Stop Making £20 Decisions
Stop approving every purchase. Stop replying to every routine email. Stop signing off every holiday request. Stop answering every question simply because you're the owner.
Your business doesn't need you to decide which stationery to order.
It needs you to lead.
Most business owners don't notice how much time disappears into small decisions. Each one feels insignificant, but together they consume hours that should be spent winning new business, developing people or planning for growth.
Instead, the day fills with interruptions, and the work that only you can do gets pushed aside.
Protect Your Time
Nobody starts a business to become its busiest administrator, yet that's exactly where many owners end up.
You approve invoices because it's quicker. You solve minor customer issues because you know the answer. You answer questions because explaining them feels like more effort than doing the job yourself.
That approach works—for today.
Tomorrow, your team bring the same questions back again.
Every decision you take away from your team is another decision they'll expect you to make in the future.
Put a Value on Your Time
Your most valuable work isn't approving expenses or ordering printer paper.
It's winning clients, building relationships, improving systems and developing the people around you. Those are the things that move a business forward, and they're the things only you can do.
Every low-value decision you hold onto comes with a hidden cost. While you're dealing with routine tasks, the opportunities to grow your business are waiting.
Build Decision-Makers
Take a look around your business.
How many people wait for your approval before taking action?
In many cases, leaders create that behaviour without realising it. When every decision comes back to the owner, people stop trusting their own judgement and start looking upwards for answers.
Change the conversation.
The next time someone asks, "Can I just check this with you?", don't jump in with the solution.
Ask, "What do you think we should do?"
More often than not, they'll already have the answer.
Your job isn't to solve every problem. It's to build a team that's confident enough to solve them without you.
Raise the Threshold
Decide which decisions genuinely need your experience—and let go of the rest.
Set clear boundaries. Give managers the authority to approve smaller purchases, resolve routine customer issues or make day-to-day operational decisions without asking first.
Will they always do it exactly as you would?
No.
But building a stronger business isn't about creating perfect replicas of yourself. It's about creating capable people who take ownership.
Lead the Business
Every business owner faces a choice.
Carry on making every decision and remain the busiest person in the business.
Or step back from the small decisions so you can focus on the big ones.
Your business needs your vision far more than it needs your approval for a £20 purchase.
Stop making £20 decisions.
Start making the decisions that shape the future of your business.
