Most self-employed people get caught in a trap of their own making: they’re successful because of their own efforts.
Unfortunately, since they’re so busy being successful they don’t have time to find and train anyone to help them.
Derek Sivers, the founder of CD Baby shares his story about how he broke out of the unable-to-delegate trap. Hopefully there’s some insights in the article that make you more able to delegate and grow your business. I know that there were some good tips for me.
I had to make myself un-necessary to the running of my company.
The next day, as soon as I walked in the door, someone asked, “Derek, someone whose CDs we received yesterday has now changed his mind and wants his CDs shipped back. We’ve already done the work, but he’s asking if we can refund his set-up fee since he was never live on the site.”
This time, instead of just answering the question, I called everyone together for a minute.
I repeated the situation and the question for everyone.
I answered the question, but more importantly, I explained the thought process and philosophy behind my answer.
“Yes refund his money in full. We’ll take a little loss. It’s important to always do whatever would make the customer happiest, as long as it’s not outrageous. A little gesture like this goes a long way to him telling his friends we’re a great company. Everyone always remember that helping musicians is our first goal, and profit is second. You have my full permission to use that guideline to make these decisions yourself in the future. Do what makes them happiest. Make sure everyone who deals with us leaves with a smile.”
I asked around to make sure everyone understood the answer.
I asked one person to start a manual, and write down the answer to this one situation, and write down the philosophy behind it.
Then everyone went back to work.
Ten minutes later, an employee came to Derek with a new question and he repeated the process. After two months, there were no more questions.
An excellent book for more information about this kind of stuff is The E-Myth Revisited.