When Your Business Outgrows You

Your business outgrows you when you become the decision bottleneck, the constant fixer, and the person everyone relies on to keep the wheels turning. I break down the warning signs, the identity shifts that unlock real scaling, and the practical ways to let go without lowering standards. 

• The clearest signs the business has outgrown the owner 
• Why owners cling to the fixer identity and fear looking lazy 
• Shifting value from hours worked to leadership and judgment 
• Investing in personal development to build a new version of yourself 
• Moving from control to leadership and from doing to deciding 
• Letting the team own outcomes while strengthening systems and processes 
• The hidden cost of not evolving: burnout, stalled growth, dependency 

If you feel like that is you, “reach out to me, join the PMC Learning Lab, message me, email me, come to Coffee Convos.”

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Transcript

Signs You Have Become The Bottleneck

Hiring Middle Management Before Burnout

Why Letting Go Feels Risky

Your Value Is Not Your Hours

Identity Shift Through Personal Development

Delegation Without Losing Standards

The Real Cost Of Staying Stuck

Reach Out And Talk It Through

SPEAKER_00 0:00

All right, another topic aiming at the business owners, small business owners, but also something really helpful for those that are listening that have been thinking that one day they might like to step inside the business ownership world. And you know, you guys will also find this a good listen. And what we're going to talk about is the signs that your business has outgrown you. When your business has outgrown you, you are going to find yourself involved in everything. Your team is going to be relying on you way too heavily. Your decision-making bottlenecks sit with you. You're constantly putting out fires, and you don't have any space to think strategically. I'm just going to pause there for a minute for you to have a think about if you feel like that sounds like you. Because if that sounds like you, then it could be a sign that you need to make some changes in the business. I I remember being in this state, in this situation, but no one telling me that I needed to bring someone else in. And fortunately, the universe looked after me and brought someone to me when I didn't even know that I needed them. And now I don't know how I would cope without an operations manager. But it wasn't something that I was like, oh, I now need to get an operations manager. And I don't know whether I would have made that decision on my own if it hadn't like slapped me in the face. Because no one told me. Like, no one tells you when you should bring that person in. No one tells you, talks to you about that middle management, the head of department, operational manager, GM. Like even now, as it sits, like when do I get to a stage where I need a general manager? Like I I don't know. I don't know if someone knows, please tell me. Call me up and say, Ash, we'll do a podcast on it. I actually don't know. And and I mean all of those middle management positions as well, like, you know, we'll go into those in future episodes about like what what they actually entail, like which what each one does. For me, and for those that maybe know my journey and know how my growth has been, the operations manager, we call an operations manager and client success manager. And that's exactly what she is. She's there for retention, looking after our clients, looking after our team, and helping facilitate on an operational level all those ideas that I have. So operational manager for me is like absolutely perfect. What we have recently, like just whispered little discussion points about what support it would look like for her in the future, and talking about those middle management positions, which is something that we'll talk about, you know, um inside our business over the next 12 months, so that we can continue with that growth. But yeah, when I when I needed that, I didn't actually know because no one no one told me. Like, but then on the other hand, I see some businesses getting them in like way too early when I was like, I didn't even know you needed one at that stage. So everyone's a little bit different. But yeah, that's I think that if you are if you're in a situation where, like I said, I'm gonna repeat those things, involved in everything, your team's relying on you too heavily, decision-making bottlenecks sit with you, you're constantly putting out fires, and you don't have space to think strategically, then that could be a sign that you need someone to step in to give you support. So, why does this happen? So it happens because the identity that you built the business on has been the reliable one, the expert, the fixer, and also because letting go feels like losing control or value. And that's really where a lot of people sit. I feel like the conversations that I've been having in the last couple of weeks with business owners in this position is that they don't want their team to think that they're not working. They don't want their team to think that they're being lazy or not working as hard as they are. I think they recognize how hard property managers work. And unless they're doing what is perceived as the same amount, they just feel like they might get judged by their own team. And the thing is, is that you have to have that white space and you have to have those Friday lunches with other business owners, and you have to have those coffee catch-ups with people that have been in your position. That's not being lazy, that is changing the value that you have. So the way that I described it is that because I used to have that same thought, so I I totally get it. But for me, I had to really recognize that the value that I bring is not with time, it's with knowledge and it's with experience. And so I could have situations where I, because I put out spot fires and you know, do I still do deal with escalations? Saying, saying that, like to give you an example, I had three escalations in November, I had zero in December, zero January, one in February, and one in March. So on a portfolio of over at you know 1200, that's sort of what escalation levels look like on my part. So obviously the team do a pretty like they have things that come up, but they don't have to all go to me. They go to me when they're like really, really critical. Like I say, when a current affair's been CC'd into emails, that's when it gets escalated to me. Not warranted PS, by the way, but you know, that type of um escalation. So not a lot, but that's the value that I bring. It's and and the value and the energy that I have to bring into those situations is freaking exhausting. And so I could have some weeks where I would be working 80 hours a week, and then there'll be some weeks where I might work two hours a week. It doesn't actually matter how many hours I work in the business because the support and the value that I bring to the team is not tracked by time and it's not tracked by anything else. It's tracked by the relief I can give my team in those tough moments. It's it's by being approachable, by being available. All of those things is where the value that my team see me in. So that's what they need. That's what's important to them, therefore, that's where my value is. So don't ever have that thought that you know you're being lazy and that you you want to make sure that they can see you working as hard as they are. You do, it's completely different workload, should never ever be compared. The other reason why this sometimes happens is where we start getting problems in the business and where it's outgrown is because the business is going to continue to grow, but your identity stays the same. And as I mentioned in last week's podcast, the identity has to change. You have to have a new version of you. You can't stay in that property manager operational mindset and be a business owner. It's two completely different identities. So you've got to start asking yourself, what are you gonna do to step out of that version of you? Now, if you are not a business owner and you're listening today and you are a property manager going into BDM, maybe you are a leasing officer going into property management or an inspection officer, whatever it is, it's going to take a different identity shift. So, what personal work and development are you doing on yourself to get to that new version of you? Now, there's always free versions, there's podcasts, there's reading books, there's uh free webinars, there is, you know, really affordable sort of coaching, there's personal coaching, there's business coaching, there's programs you can do. Like there is so much that you can do from an identity point of view to change that, to change that version of you. But if you just are going to go along your same old way without upskilling yourself from a personal development point of view, you're not going to be able to get there as quickly or as confidently without it. So you need you need to have you need to invest time into something. And like I said, it doesn't always have to be paid, it can be free as well. Coffee Convos is a great place as well. But for me, um personally, I do have paid options. So like I use a personal coach, which happens to be a bit of a business coach as well, and I invest in that and I invest a lot of money into my personal development every single month, and every year I change it because the different version of me that I want to be for the next year is different every year. I want to change that version of me. So it is something that's constantly evolving, and the the people you know who are successful are the ones investing in this. So it could even be something as simple as a new photo shoot. So recently in January, I took a new photographer on who did a personal branding shoot, and I got a stylist because I wanted a new version of me going into 2026. I wanted to look differently, I wanted to sound differently, I wanted to dress differently, and I wanted to show up to my audience differently. And to do that, I had to, I had to switch things around. I had to stop having my cream and white nice photos. I needed to change that into bold, which you'll see on all my branding at the moment, bold monotone colours. Like I had to switch that and it was it was really uncomfortable. My my photo shoot was great, but it was really, it was very different than what I've done in the past. And so very different to what I've done in the past. And it it was it was uncomfortable, and they but they turned out great, and it's definitely given me a new version of yeah, showing up, which I didn't have before. So don't ever think things like that come easy because that didn't come easy, and it I had to invest in myself and my confidence, and and you know, just even invest financially into doing it. So that's how that's how you shift, you do different shit, basically. And and that is really the heart of what this episode is about. So quite often we look at systems, so we think that we need different systems, stepping into different roles, but we neglect to look at yeah, that different version of ourself, which really does need to show up looking a little bit different. We need to move from control to leadership, which people are very quick to say, I'm not controlling. And I don't think, I don't think there's a lot of people that actually are controlling. It's just that bit of fear, like of I actually find it's fear of looking lazy. That's a lot of the conversations that I've had, that's what it's been. It's the moving from the doing to deciding, which is probably the most easiest thing to do. And then moving from being needed to building capacity in others. Again, I don't think people really worry about being needed, but they probably just don't understand the how it's looking inside their business where they need to look focus at more of that capability in the others, which everyone has, but sometimes we don't allow people to do that because we don't allow them to have mistakes, or there's definitely people out there that micromanage a little bit too much, so that can definitely happen. The goal isn't to be the most valuable in the room, it's to build a room that doesn't rely on you for everything. So the minute you can step into that space where you're not relied on for everything, allows you to work on the business, it gives you white space, allows you to live that that life that you wanted to create by having a business. Whether that's for, you know, it's always going to be there's financial reasons for business and lifestyle and all of those things, and really just going back to the foundations of why you wanted to work for yourself. Generally, it's, you know, some people work for themselves because they wanted that better lifestyle. They wanted to have a unlimited, uh, unlimited, what's the word, revenue, you know, potential to earn more, you know, the harder they work. Basically, they should probably actually I probably shouldn't say that the harder you work, the more you earn, but you know what I mean, like working for yourself. And then there will be some people who actually just had a really bad experience with a business owner and just make wanted to make sure that they weren't that person. And so the reason why they created their business was because they just wanted to really have a great leadership experience for new people coming into the industry. So lots of different reasons. So letting go and what that actually looks like is a real thing for business owners, particularly those smaller solo printers going into scaling. You've always got that concern that you're not going to be across every detail. But again, there's ways to work around that. And, you know, for us, like a really great way of being across everything is that we use our Property Me inbox. So I can have a look on that and see everyone's emails. I can see who's got too many, who needs a bit of extra support. I can see if there's something that's coming through constantly that maybe is not being dealt with quickly. I can help, you know, quickly do if I've got a few free hours, I can quickly do a couple of emails for the girls and things like that. So that is something that you can actually do when you don't actually have a portfolio to look after um look after. Letting team members own their outcomes, I think, is is really important. And it's a real balance, making sure that property managers deal with any mistakes that they've made. They do, you know, have a frustrated owner on the other side of the phone call, I think is always really important. But not letting it get too bad, but making sure that they know that it is a real, it is a real problem. You know, maybe a mistake they've made is an issue. And they do, you do want to make sure that they're looking after those issues. But if they escalate something to you which you believe might be a little bit too early, then just pushing back on the teams to say, hey, why don't you send this email to them or why don't you try this and just give them that support? Trusting others with client relationships, you know, that's also what letting go look it looks like. And knowing that your client has trust that you've hired well and you have good people that work for you. Allowing mistakes without stepping in immediately, uh, that's sort of going back to what I just mentioned before. Mistakes will always happen. I would have a look at when they do happen, is there something operationally that you could implement to try and avoid that happening in the future? I would always go back to uh systems and processes with that. And creating that structure instead of stepping in to fix things. So again, if someone does escalate something to you a little bit too early, I would just say to them, listen, here's an example email, try sending this to them and seeing if that works. Or can you try calling them and let them know this and just push back what advice you would give them? Let them do that, and hopefully that resolves it. And it shouldn't, you shouldn't get those little things to deal with. And as time goes on, and you're giving your team the instructions on how to deal with that and how to respond, and the reason why, you will find that they will start getting better and better at doing that. You can sometimes get discomfort of watching things be done differently, and you can also have the temptation to step back in, and it's really important that you don't and you just trust the process. And you know, these types of things are what we talk about inside the PMC Learning Lab. So getting support of other business owners with maybe how they deal with these situations can always be really helpful as well. So coffee and conversations are a great one to do, and also inside the PMC Learning Lab, we do a little bit on this as well and have those conversations. The cost of not evolving is bigger than what you actually think because this is where you're going to start getting your burnout, you're gonna get the stalled growth, you're going to get team dependency, you're going to get missed opportunities, and you're going to be building a business that can't run without you. I know it sounds dramatic, but I know so many businesses like this where the business owners are so operationally involved in the business and they just can't step out. And I just think I just think it's incredibly sad. Like, especially if someone has built a business and they've been doing this for 10 years and they just can't get out. It get actually gets worse as you the longer you go around. So if you're listening and you you're only like one year or two years or three years into it, like good on you. Make these decisions now. Don't wait any longer. Because it does get harder. But you're not gonna ever be satisfied with business ownership. That's probably the best way of describing it. You're always gonna find it really hard and tiring, and it's it's just gonna be hard work, and that's not why you did business owner, you know, you had a business. It's not to, you know, have yes, it was gonna always be harder at the start, but it's meant to ease off. And that's probably where the problem is. It never eased off, but it was because you never changed personally and never took those risks, or maybe you took the risk and then you were burnt, so you decided not to do any more risks, which is a very common thing to do. You need to talk to people and you need to get that experience from other people and hear how they combated it. Because I don't know if it's good enough just to say, well, I've tried it and it was a bad experience and I am not going to do it again. I think that you need to speak to more people to find out different ways or different things that you can look at, because that is definitely something that bottlenecks a lot of business. So I want you to reflect on today's conversation and what version you need to be to get you to that next level. The growth will always ask for more of you, and this is all a leadership evolution and not failure. And so if you feel like or if any of the things that I said today feel uncomfortable or you feel like you are a monster and you are like, yes, that is me, then I want you to reach out to me, join the PMC Learning Lab, message me, email me, come to Coffee Convos. I want you to talk about it more so that you can say these things out loud and really start understanding and getting some feedback from people around you that have been in the same position that you have been. I I said this the other day, I get so many calls from lots of different people, business owners, employees, BDMs, property managers, and quite often they're just calling up for some support. And I always say, if only you guys knew how much everybody, everybody has the same problems. Like obviously, you guys all call me confidentially and I don't share a thing, but I I hear it all, I see it all, and you all just like so similar, so similar. And it's like if you knew that everyone was having those same struggles or those same problems, and you talk to each other about it, you would find so many more people in the same shoes. It's honestly incredible. So that's my little insight to to this this episode because talking is just so important. I it really, really is. So I hope you enjoyed today's lesson, and I'll see you all next week.