Is Your Business Built to Run Without You?

Welcome back to the Mid Market Insider!

Today, I’m diving into a simple test to help you see if your business is too owner-dependent… before it becomes a problem. If you want to scale (or someday step away), this is a great place to start to determine where you stand. 

You don’t think you have owner dependence in your business?

Here’s a 5-question test that will tell you if you do:

(Most business owners don’t pass)👇

1. Could you take a 2-week vacation without coming back to a dumpster fire?

If stepping away means decisions stall or fires go unchecked, your business is still running on your presence, not your systems.

2. Do customers, vendors, or team members say, “I’ll just check with the boss”?

If every aspect of the business is rooted in your decision-making, the business isn’t scalable.

3. Do you have SOPs?

As simple as the question is, it’s common for many businesses to not have SOPs at all.

4. If you disappeared tomorrow, who would make the hard calls?

If nobody comes to mind, that’s not good.

If no one else knows who owns the tough decisions, your team stalls, stress will likely compound, and growth will come to a halt.

5. Is your calendar full of tasks no one else is trained to handle?

That’s a risk waiting to become a big problem.

An efficient business distributes responsibility and documents everything they do (yes, even the business owner).

$10M+ revenue, strong margins, loyal customers, and a business that is worth far less if something happens to the owner.

It’s a high-paying job with a support team.

Independence from the owner is the foundation for scale, sanity, and long-term success.

How did you do with all 5 questions?

Reply to this email and let me know.

Reader Question of The Week

For context, this is a recent section I’ve decided to add. After receiving many questions in my day-to-day as the co-founder of Four Pillars, I wanted to share the most common ones in my newsletter in hopes that it’s valuable to you in some way.

If you have a question you want answered in a future newsletter, please reply directly to this email and I’ll do my best to answer it. Now, onto this week’s question:👇

Q: “How do I reduce customer concentration risk when one client is 30%+ of revenue?”

Definitely no easy answer here.

Of all the changes needed within a business, reducing customer concentration is one that can take the longest.

To me, customer concentration often is the result of an undefined sales & marketing function. Sometimes the key customer is growing so fast you don't have capacity for other customers, nor time for business development activities.

Regardless, now is the time to develop a plan to address it.

That’s all for today’s newsletter! Thanks for reading!

📅 Next Week:

Next week, I’ll be diving into why predictability is the new premium, the true meaning behind “boring” businesses, and why they often command a higher multiple. You won’t want to miss it!

Keep building,
Nick

P.S. 

If you want to discuss your business goals in greater detail, book a discovery call: