Journey 18 · Running a businessexpandingleadinggrinding
Grow Past Yourself
“I'm turning work away and I still can't take a week off.”
You become: Someone who owns a business instead of a job
Raise the price, write down how you do it, bring in help, and hand over one whole job. The point isn't a bigger company — it's a business that runs for a week without you in it.
Understand
What only you can do, and what you've just never handed over.
Practice
Documenting, delegating, and letting someone else's version be good enough.
Create
A written process and a second pair of hands.
Evidence
A completed job you weren't on site for.
Buy yourself room
You cannot delegate your way out of prices that are too low. Fix the margin first.
- Practice30m
Raise your price on new quotes
If you're turning work away, your price is too low — that's what a queue means. Raise new quotes by 10-15% and leave existing commitments alone. Say the number without a preamble. The customers you lose at +12% are almost always the ones who were costing you the most to keep.
You’ll have:Five quotes sent at the higher price.
- Practice20m
Drop the job type you decided to stop taking
Write the referral text — 'That's not what we focus on, but [name] is good and I'd use them' — and send it the next time that job comes in. Sending someone a good referral costs you nothing and buys goodwill from both sides. Capacity is created by subtraction long before it's created by hiring.
You’ll have:One job declined and referred on.
- Understand1h
Find the hours you're giving away
Track a full week in thirty-minute blocks: billable work, driving, quoting, admin, supply runs, chasing payment. Add up the unbillable columns. That total is your real capacity problem, and it is nearly always bigger than the shortage of hands. Most solo operators find ten or more hours a week that could be bought back for less than they bill.
You’ll have:A week logged, with unbillable hours totalled.
8 more actions · 8h of work
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Get it out of your head
You cannot hand over a process that exists only as instinct.
- Create1h 30m
Write down your most common job, step by step
- Create45m
Film yourself doing the thing you can't describe
- Practice1h
Buy back your worst unbillable hours first
Bring someone in
Start with the arrangement you can reverse.
- Understand1h
Settle the subcontractor-versus-employee question properly
- Practice2h
Trial one subcontractor on one job
- Practice30m
Hand over a whole job, not the boring half
- Understand45m
Check the numbers still work with help in them
- Evidence30m
Take a week off and let it run
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