The other day, I met with a client for a strategy session. It was our time to work on the business. Be strategic. Check the process. And make sure things were running smoothly.

As many clients do, she was confiding in me. She explained that she felt like she was so busy working on things that she was feeling out of touch with the day to day of her company. She said, it felt like her “company was spiraling out of control.”

For reference, she’s running multiple locations, lots of projects, has big teams helping get things done, and she’s creating new strategic initiatives every day. Her revenue has doubled every year since we started working together. And, there’s a lot going on. Never a dull moment. I could see why she was feeling like things are “spiraling out of control.” But, I had to ask her this blunt (maybe even a little taboo) question, What exactly do you think it means to run a company? I don’t think everyone has the same answer, so I was curious what she would say.

She thought about it for a little bit. I could see her evaluating this question and framing her answer very carefully. She took a big deep breath and said, “Running a company means I know how to do everything in the company.” I smiled. A great answer! Being able to work in every aspect of your business is great! But. It can get a little stressful. Having to know how to balance your books, how to update the website, how to get the graphics to look just right on social media, how to create contracts for vendors, etc. Running a company takes so many different tasks and skill sets. It’s SUPER RARE to have all the skills needed to do everything.

When I work with clients, I try to help them realize this as soon as possible; you can’t possibly do absolutely everything in your business and have it thrive. You just can’t. The most successful business owners I’ve worked with and met are effective communicators, delegate often, verify results, document procedures, and trust the process. When they’re feeling a little out of control, they go back to the process. They literally work on their business instead of in their business.

Running the company means working on the business. And asking these questions:

• How does the business make money? What is my role in that process?
• What else needs to be done and who does it?
• Why do they do it? How do they know they need to do it?
• What’s documented?
• How can you improve the process?

I met with a super smart business person a number of years back. He was actually the person who inspired me to write my book, Taboo Business Questions. He said time and time again the following: “Running a company isn’t about doing everything, or even about knowing everything. It’s about surrounding yourself with the right people who share your vision, who know all the details needed to make everything work, and staying focused on your role. That’s how you run a business.” 

To feel more in control, remember these 3 sayings:

• I don’t have to do everything. I just have to know who’s responsible and that they’re following our process.
• I don’t have to know everything. I just have to be resourceful enough to make sure everything gets done.
• I don’t have to be everything. I just have to be focused on what I do in the business and delegate effectively.

So many business owners our team supports rely on us to take care of the details of their business so they can stay focused on their high income producing activities. We document their processes so there’s no question about how something gets done, when it gets done, or what the next steps are. It’s all laid out. 

In all businesses, the business owners should focus on the function that really only he or she can do. But, it’s rarely the same function. Meaning, even if we take a group of entrepreneurial dentists, they might not all be focused on the same functions. One might be focused on building the brand (doing videos, blogs, networking, etc) and has a team of “associate dentists” that perform the dentistry work at the office. Another dentist might hire a marketing team to focus on the brand while he or she does the dentistry work. Yet another dentist might want to focus on hiring more dentists and has a team for both marketing and doing the dentistry work. There could also be a dentist who doesn’t want to do any of that and wants to focus on evaluating and buying more practices that already have marketing, branding, and dentists that work there. 

You see, it’s all about perspective of what you want to be in control of. You’re the business owner. You decide what you should be focused on in the business. Make sure the rest gets done by hiring the right team. Then, work on your business. Grow it!

I’m curious, though. What do you think you should be focused on? Has it evolved over time as your business grows? Share your thoughts.