Owning any business can be challenging. However, the difficulty level increases when you’re a small business owner just starting out. In the beginning, you don’t necessarily have the finances to pay different people to do all of the work that needs to be done. This means that you’re serving as the owner, the manager, the employee, the janitor, everything else, and quite possibly even the accountant (although that’s a terrible idea).

These different positions shouldn’t be filled by one person. Sometimes you might think it necessary, especially during a startup, but if you want to have success, you need to learn early on that you can’t do everything. You must learn to pass on responsibility to other people, otherwise you’ll run yourself so deep into the ground you won’t be able to see the light and you’ll be so exhausted, you won’t be able to call for help.

As dramatic as that description was, it’s an accurate representation of what many small business owners do to themselves.

Share the Load

Don’t be like Frodo Baggins in the Lord of the Rings. When Samwise offered to carry the load of the ring for a while, Frodo took the wrong advice from Gollum and didn’t want to share. You can’t hoard the ring. Sure you want “One Business to Rule Them All”, but that isn’t done by carrying the load all by yourself.

Frodo learned that it was through an entire fellowship that the task of destroying the ring could be accomplished. Samwise served to be an integral part in completing the task. You don’t want to destroy anything in your business, but you need to divvy out responsibilities and give yourself a break from the stresses that come along with running a small business.

Replicate Your Best Employees

Although you can’t technically replicate your best employees, you can use them as an example to others. When you’ve effectively pawned off responsibilities to other people, you will then have more time to ensure that they’re operating to the best of their potential.

You can do this by utilizing resources that evaluate your business and employees, tell you what is happening, tell you who is doing things best, and then train your other employees to embody the success present in your best.

The journey is long and arduous, but it is a journey that is worth the effort. Your job as a small business owner is to always be looking for ways to improve and move foreword. This can be done by sharing responsibility and training for employees for success. There is much more that can be done, but start here and move on once these have been put in place.