How I Built A Service Business To Run On Its Own

In the last 10 years, over 100s of people have asked me how I run my business while I watch the kids, windsurf, travel, sleep...my answer?

I don’t.

My business is running without me 90% of my time.

This year, I’m bringing that to 100%.

The formula? Most people are the bottlenecks of their own careers.

So what exactly are they and how do we remove ourselves from our businesses and still have them running like a well-oiled machine:

First and foremost, before we learn the how, let’s see why some business owners think they can’t remove themselves.

Here are the biggest reasons:

𝗗𝗿𝗼𝗽 𝗜𝗻 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆
Most people think if they are not the ones doing the work, the results will turn out horrible and the business will soon close shop.

It’s normal anyone will think that way, who cares about the business most other than the owner.

𝗣𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻
Most people are so in love with the doing process that they want to do that everyday, it’s not like work to them.

They enjoy it so much, it’s fun and brings in the income, what’s not to love.

𝗟𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗖𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀
I used to have the mindset that my clients will not want to work with me if I’m not the one directly helping them with their tasks.

These are all mindset blockages that prevents anyone from starting a business, building it to run on it’s own while making an ongoing income from it.

The solution is to shift that mindset out of the way and remove these bottlenecks:

1. Client Communication

I used to think I must be the one chatting with my clients, must have phone calls or personally travel to them to meet them and discuss ideas. I thought they would go to someone else if I was not the one doing this!

2. Deliverables

I was a graphic design freelancer, sometimes doing websites as well. These were fun, but I can’t get them to my clients if I was not the one sitting down to churn them out on a daily basis. Worst of all, I couldn’t get over my ownself to delegate them because I thought nobody is able to create what I could create.

3. Decision Making

I had to get my control-freak persona out of the way. I used to think I must be in control of it all. Even with a VA (Virtual Assistant), I did not feel safe allowing her to make day-to-day decisions between client and the team. One time, all work stopped for the day waiting for me to be available to give them the go ahead. That was a waste of time and resources.

4. Lack of Boundaries

10 years ago, I thought I could do everything and I made sure to respond to every email, calls and issues in minutes. All edits to designs are free, can you imagine that? If I can do that, clients will flock to me in droves.

But really, they did, I was swarmed! Good problem to have, but I wasn’t ready to serve them. I couldn’t travel, I must work on their tasks when I was sick.

I was working alone and always pushing myself to deliver. I love my work and working with my clients. But it was hard to keep up, and it was neverending.

5. Hourly Billing

I used to give myself a goal of making $4000 a month. I used that to pro-rate the fee I would charge clients per hour. Worst idea ever.

My per hour rate came up to $22 per hour but my work took up to 16 hours a day, and I really only get $4000 per month, nothing more. How liberating!

6. Creating Proposals

Still creating free proposals with a wait and see approach if clients will take up your offer?

I used to take 2 to 3 days creating proposals that include displaying my services beautifully on a deck and wondering if the client is keen to work with me. Most never came back, some took my proposals to another designer.

Next, how do we get rid of the bottlenecks?

Let's get to it:

1. Leverage Systems

These are working parts that can have separate scopes but are connected together to lead to a desired outcome.

I created systems for everything from onboarding clients to designing a graphic, to delivering their requested designs.

Without systems in place, the work will require someone, who’s most likely the business owner to prevent missed deadlines, mistakes and communication breakdown.

2. Document Processes

After 20 years in the graphic design service industry, I learned not to believe in relying on memory. I could use a process to provide a design solution, impress my clients and forget all the steps the next day.

The price to pay? Another one day gone trying to figure out the processes all over again.

The lesson learned? Create a manual and put down all processes in black and white without leaving anything out.

This manual must be so clear that anyone other than the one creating it can look at it the first time and execute everything in it without asking you.

3. Hire and Delegate

This was the hardest part for me. When I first started building a team, I had to delegate design work in bite-sized parts to my team designer.

It was excruciating because I didn’t know how to tell my designers what I had in my head.

So I created a series of training materials to show them what I would do if I were to create a piece of design to clients.

4. Create A Scalable Business Model

Take hourly billing and proposals out the door. I’ve packaged offers and services into different plans, similar to how you can sell products and SaaS. Then, payment has to be made upfront before service starts.

Instead of chasing unpaid invoices, creating long proposals that nobody reads, the business brings in revenue to pay for expenses on time.

The result? An extension of me on autopilot.

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