What would happen to your business if you went on vacation?
Last week I was in Nashville for 5 days. I intentionally stayed out of Slack, only checked end-of-day revenue and issue reports, and let the team run without me.
Here's what happened while I was gone:
My director of operations (a former cleaner who's been with us 3 years) closed a $3,300 facility job on her own
She onboarded 3 new Airbnbs, each worth an estimated $8K–$10K per year
The business kept running and nothing broke.
I'm learning that's the difference between owning an asset instead of owning a job. Before hiring her, it wouldn't have gone as smoothly.
So that begs the question: When should you hire a local ops manage?
It's a math problem. Can your business cover a $50K–$70K salary without putting your personal finances at risk while still having enough to invest in growth? If yes, hire. If no, focus on growing the business first.
How to make your operation resilient and not dependent on one person:
My first ops manager left after 9 months. Honestly, it was probably because I was micromanaging. When she left, the business was pretty exposed so I had to fix it real quick.
I replaced one ops manager role with 3 ops managers in the Philippines. Now, if one person quits, the other two can cover. Redundancy is a good business plan.
I built SOPs, but only for the most critical tasks (if you document everything, nothing gets used)
What would happen in your business if you went on vacation?
Until next time!
Logan
