Transitioning from Solo Mode to CEO Mode: Strategies for Business Growth

There are two ways business owners can run a business:

1. Solo mode

2. CEO mode

Solo Mode vs. CEO Mode

Solo mode is when you look at your business through the lens of ME.

"What do I want/ not want? What's best for me?"

CEO mode is when you look at your business as a separate entity. As something that stands on its own, separate from you.

"What is best for the business? What does the business want/not want right now?"

Depending on which lens you are looking through at the moment, the answers could be very different.

You might think this is about the size of the business... a solopreneur is running in solo mode, and a bigger business is running in CEO mode.

That is not always the case.

I know of many bigger businesses that are still being run in solo mode - where the owner of the company is making decisions based on what THEY want/don't want... and not always based on what is best for the business.

Likewise, I know many a solopreneur running their business in CEO mode - where they are looking at what is best for the business, and not just at what they want/don't want.

The truth is - as a business owner there are times where you are called to make decisions that you personally may not want to make. 

Let's look at a couple of examples:

Expanding your Team

I've had many conversations with business owners who say:

"I know I should get more help but I just don't want to spend that kind of money on hiring someone..."

I get it. YOU may not want to spend that money, but what does your business want?

Is your business at the point where a team is becoming necessary? Where there is simply too much work to do and not enough 'hands' to get it done?

What is a lack of support costing you in your business? How much work is still on your plate because you don't have the right support? How much work isn't getting done at all because you don't have anyone else to do it?

Likewise, what could the right team/support allow you to create more of in your business? How does having a team in place free you up to do the things that your business needs you to do? (growth focused activities)

Documenting Processes 

"Bah! This seems like such a waste of time and I don't think we need to document processes."

At face value, yes, processes are boring. They aren't sexy or fun to create. And it might seem like a lot of work to document processes and get them all laid out into a Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) guide.

But let's take a look at why processes matter...

Without them you have to rely on what's in your brain to get things done. You know the tools. You know the steps. You know what needs to be done and how to do it. Which means that you always have to be involved for things to get done... yikes!

Even with a team in place, without processes your team may not be doing things 'your way.' I hear this as a common complaint from business owners:

"I've hired someone but they keep messing it up, so I may as well just do it myself."

To which I would say:

"That is only true so long as the process - the way to do it - lives in your head."

In other words, get the ‘HOW TO’ out of your head and into a documented process that someone else can follow so that they *can* do it right.

Documented processes are the key to freedom. The key to trusting your team. The key to taking a vacation and not having everyone scrambling in your absence. The key to repeating what works again and again.

And the best part? You don't have to do any of this alone!  When you have a fractional COO on your team, THEY become the one to make sure you are building a solid foundation for your business. A foundation that allows you to operate in CEO mode to build more of what you want, in less time.

If you’d like to explore what working with a fractional COO could look like in your business, I would love to connect.

Meet Kiva Slade - the Founder and CEO of The 516 Collaborative. With a unique background in high-power politics on Capitol Hill and sixteen years as a homeschooling mama, Kiva found her calling in the online business world as a trusted guide for entrepreneurs looking to build the business of their dreams.

Kiva's work began behind the scenes, orchestrating the back end of businesses and managing teams. But her inner data diva couldn't help but notice that small businesses needed help harnessing the power of data for growth. So she and her team set out to uncover and tidy up the data required to enable clients to grow their businesses confidently and easily.