Here, I explore history, mythology, and the deeper forces shaping our world — and how men and families can prepare for, and adapt to, these times of great change.
Five ways to run your business into the ground
So your business could nearly run without you. Disgusting, isn't it? Don't worry. Five steps will fix that.
One. Answer every question personally. All of them. A team that gets answers from you daily will kindly stop looking anywhere else, including at their own judgement.
Two. Keep the numbers in your head, where they're safe. Written down, they could be read, understood, even acted on by others. In your head, every decision must come home to roost.
Three. Hold meetings that end in agreement to keep talking. If a decision threatens to occur, share how you've been mulling things over lately. The room will settle.
Four. Hire nobody who could outgrow you. Capable people develop views, take initiative, and eventually handle things without checking. Recruit accordingly.
Five. Treat every fire as a personal invitation. Extinguishers are for corridors. You are for fires. Attend each one personally and the business will learn to save them all for you.
Follow all five faithfully and the business will never leave you. Neither, of course, will you ever leave it.
And the bit that isn't funny: every one of those steps is something a good owner does out of love. Answering is care. Holding the numbers close is protectiveness. Attending every fire is devotion. The curse is almost never ego. It's devotion pointed at the tasks instead of the thing, at being needed instead of building what's needed. Structure is how devotion scales.
If this made you laugh and wince in the same breath, forward it to an owner who'll do the same. The ones who laugh hardest are the ones it's about.
David
David Schofield · Purpose In Action
P.S. If this was forwarded to you: I'm David Schofield. I help owners break every one of these habits without the business falling over. If you recognised yourself and laughed, write to me at david@purpose-in-action.co.uk.
Purpose In Action Coaching & Consulting
Here, I explore history, mythology, and the deeper forces shaping our world — and how men and families can prepare for, and adapt to, these times of great change.
Christmas is the only fortnight the world gives a business owner for free. Clients stop emailing. Suppliers close. The phone goes genuinely quiet. It's the one stretch of the year when leaving costs nothing, and plenty of owners still spend it half-working at the kitchen table, laptop warm, family cooling. So here's a forcing function with a deadline nature set. Book the last two weeks of December off. Now, in early November. Out-of-office drafted, diary blocked, said out loud at home so it's...
Buyers have a price for the business owner's curse. They take it off the offer, when they'll buy at all. The numbers are stark. In its 2023 survey of 1,162 US business owners, the Exit Planning Institute found 75% would like to exit within ten years, and it reckons the business is typically 80% or more of the owner's net worth. That's most of a family's future riding on one sale. And the question a buyer is really asking is whether the business is the owner. Take them out and the machine...
Who in your business can spend £500 without asking you? If the answer is nobody, you don't have a team. You have an audience. I ask owners this because the answer maps the whole business in one number. It tells me how decisions travel, how much initiative is legal, and how many times a day the queue forms at one desk. The usual defence is trust. It's not that I don't trust them, it's just easier to run it past me. But watch what the ambiguity actually does. The diligent ones miss things that...