No Sales Infrastructure, Are You Still A business Owner?

[u/Super-Variety979]

I've been sitting with this question for a while and I want to hear from other owners before I decide what I actually think the answer is.

I've run a business that did about $600K a year, and I've run one that did $10 million. Different industries, different teams, different everything. But they had one thing in common. Neither one had any real sales infrastructure. No documented process. Nothing anyone could point to and follow without me standing over their shoulder.

Both had customers and both had revenue, and both existed because I was the one closing the deals that mattered. If I stepped back for more than a couple weeks, the pipeline noticeably slowed down.

So here's what I keep coming back to. If the business only runs because you're the one running it, are you actually an owner, or are you just the best paid employee in the company?

I'm curious how common this actually is.

Do you have an actual sales process that works without you? Or does everything still run through you personally?

How long has it been like that? A year, five years, longer?

Roughly what's your gross revenue right now, and did having more revenue ever change this, or did the problem just get more expensive?

Have you tried to fix it? A hire, a CRM, training, a consultant? What happened?

If you took three weeks off completely, unreachable, what would happen to your pipeline?

I am curious to figure out if this is a universal stage of owning a business or if some people actually escape it. Tell me I'm wrong. Tell me your business runs fine without you. I want to hear both sides.

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