As a business grows, the owner becomes the person everyone goes to. You know the customers, how the work gets done and what has gone wrong before. If someone has a question, asking you is faster than working out who else might know the answer. The problem is when that becomes the operating system. A business can have a capable team and good people doing their jobs, but still struggle to function without the owner being involved in daily details. Decisions wait, questions pile

Why owners become involved in everything Businesses often start with one person and a brilliant idea. That person puts in the blood, sweat, tears, long hours and weekends to get it built and set up. Then it grows. One person becomes two, two becomes five, and eventually there are 15 people sitting in a room together, all working towards the same idea. At that stage, the owner wears a lot of hats. They are the owner, manager, decision-maker, problem-solver and, quite often, th

There is a point in almost every successful construction business where the problems change. At the start, growth is exciting. The founder wins work on reputation, projects get delivered because experienced people know what they are doing, and decisions happen quickly because everyone knows who to ask. The business grows because of the people inside it. Then something shifts. The company reaches a size where the things that made it successful start creating problems. Communic