Good morning, and Happy Labor Day.
There’s something a little funny about a business owner writing about work on Labor Day while sitting at work.
But here we are. 😂
Friday, I left you with a little homework.
I asked you to pay attention every time your business reached for you and write down one sentence:
“They needed me to know ______.”
Maybe you filled up a page.
Maybe you only wrote down two or three things.
Maybe you completely forgot I gave you homework until you started reading this.
No judgment. 😂
The important part isn't how long your list is.
The important part is what the list is trying to tell you.
Read the list. Don't defend it.
Business owners are good at explaining why things are the way they are.
“I handle that because I've always handled it.”
“That customer only wants to talk to me.”
“I'm the only one who knows how to price that.”
“They called because it was an unusual situation.”
And sometimes those answers are completely legitimate.
The goal here isn't to build a business where nobody ever needs the owner.
There are decisions I should make.
There are relationships I should be involved in.
There are situations where 16 years of experience can't be replaced by a checklist taped to the wall.
But that's not what we're looking for.
We're trying to separate two very different things:
They needed the owner.
They needed information that only the owner currently has.
That's where this exercise starts getting interesting.
Some interruptions are really missing systems.
Suppose somebody calls you because a major customer has an unusual request that could affect a long-term relationship.
That may need you.
But suppose somebody calls because nobody knows where you order the 54-inch laminate.
That's probably not an owner problem.
That's an information problem.
If your team needs you to approve a major purchase, that may be exactly how you've designed the business.
If they need you for the 47th time to explain how to price something you sell every week, your business may be trying to tell you something.
If production stops because you're the only person who knows a password...
If nobody knows what to tell a customer unless they ask you...
If every unusual job immediately gets dropped on your desk...
If the answer to every question begins with: “Ask Ruben.”
Eventually I have to admit that Ruben might be the bottleneck. 😂
Not because the people around me aren't capable.
Maybe because I've never taken what I know and made it available to them.
The owner's head can become the company's filing cabinet.
This happens slowly.
You start the business.
You learn by doing.
You make mistakes.
You develop shortcuts.
You remember which vendor handles what.
You know which customer likes things a certain way.
You know why one price works and another doesn't.
You know the weird little things nobody would ever think to put in an employee handbook.
After enough years, you carry an incredible amount of institutional knowledge.
That's valuable.
But there's a problem.
If the knowledge only exists in your head, the business doesn't actually own it yet.
You do.
That's one of the things I'm learning to look for when I read my own business between the lines.
The question isn't simply:
“Can my people do their jobs without me?”
A better question might be:
“Have I given them access to what I know so they have a fair chance to?”
That's a different conversation.
Your interruptions are giving you a blueprint.
This is why I didn't want you fixing anything Friday.
I wanted you observing.
Because now the list can become useful.
Take each item and ask:
Why did this have to come to me?
Was it authority?
Experience?
Relationship?
Information?
Training?
A missing process?
A decision nobody has been empowered to make?
Something we've simply never written down?
Now we're not complaining about interruptions anymore.
We're mapping the business.
And once you can see the pattern, you can start deciding what actually needs to change.
Maybe one interruption becomes an SOP.
Maybe another becomes a training video.
Maybe something belongs in your CRM.
Maybe your team needs a pricing guide.
Maybe someone needs authority you've never clearly given them.
And maybe a few things stay exactly where they are because, after looking at them, you decide:
Nope. That's still my job.
That's okay too.
The goal isn't removing yourself from your business. The goal is becoming intentional about where your business truly needs you.
A Labor Day thought for the owner who is still working
Today is Labor Day.
Some businesses are closed.
Some owners are taking the day off.
Some of us are sitting at a desk with a cup of coffee talking about business. 😂
But maybe that's what makes today a pretty good day to think about this.
We spend so much time asking:
What work needs to get done?
Maybe owners occasionally need to ask:
What work still can't get done without me—and why?
Not so we can disappear.
Not so we can brag that the business “runs itself.”
But because every piece of knowledge we successfully transfer makes the people around us stronger.
Every decision we teach someone else to make builds confidence.
Every repeatable process we document gives the business a little more stability.
And every unnecessary interruption we eliminate gives us more time for the things that really do require the owner.
Read what your business is telling you.
So pull Friday's list back out.
Or start one today.
Don't judge it.
Don't defend it.
Just read it.
Because somewhere between all those little questions, phone calls, approvals and:
“Hey Ruben, do you know...?”
Your business may already be telling you exactly what you need to build next.
Happy Labor Day.
And remember:
“The light at the end of the tunnel may be you.”