At around £500,000 in turnover, I had a business that kept everyone busy.
Especially me.
We had customers, work coming in and a team delivering it. But whenever something went wrong or someone needed a decision, the answer was usually the same:
“Phone Daren.”
I’d become the person the whole business relied on. And the harder I worked to keep everything moving, the harder it became to imagine stepping away.
In Episode 2 of Busy Is Bullshit, I talk about that stage of growing the Edinburgh Driveway Company: why I got stuck, what it was costing me and what had to change before the business could grow further.
When working harder stops solving the problem
In the early days, being willing to do whatever was needed helped me get the business going. I could chase work, answer questions, sort out problems and keep pushing.
So when things became more difficult, I did more of the same.
I worked longer. Got involved in more decisions. Took on more responsibility.
But as the business grew, so did the number of people who needed something from me. There were more jobs to manage, more costs to cover and more questions to answer.
Eventually, my own time became a limit on what the business could do.
It was affecting my sleep and putting pressure on my relationship. Even when I wasn’t physically at work, I was still carrying it around in my head.
Turnover gave me an incomplete picture
I’d spent a lot of time chasing turnover. Winning more work felt like progress, and a bigger number seemed to suggest the business was doing better.
But the costs were growing too.
A busy team and a full diary didn’t tell me enough about what we were keeping or whether the business was becoming easier to manage.
I had employees, but I’d built myself a job that came with responsibility for everyone else’s jobs as well.
That’s what I mean by the £500K owner trap. It describes the point where the business has grown, but its daily operation still depends heavily on the owner.
The exact turnover figure will be different for different businesses. The familiar part is feeling that you can’t take your hands off anything.
“Phone Daren” had become a habit
When you know the business inside out, answering a question yourself often feels quickest.
You know the customer. You remember what was agreed. You can make the decision and get everyone moving again.
The problem comes when that happens all day, every day.
Every answer reinforces the same arrangement: the team brings you the problem, and you provide the solution. Over time, even decisions that could be made without you end up coming your way.
I had to recognise my part in that.
I couldn’t keep stepping into everything and then wonder why everything needed me.
One of the changes I made was to start asking:
“What do you think we should do?”
That question gave the person in front of me space to think through the problem. It also helped me understand whether they needed guidance, clearer information or the confidence to make a decision.
Delegation meant changing how I behaved
Handing over a task sounds straightforward until someone does it differently from you, takes longer than you expected or makes a mistake.
The temptation is to take it back.
You tell yourself you’ll sort it this time because you’re busy. But before long, the responsibility is yours again.
I had to get better at giving people clear responsibilities and supporting them to carry those responsibilities properly. That meant looking at how we recruited, how we described roles and how people knew what was expected of them.
It also meant accepting that answering every question myself wasn’t helping the team develop.
There’s work involved in getting someone to the point where they can make a good decision without you. If you never make time for that work, you keep paying for it through interruptions.
Growth needed more structure
There wasn’t one hire or one process that fixed everything.
We had to improve how the business worked across recruitment, management, pricing and project delivery. People needed clearer roles. Jobs needed better organisation. There had to be accountability for what happened without every issue finding its way back to me.
Those changes helped the Edinburgh Driveway Company grow to nearly £2 million in turnover, with 27 staff, while eventually bringing my involvement down to roughly two hours a week.
That took time. It also required me to change habits that had once helped me get the business off the ground.
The willingness to get involved in everything had served a purpose at the beginning. As the company grew, I needed to give other people the structure and responsibility to do their jobs.
What still comes back to you?
Think about the last few times your team contacted you.
Did they need a decision only you could make? Or were they missing information, authority or a clear process?
That’s a useful place to start because it gives you something specific to work on.
If the same question keeps coming up, look at why. If a task keeps returning to you, look at what the person responsible needs to carry it through.
You don’t have to solve every dependency at once. But you do need to notice where your daily involvement has become part of the process.
Listen to Episode 2
In Episode 2 of Busy Is Bullshit, I share what it felt like to be stuck at £500K, why working harder wasn’t getting me out of it and the changes that helped the business grow beyond me.
If your phone is the answer to every problem, this episode will probably sound familiar.
Listen to Episode 2: What Gets You to £500K Won’t Get You to £2 Million →
Follow Busy Is Bullshit for more honest conversations about building a trade business that gives you time to enjoy life outside it.
