What is the holiday test for a business owner?

Why it matters

Your phone still rings on Sunday. The team waits for you to make the call. A customer won't deal with anyone else. Sound familiar?

That's fine while you're there. But it means you can't really take a break, and it means the business is worth less, because a buyer is buying you, not the business.

Owners often tell me, "Nobody can do it as well as me." There are 27 million people in Australia. There's someone who can do it as well as you, maybe better.

How to run the test

• Write down everything you did last week. Every call, every quote, every decision.
• Next to each one, write who else could do it. If the answer is nobody, that's a gap.
• Start with one week away. Leave a list of who handles what, and don't check in.
• When you get back, look at what went wrong. Each problem shows you the next system to write down or the next job to hand over.
• Build up to four weeks.

What passing looks like

Jobs got priced and won. The work was just as good. Customers got looked after. The money came in. And you came back to a business that ran, not a pile of problems.

Questions owners ask

Do I have to take four weeks off?

Not straight away. Start with a few days, then a week. The point is to find out what still needs you, then fix it one thing at a time.

What if things go wrong while I'm away?

They will at first. That's the test working. Each thing that goes wrong shows you what to write down or hand over next.