I was speaking with a founder this morning who is having trouble growing. He has been very successful to this point, but has hit a revenue level that is seemingly difficult to break through.
I see this all the time.
Typically, it’s at the point where the founder can no longer do everything themselves.
There are two ways of getting past this, and one of them works.
The first is to say you are going to “delegate” to the new functional heads that you bring in, but what that really means is that you are going to insist that they do things just like you did.
And that isn’t delegation at all.
You maintain some semblance of control, but your micromanaging doesn’t free you up to think about the bigger picture issues around direction and strategy.
The second is to hire people who know more about each of those areas than you do—
Finance
Sales
Marketing
Product
Point them in a direction. And let them run.
Less control, yes. But more growth than you ever thought possible.