Are You Naked?

This week was a total time warp for me. I'm not going to say "time suck" because I spent this week bringing my kids back to healthy (it's not over yet and entailed fevers, congestion, asthma, nebulizers, cooking, cleaning, sterilizing, etc.) and that meant producing a lot of love and patience. But as for work...didn't happen. Daycare wouldn't keep my daughter with a fever and they have a 24hr no-fever policy (as if! kidding, she should have been with her mama).

As a growing business, we're always asking ourselves: "Are we hitting our milestones? Are we executing our ideas?" Usually the answers are: "We hit X milestone!" and "We executed Y idea! Oh, let's back burner Z idea!" And the beat goes on.

After this lost week, I'm realizing that what we also need to be asking ourselves is: "If not, then how can we execute those ideas and hit those milestones?" After a week of not being as available as usual to do what I love, it's time to take a step back and evaluate what's going on. Sabina and I are very into systems. We love creating them, and we know that without them, not much would get done. And yet, with me out of the game, I found myself naked and exposed to what backup was not set up.

For a growing business, you need to build it with you out of the picture. As the business grows, so will your role in that business. It's important to do what you love, and not get too sidetracked in management details. Here are some tough questions to ask yourself, and deliver on, to not only make your backup plan, but scale your business to greater success:

• Delegate: This is hard for people to do for several reasons. For me, I don't delegate what I love to do. On the flip side, if I'm not available, that work won't get done. And that's no good for anyone. #letitgo
• Be a Team of 7: Even if you're just yourself, wearing 28 hats, you'll need to scale up quickly if you get super busy, an investor, or even if you're seeking out a small business loan or applying for a small business contest. Angels and lenders want to know your plans for the future, and that you're prepared to let the wind into your sales when you need to. Prepare your business as if there are more people running it with you. Structure your files so that someone can come onto your computer and navigate, or set up a DropBox right now so that should you get taken out of the game, you can hire someone to log into your stuff and access files that need attention.
• Hold on, I liked that part! I'm starting to recognize a pattern of mine - I hold on to what I like. I like to write. I like to create things. I think that because I can do something means I should do it. So, I keep most of those items on my todo list. That means, no one else knows how to do them. So if I disappear, so do those things. It's even in my personal life - I like to clean. I think I should clean. It's very hard for me to commit to a cleaning person. But, I can't work if my house is messy. I get distracted - and allergic to the dust. And piles of laundry depress me. So when the babysitter is here for my infant son, and my daughter is at daycare, I spend the morning cleaning "just real quick" before my work day starts. Next thing you know it's lunch time, and the day is over.

Have you experienced weeks like this? How did you get through? What did you realize?