I run a small manufacturing outfit (about 25 employees) and I'm still the one quoting every job and running the floor. I know I need to step back, but every time I try, something slips through the cracks and I jump back in. How did you actually remove yourself from sales and daily ops without the business falling apart?
Delegation
How to step out of sales and operations
Hire someone smarter than you and let them make mistakes. Sounds flippant but it's the ounly way. You keep jumping in because you haven't accepted that a 90% solution from someone else is fine.
Following. Same problem. I tried delegating quotes last month and we lost two jobs because my guy priced them too high. He's learning but it's painful.
Write down every task you do for two weeks. Then circle the ones only you can do. If your list looks like mine, you'll realize half of it is stuff anyone with a pulse could handle after a quick walkthrough.
Also, sales is different from ops. For sales, you need a process, not just a person. If your quoting is all in your head, you can't hand it off. Document it.
Yeah, quoting is definitely all in my head. Been doing it for 15 years. I guess I'm scared a new person will lowball everything.
Then don't hand off quoting first. Hand off the floor. Pick the least critical thing and delegate it completely. For For me it was ordering supplies. Took a month of hand-holding but now I never touch it.
What if you don't have anyone to delegate to? My crew is good at their jobs but none of them want to be a manager. I'm not paying for a $90k hire right now.
Then you promote from within even if they're reluctant. Or bring in a part-time consultant to build the process and train your future manager. Cheaper than you doing it forever.
Honestly, the business might dip for a few months. That's the cost of stepping out. If you can't stomach a dip, you can't scale. Sorry.
I can stomach a dip if it's planned. But right now I feel like I'm the only thing keeping the wheels on. I'll start with the two-week list and see what's real.
One more thing: set a rule that you don't touch anything unless someone asks you twice. Forces them to solve it first.