The Hardest Part of Growing a Business Is Learning to Let Go

When you start a business, being involved in everything is almost a requirement.

In the early days of MightyMeals, there wasn’t a department for every problem. There wasn’t always someone to delegate something to. If something needed to get done, we figured it out and did it.

That mentality helped us build MightyMeals. But at a certain point, I realized the same mentality that helps you start a company can eventually become the thing that holds it back.

As a founder, one of the hardest lessons I’ve had to learn is how to let go.

What Got You Here Won’t Always Get You There

Entrepreneurs are used to solving problems.

When you’ve spent years building something from the ground up, your instinct is to jump in. You know the business. You know how things should operate. And sometimes, doing something yourself feels a lot faster than explaining it to someone else.

But there’s a ceiling to that approach.

As MightyMeals grew, so did the number of decisions that needed to be made every day. More meals. More customers. More deliveries. More employees. More departments. More opportunities.

You eventually realize that if every decision still needs to run through you, you haven’t actually built a scalable company. You’ve just built yourself a much bigger job.

That realization changed the way I thought about leadership.

My Job Had to Change

There was a time when my job was to be involved in almost every part of MightyMeals.

Today, my responsibility is different.

I need to make sure we have the right people in the right positions, that they have the resources they need, and that everyone understands where we're going.

That doesn’t mean becoming disconnected from the business. I still care deeply about the details. I still want to understand what’s happening across the organization.

But there’s a difference between being informed and being the person responsible for every decision.

The more MightyMeals grows, the more important that distinction becomes.

Hiring People Who Are Better Than You

One of the biggest mindset shifts for me has been realizing that a CEO shouldn't try to be the smartest person in every room.

You should be building rooms filled with people who know more than you do.

I want people on our team who challenge the way we've always done things. I want people who see opportunities I don't see and solve problems differently than I would.

And once you bring those people into the organization, you have to actually give them room to do their jobs.

Hiring talented people and then micromanaging every decision defeats the purpose.

Trust is a huge part of scaling.

Letting Go Doesn't Mean Lowering Your Standards

This is probably the part that founders struggle with the most.

You can delegate responsibility without delegating your standards.

I still expect a lot from our team because I expect a lot from myself. Our customers trust us to deliver high-quality meals and a great experience, and growth can never become an excuse for letting those standards slip.

The goal is to build systems and a culture where those expectations exist even when I'm not in the room.

To me, that's one of the biggest signs that a company is actually becoming stronger.

Building Something Bigger Than Yourself

When we started MightyMeals, we were focused on making great meals and getting them into customers' hands.

That mission hasn't changed.

What has changed is the scale.

Today, MightyMeals delivers across 27 states, operates out of a state-of-the-art kitchen, and has a team capable of producing thousands of meals every week.

None of that happens because of one person.

It happens because you build a team of people who take ownership of what they do and believe in where the company is going.

As an entrepreneur, it's easy to think your value comes from how much you personally do.

I've learned that eventually, the opposite needs to become true.

The real goal is to build a company that doesn't need you to touch every part of it in order to succeed.

And strangely enough, learning to step back in the right places is what allows you to keep moving the entire company forward.