You don’t have to get out of delivery.
Agencies that are too reliant on their founder do have a problem. It’s just not the problem you think it is.
It’s not the work you need to get away from. It’s the accountability.
You’re great at the work. You think more strategically than everyone else on your team. But you’re too proactive. Years of entrepreneurial drive means you jump in and put out the fire, then the next fire, then the fire after that.
You take ownership of everything. Of course you do, that’s how you got here.
So let’s get you out of delivery.
Hang on. This is a competitive market. Your ability to swoop into a project, wow a client, and make things better is an asset. If you’re not doing that, is the business using you to the fullest?
The bit you’re actually bad at is the decision about when to step in. And it’s not even a decision. It’s an instinct. An ingrained behaviour at this point.
So, what to do?
Well, unsurprisingly, here’s some thoughts…
Why are you looking for someone just like you?
The thought of replacing yourself is daunting. You could make a case for it being impossible.
Your knowledge and vision, your ability to sell and deliver, the unique way you’re compensated and incentivised as the founder. That’s not easy to recreate.
The good news is, if you’re looking for someone who can do what you do, you’re looking in the wrong place.
Why would you want more of you? You’re the person who caused this mess.
What you’re looking for is something different.
You, but spread out across more people.
First the accountability bit.
Get someone who makes that decision about when you should step in. Someone that treats you like a resource. They own the outcome (do good work, make the sale, whatever it is). They have the whole team and a finite amount of you that they can use, and when they activate you, the scope is defined.
Bonus value: when the scope of what you do is defined, you are on the road to finding someone else who can be that specific resource. That’s the delivery bit of you.
The reason you’re hard to replace is that you’re you. This exact set of skills and experience that fits what the business needs like a glove, because that’s why the business exists in its current shape.
We don’t want all of you. We want bits of you.
The accountability bit, the delivery bit, the sales bit.
The combination in one person is hard to find. Split them out and it’s more common. There might even be someone in your team ready to do it.
This approach also means you are ready to be replaced, but you don’t have to do it right now.
Should you even be doing this right now?
Is it such a bad thing that your agency relies on you? You’re being paid, after all.
Is a business being efficient if it doesn’t get the maximum back from its most expensive person?
And aside from getting your money’s worth: is now the moment to pull you off strategic client work and relationships? Is hiring your replacement the investment the business should be making?
Have we grown to the point where you can step back yet, or should we invest the replacing you money in growth?
Eventually, if you want to exit, there needs to be a point where nothing relies on you. But how do you get from here to there?
By being balanced, probably.
By making you replaceable and using you as an asset, waiting for the moment where you are more valuable out of delivery than in it.