I had a conversation with my friend Daniel recently that sent me down a thread about scale, specifically scaling my own time. As a solo founder I am responsible for everything, so “scaling the business” and “scaling myself” are the same problem for now. I wanted to get specific about what that actually means.
So I started by listing the categories where the work currently runs through me:
- Decision making
- Client relationships
- Sales relationships
- Analytics
- Marketing
The instinct when you think about scaling is to imagine doing more. More output, more reach, more hours. But when I looked at this list, the realization was the opposite. The goal is to do less of four of these, so I can do more of one.
The one is decision making. Vision, which new services to expand into, where to invest and allocate money and resources. That is the work I actually want to spend my time on, and it is the work that does not transfer cleanly to anyone else. Everything else on the list is a candidate to hand off. Decision making is what I want to scale into, not away from.
Then it becomes a sequencing problem, and the order is set by cost relative to relief.
Analytics goes first. Right now I run one-off analyses, but most of it is connecting and maintaining data: carrier APIs, WMS systems, Shopify. That is better solved by a partnership than by me, and a partnership costs less than a salary. If it works, I get more robust insight and I can share that insight with customers directly instead of building each analysis by hand. This is the piece I am working through right now.
Relationships come next, and they cost more because they require a real hire. I split them in two. Sales relationships are easier to articulate now that we keep getting narrower on exactly who we serve, so I can build a system for a salesperson to run. At some point a sales relationship becomes a client relationship, and for now that handoff lands back on me until the revenue makes it sensible to bring someone in.
I have a specific picture of that hire. Someone who already has relationships in this industry, who understands the ICP, who can get the job done. Ideally in person. What I do not need, at least not yet, is an executive assistant. That is often the first hire people reach for, but an assistant absorbs tasks without growing the relationship surface. I need someone who can scale relationships themselves.
Marketing is the newest addition to the list and the one I have not placed yet. It is the writing I do: posts, newsletters, this. Part of me thinks it is close enough to my own voice that it stays with me next to decision making. Part of me suspects a piece of it is more like analytics, a defined scope I could support with a system or a contractor before it ever becomes a hire.
You can only really do this one step at a time. The step I am on is analytics. The rest I hold myself until the math, and the person, are right.