You close the door but the business follows you home.
A message about tomorrow’s roster. A question about a supplier. A problem with a booking. A staff member who wants you to decide something the manager could have handled.
It might not be a crisis. That’s almost the point. The little things keep landing on you, all day, every day.
At my café, someone would call in sick and it became my problem. Who covers the shift? Do we pay the extra? Do I move the roster around…. or do it myself?
So I did it myself. Every time.
Someone left and I stepped in while I looked for a replacement. Except I never found the time to look because I was too busy being the replacement.
I thought I was being responsible. But nobody had been told where their authority stopped. The café didn’t have a way of deciding who decides. It had me.
That is how you end up unable to switch off. The business may not be in crisis. It just keeps needing you.
It cost me time with my family. I would be home for dinner, but my phone was on the table beside me. A message about the roster or stock that had not arrived and a decision someone wanted me to make.
I was home but I wasn’t there.
Write down the last five things someone contacted you about outside the venue. Next to each one, mark it:
A decision someone else could have made.
Something that should have been written down.
A real emergency.
If most fall into the first two categories, you have found a place to start.
I built the Take a Week Off Kit to help you see where the venue depends on you, work out what to fix first and build towards being away for a week.
It includes a 30 question audit across six areas, a score and a 90 day priority list. It also includes six editable templates: a decision rights table, Monday report, shift handover sheet, emergency and escalation page, owner absence checklist, and a seven day plan.
I built it from what I learned at my café, which I couldn’t sell and from running the school canteen I operate now. There, the sequence is on the wall and the prep list comes straight from the orders. Nobody needs to call me to know what to do next.
The Kit will not switch your phone off for you. It is not consulting, and it will not fix your venue on your behalf. It helps you identify what keeps coming back to you and choose what to tackle first. The fixing is still yours.
It’s new, so the founding price is $27 AUD for the first 20 buyers. After that, it’ll be $47. I want early buyers to tell me what works and what doesn’t.
If you can’t switch off because the business keeps needing you, start here.
Next edition: Who is actually calling you and why?