBOX now being a national brand.
This is the most challenging part of being a founder. Stepping away from operational duties and the day-to-day to focus on your strengths and what is best for the business. However, this is also the key element to success. As a founder, you want everything to run perfectly and can trick yourself into believing you are the only one who can achieve this. For me, personally, this step hasn’t always been easy. However, in recent years, as I have built out our senior leadership team, they have helped me realise when I might be stepping in unnecessarily. Surrounding myself with a trusted team with similar values has empowered me to take that step back and focus on areas where I can really make an impact.
Dollars and sense
With robust systems in place and the right people in the job, next step is to make sure your business is set up to empower your people and facilitate growth.
Key things to consider include:
Know your numbers: Do the financials stack up? Is your business making enough money to support a leadership team? If you are scaling, this could mean you draw less money for your salary or seek additional funding to facilitate growth.
Trust in your people: There’s often a fear as a founder that people don’t have the same ambitions as you, and therefore may not do the job the same way as you. You need to trust that you’ve selected the right people for the right roles. You should not be micromanaging them or doing their jobs for them.
A clear organisational structure: How should decisions be made? Who is responsible? When should the founder become involved? These are key questions that need to be addressed upfront. When I first stepped back, I made the mistake of giving 75 percent of the responsibility to one team member, which was way too much straight off. We’ve since split it more evenly between two team members with a better synergy within departments: one handles logistics and the other administration and customer service. Culture and coaching are also key to developing managers into leaders.
As a founder, your business is a huge part of your world. Recognising when you need to take a step back and empower your people to lead it into the next stage of growth can be your biggest challenge, but also the most rewarding experience as a leader. For me, building my team of leaders has been my biggest success and proudest achievement. Together, we have led TAXIBOX to becoming a household Australian brand, as well as being internationally recognised. Empowering your people to take ownership and drive success will see your business reach new heights too.
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