Signs the business depends on you
Crews call you for answers a lead could give. Quotes wait for your approval. You are the only one who knows the real schedule. Vacations come with a phone in hand. A buyer or partner would struggle to understand how the business runs without sitting next to you for a month.
Why it matters
Owner dependence limits growth, because every new customer adds to one person's load. It limits time off. And if you ever sell, the business is worth more when it runs on written decisions and a team that owns them.
Step 1. List the decisions only you make
For two weeks, write down every decision that comes to you. Not tasks, decisions. Pricing a job, approving overtime, choosing which customer gets the next opening. The list is usually longer than expected and more repetitive.
Step 2. Turn repeat decisions into rules
Many of those decisions repeat. Each repeat decision can become a written rule with limits. Jobs under a set size can be priced by the estimator from the price sheet. Overtime up to a set amount can be approved by the lead. Score the rules and start with the ones that ranked highest.
Step 3. Hand each rule to one owner
Each rule gets one named owner and a check date. On that date, look at what happened together. Adjust the rule or the limits, then leave it with the owner.
The following is a generic illustration, not a client. An auto repair owner hands approval of small add-on repairs to the service writer, with a ceiling and a rule to call the customer first. The check after two weeks looks at approvals, callbacks and any complaints.
Step 4. Keep the record
A business that runs without its owner runs on records. Every decision, owner, date and result in one place. North Star Vision keeps that record ranked with a published formula, so the owner can see the whole business without being in the middle of it.