@russellruffino: The bottleneck in most companies at this size is a person who would never describe themselves that way. It's the founder still in the inbox at 11pm. I was that one for years. The company could have paid somebody better than me to run support long before I let anyone near it. Four things finally got work off my desk and kept it off. 1. Hand over the whole thing, including the decision. Keeping the judgment means they check with you all day, and you've added a step to your own week. Half version: send me the replies before they go out. Real version: you own the inbox, and only the rare ones come to me. 2. Accept eighty percent. This is where most founders stop. Your version is better. The company needs a good version happening without you. A reply I would have written in six sentences goes out in three. The client is happy. I never would have known the difference. 3. Write down what good looks like first. Most delegation fails because the standard lived in the founder's head, so the person guesses, gets it wrong, and the founder decides they can't do it. One page fixes it. Five real replies you were proud of. The two phrases you never use. The response time you expect. What to do when somebody is angry. 4. Check the output, not the method. Judge the week by response time and how many things escalated. Leave the method alone. Policing how they got there is how the work comes back to you. All four protect the same thing. When the founder is the safety net, the team stops building the muscle. Problems route upward because everyone knows where they get solved. That's how a company ends up with a lot of capable people and one exhausted person making every real decision. Pick one thing this week that somebody could do at eighty percent. Write the page. Give away the whole thing, and let the first two attempts be worse than yours. #founders #ceomindset #businessowner #scalingup #entrepreneurmindset #womenentrepreneurs

Russ Ruffino: Business Mentor

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Friday 18 September 2026 02:30:29 GMT