Why the founder is often the bottleneck in their own business

Almost every founder I work with is the bottleneck in their own business.

It's not because they're bad at running it, usually it's the complete opposite! They're so good at it that everyone comes to them for absolutely EVERYTHING.

There are multiple decisions, approvals and questions being directed towards them and each one takes time, headspace and interrupts workflow.

Often someone will tell me they need help with a specific task, but when I've actually gone to look at it, the real issue is they're the only point of contact for marketing, admin, finance, HR, all of it. Nothing happens unless it goes through them first.

Growing past that point isn't about working harder. It's about building systems and processes that hold up on their own, people who can make decisions without checking in first, and your time being spent on the stuff only you can do (or with your feet up?! Very valid also 😅)

That's what an operations partner is actually there for, not doing more, but making sure less needs to go through you in the first place