Replacing Yourself In Your Small Business: It’s Just Algebra (And That’s Ok)

You’re a small business owner who’s (probably) working too much.

You’re wearing multiple hats (roles) on any given day inside your business – from marketing to sales, to project management, to customer service, to admin tasks like bookkeeping and record keeping.

The problem most small business owners run into is that there are just not enough hours in a day to cover all of these areas.

As you grow your small business, it’s likely that one or more of those roles will start to fall behind — not because of anything you’re doing, but because your time (and attention) will always be limited.

As mentioned in my “Systems Delta” post, defining systems for each of the roles inside your business will help streamline things, but as you grow even the best systems will be overloaded if they’re all being run by a single person (you).

No matter how many hours you can devote to your small business, you will inevitably be a bottleneck for growth if you don’t find a way to replace yourself within those systems.

It turns out “replacing yourself” is just a different way of saying “representing yourself” inside a given system (or function).

And in the mathematics world, when one thing is “represented” by another thing, it’s called “algebra“.

Don’t navigate away just yet — algebra, I know, can be a scary word for many folks, but it’s something that is incredibly useful for small business owners (no matter how many years you’re in business).

Generally speaking in algebra, we use letters to represent a number or some quantity that we don’t know.

In the equation 2a = 8, for example, using basic arithmetic we know that “a” is equal to 4.

The letter “a” is a variable – it can take on any value, essentially.

Replacing the variable in the equation above to the letter “b” (2b = 8), the outcome is the same: b = 4.

You Are Just A Variable Inside Your Small Business Systems

Much like how it’s described above, you are just a variable inside your small business systems.

You are “a”, in the equation 2a = 8.

And you need to replace yourself with another variable, “b” – an equivalent variable in your system so that the outcome is the same.

Do this for every system you’re currently working on inside your small business and you’ve successfully replaced yourself – which allows you to step away from your business anytime you want (our overall goal here).

Checklist Your Way To Replacing Yourself

For each role (function) you take on in any given week, develop “checklists” for the different tasks you perform in that role, as well as the time it takes you to complete those tasks.

The collective list of checklists (often called “standard operating procedures” in some businesses), then, can be handed off to others to perform that role for you — and the time allows you to estimate how many hours a week you need someone in that role (which, in turn, allows you to budget in paying someone to replace you in that role).

The better – and more detailed – your checklists get, the easier it will be to replace yourself in that role.

That role, its responsibilities (tasks & checklists) and hours define the variable (b) you need to replace yourself (a) inside your small business systems.

Small Business Sidekick Is Your Digital Marketing Variable

For my long-term clients’ digital marketing systems, Small Business Sidekick essentially serves as the variable that efficiently replaces my clients’ time inside their small business marketing system — helping them build and maintain momentum.

So, instead of them spending time updating and maintaining their website, creating regular content, publishing & posting that content on social media, monitoring & improving search positioning, managing their paid ads, reviewing digital marketing performance – among other things – Small Business Sidekick takes it completely off of their daily/weekly/monthly list.

This allows them to focus their time & energy on other important areas of their business — like spending time with their customers as well as improving, growing and eventually replacing themselves in other areas of their business.

It’s All Math (And That’s Ok)

Don’t let mathematics scare you.

As mentioned last week, it’s an area that can hold most small business owners back from growing the way they would like to.

When applied correctly, mathematics will guide you by the hand to chart your own small business destiny — one that will allow you to step away from your small business anytime you’d like.