Most visionaries are not excited by their business operations.
They got into business for many reasons, but building and leading a team, creating systems, managing processes, doing planning, handling finances, troubleshooting day-to-day issues, and leading all-the-people and all-the-things were not what fueled their passion.
Smart and successful founders understand the critical role their operations play in their success, sustainability, and ultimately their freedom and autonomy.
But operations are purely a means to an end for them, not the thing that fuels them and gets them out of bed in the morning excited to start their day.
In addition to not being their passion, operations are also usually not their superpower.
And as a result, there are a few common mistakes most visionary founders make when it comes to their operations that keep them from the results they want.
8 Common Mistakes Visionary Founders Make with Their Operations
- Ignoring Operations Until It Becomes an Emergency
- Hiring Under-Experienced People Without Proper Development
- Abdicating Responsibility Without Oversight
- Not Approaching Operations Holistically, Leading to Fragmentation
- Underestimating the Importance of Process Documentation
- Overcomplicating Operations, Making It Harder to Scale
- Not Regularly Updating and Optimizing Systems
- Not Aligning Operations with the Business's Growth Strategy
Let's break down each one:
1. Ignoring Operations Until It Becomes an Emergency
Operations may not feel urgent - until something breaks.
Founders often focus on vision, sales, and marketing, sidelining operations until a major issue forces them to react. By that point, inefficiencies may have compounded, resulting in costly fixes, delayed projects, and missed growth opportunities.
This reactive approach keeps founders stuck in crisis mode, constantly putting out fires instead of focusing on long-term growth.
How to Avoid Operational Emergencies:
Take a proactive approach by regularly reviewing your operations before they hit a crisis point.
Schedule quarterly reviews to assess systems, team performance, and processes. During these reviews, identify inefficiencies, bottlenecks, or outdated workflows that could slow down progress. For example, check for redundant steps in your onboarding process or miscommunications between team members that lead to delays.
Set up a system for continuous improvement, where team members can report inefficiencies and suggest improvements.
This allows you to catch small issues before they become larger, more expensive problems, and creates a Kaizen Culture.
Keeping operations running smoothly also frees you up to focus on scaling rather than constantly reacting to problems.
2. Hiring Under-Experienced People Without Proper Development
In an attempt to delegate and save money, founders often hire team members who may have potential but lack the depth of experience to effectively manage operations.
Without proper training or mentorship, this often leads to underperformance, frustration, and costly mistakes. What seemed like a cost-saving move ends up consuming more time and resources, ultimately slowing down growth.
How to Avoid Operational Hiring Mistakes:
When hiring for operational roles, ensure you’re looking for the right combination of experience and potential.
If you’re hiring a seasoned operations leader like a Fractional COO (what we call a Fractional CSOO), be prepared to invest accordingly in their compensation. Their expertise will help you scale efficiently without needing constant oversight.
If you're hiring someone less experienced to save costs, invest in their development. Companies like Strategic Ops Institute offer training and mentorship programs designed specifically to help operational leaders succeed in scaling small businesses and work effectively with Visionary Founders.
Investing in their growth will pay off in the long term as they’ll be better equipped to take on higher-level and more strategic activities, freeing you to focus on visionary leadership.
Ensure your new hire, whether an employee or a contractor, is set up for success by providing clear expectations, ongoing mentorship, and access to the tools they need to thrive.
This avoids the costly mistake of having an inexperienced team member struggle to manage operations without support.
3. Abdicating Responsibility Without Oversight
Some founders mistakenly believe that once they hire an operations leader, they can completely step back from managing operations.
They assume that person will take full responsibility without needing guidance or oversight. However, without clear direction and accountability, this can lead to misalignment with the business’s vision, goals, values, and culture, and create operational chaos.
This can also lead to the Operational Leader becoming a single point of failure (SPOF) within the business, being the only one who understands how everything works. This can put the founder in a challenging position if they choose to leave the company or demand a higher rate.
How to Avoid Being Disconnected:
Delegate without abdicating responsibility. As the founder and CEO, you should still be involved in setting the strategic direction for your operations. While your operations leader can manage the day-to-day, it’s crucial that you provide ongoing guidance and regularly check in to ensure awareness and alignment with your overall vision and values.
Set clear expectations from the beginning and schedule regular meetings to review operational performance. These check-ins can be high-level, focusing on key metrics, ongoing projects, and alignment with growth goals. By staying connected, you’ll avoid the common pitfall of operations drifting off-course due to lack of oversight.
This will also keep you aware of what is being implemented to successful run and scale the business which will reduce risk if you need to make an operational leadership change.
If you're not sure how to effectively set your operational leader up for success, programs like Ops Alchemy can support you.
4. Not Approaching Operations Holistically, Leading to Fragmentation
When operations are approached in silos, with different functions or systems operating independently, it leads to fragmentation which can cause team members to not communicate effectively, processes to overlap or contradict each other, and inefficiencies to multiply.
This lack of cohesion creates wasted resources, slower results, and a frustrating work environment where progress feels disjointed.
How to Avoid Fragmented Operations:
Adopt a holistic approach to your business operations by ensuring all systems, teams, and processes are integrated and working together toward a common goal.
Use collaboration tools and work systems like Slack and Monday.com to encourage communication and alignment, preventing team members from operating in isolation.
Ensure that your operations are aligned with your company’s overall strategy. For example, if your sales team’s goals are focused on volume but your service delivery processes can’t handle that volume, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Get everyone on the same page so that they work cohesively and not in opposition to one another.
Hire a rock-solid right-hand Operational Leader who is responsible for creating a scaling ecosystem, or invest in training your existing operational team to understand how to do this. Strategic Ops Institute both offers training and mentorship programs for operational leaders and helps visionary founders find and hire their ideal right-hand leader.
This will minimize fragmentation and keep your business streamlined and efficient.
Fragmentation is one of the top 10 areas of waste in an online coaching, consulting, or service-based business.
5. Underestimating the Importance of Process Documentation
Many founders assume their team can “figure it out” without formal process documentation, especially in the early stages.
But this leads to inconsistency, confusion, and errors as the business grows. Without clear, documented processes and success criteria, scaling becomes difficult, and tasks are constantly reinvented.
How to Avoid Unnecessary Process Reinvention:
Document all critical processes in your business - from client onboarding to program and service delivery.
This may feel tedious initially, but it’s important for maintaining consistency as your business scales.
Well-documented processes provide clarity for your team, allowing them to follow proven steps for success rather than constantly reinventing the wheel.
Start by identifying the most critical processes in your business, such as sales funnels, client service delivery, and administrative workflows like processes payments and refunds.
Create a high-level workflow and a more detailed standard operating procedure, SOP, for each process that outlines key steps and success criteria including who and what is needed to complete it successfully. Regularly update this documentation as your business evolves.
Having clear, documented processes also makes it easier to onboard new team members, inspire ownership of tasks, and ensure quality control. With standardized workflows, you can scale your business without worrying about inconsistent results.
Curious how to do this in a simple way that doesn't result in over-documentation that goes unused? We help you create your Sacred Systems inside our Ops Alchemy program.
6. Overcomplicating Operations, Making It Harder to Scale
In response to operational issues, some founders add more complexity - introducing new tools, systems, or steps without considering whether they are necessary. This creates additional layers of difficulty, making it harder for the team to execute efficiently and for the business to scale.
How to Avoid Overcomplicated Operations:
Prioritize simplicity. Review your operations regularly and eliminate unnecessary complexity.
Ask yourself: “Is this step adding value, or is it just adding another layer of complication?” Focus on lean systems that prioritize efficiency and clarity.
For example, if you’ve added multiple tools to manage projects, but they all essentially perform the same function, consider consolidating them into a single platform. By reducing the number of tools and steps involved, you make it easier for your team to get things done without getting bogged down by unnecessary administrative activities.
Simpler operations are more scalable and sustainable. Streamlining processes allows your business to grow without being held back by inefficiencies and waste.
7. Not Regularly Updating and Optimizing Systems
Many founders set up operational systems once and forget about them, even as their business grows and changes.
Over time, these systems become outdated, leading to inefficiencies, missed opportunities, and friction within the team.
How to Avoid Unoptimized Systems:
Make it a habit to regularly review and optimize your operational systems. Schedule annual or biannual audits of your tools, software, and processes to ensure they still meet your business’s needs. For example, check if your project management tools are being fully utilized or if there’s a more efficient solution that better supports your growing team.
As your business evolves, your systems need to evolve too. Outdated tools that worked when you were a smaller company may no longer be effective as you scale. Stay ahead of this by proactively updating your systems to support continued growth.
Also ensure you are keeping up with changes to your systems and tools that can increase efficiency, such as new automation and AI capabilities.
8. Not Aligning Operations with The Business's Growth Strategy
Focusing solely on growth without ensuring your operations can handle it often leads to chaos.
Businesses that scale too fast without the right systems and processes in place risk burnout, missed deadlines, and an inability to deliver on promises. This, in turn, can damage brand reputation and impact retention and referrals.
How to Avoid Being Unable to Operationally Handle Growth:
Align your operational strategy with your growth strategy.
As your business scales, make sure your team, processes, and systems are equipped to support expansion.
For example, if your marketing team is launching a big campaign, ensure your operations team has the bandwidth and tools to handle the influx of new clients.
Create a roadmap that outlines the operational needs required for each growth phase. This includes hiring more team members, upgrading systems, and refining processes to handle larger volumes.
By planning for the operational side of growth, you avoid the chaos that often accompanies rapid expansion.
This is key to sustainable and scalable growth.
In Summary
Operations may not be the passion that drives visionary founders, but they are the foundation that allows a business to grow, scale, and thrive.
Ignoring operations until it becomes an emergency, hiring the wrong people, or failing to align operations with your growth strategy are all mistakes that keep founders from scalable growth
The key is to take a proactive, holistic approach.
Hire the right people, invest in their development, document your processes, and regularly review and optimize your systems.
When you treat operations as an integrated part of your business - not just a back-end function - you create the freedom and autonomy you want.
By fixing these common operational mistakes, you can reclaim your role as a visionary leader and drive your business toward sustainable and scalable success.
Resources to Help You Uplevel Your Operations for Scalable Growth
- Ops Alchemy: A hybrid program for founders who are ready to turn day-to-day operations over to their team so they can step into their genius and legacy work and have their business run like magic without them having to be involved in every detail. We help you implement the strategy, planning, systems, and team necessary for sustainable and scalable business growth that isn't dependent on YOU.
- Strategy and Operations Leader Training and Certifications: Our sister company, Strategic Ops Institute, provides training and mentorship to uplevel your right-hand operational leader and teach them how to effectively scale your business and support your growth. COO-level and PM-level training and certification programs available.
- Fractional Chief Strategy and Operating Officer Services: Why go through the process to interview, hire, onboard, train, and lead a new team member when you can have the Lean Out Method team step seamlessly into your business to take your operational leadership off your plate? Strategic advisory and fully done-for-you scaling services available.
by Crista Grasso
Crista Grasso is the go-to strategic planning expert for leading global businesses and online entrepreneurs when they want to scale. Known as the "Business Optimizer", Crista has the ability to quickly cut through noise and focus on optimizing the core things that will make the biggest impact to scale a business simply and sustainably. She specializes in helping businesses gain clarity on the most important things that will drive maximum value for their clients and maximum profits for their business. She is the creator of the Lean Out Method, 90 Day Lean Out Planner, and host of the Lean Out Your Business Podcast.
