The Buyback

I was my company's most expensive employee. Doing its cheapest work.

I sat down one night and tried to figure out what my time was actually worth. Not what I paid myself. What each hour generated when I was doing the work that only I could do. Talking to customers. Thinking about where the business was heading. Making the calls nobody else could make.

The number landed somewhere around $200 an hour.

Then I looked at how I was actually spending my week. Most of it wasn't that. Most of it was admin. Chasing invoices. Updating spreadsheets. Replying to emails that didn't need me. Running errands because it was easier than explaining them to someone else.

Work that was worth maybe $30 an hour. And I was doing all of it.

I'd been telling myself it was dedication. Leading from the front. But the maths doesn't care what you call it. If your time is worth $200 and you're spending it on $30 tasks, you're not saving money. You're burning it.

Dan Martell has a phrase for this. He calls it the Buyback Principle. The idea is simple: don't hire people to grow your business. Hire people to buy back your time. Then use that time on the things that actually move the needle.

It sounds obvious when you read it. It wasn't obvious when I was living it.

Because the trap doesn't feel like a trap. It feels responsible. You know the business better than anyone. You know how things should be done. The voice in your head says "it's quicker to just do it myself" and it's right. It is quicker. Today.

The cheapest thing I ever did for my business was stop doing the cheap work.

But tomorrow it's quicker again. And the day after that. And before you know it you've spent three years doing $30 work at $200 rates and wondering why the business hasn't grown.

The test is simple. Look at your week. Every task. Ask one question: could someone else do this to 80% of the standard I do it?

Not 100%. Eighty percent. That's the number that matters. Because you're not looking for someone to replace you. You're looking for someone to free you up to do the things nobody else can.

Most owners I talk to have at least fifteen hours a week in the 80% column. Fifteen hours at $200 is $156,000 a year in opportunity cost. You could hire someone for $55K to do all of it. The gap is over $100K.

That's not a staffing decision. That's a $100K decision you're making by default every year you don't act on it.

When I finally let go of some of those tasks, two things happened.

First, it was uncomfortable. Things weren't done exactly the way I would have done them. The rhythm was different. Every instinct screamed to step back in and take over.

Second, it didn't matter. Within a few months the work was getting done better than I ever did it. Because the person doing it could actually focus on it. They weren't also trying to run a business at the same time.

And the hours I got back? I spent them on the work that mattered. Conversations I'd been putting off. Relationships I'd been neglecting. Thinking about the business instead of just operating it.

The revenue shift was obvious within a quarter.

The cheapest thing I ever did for my business was stop doing the cheap work.

I think the reason most owners don't make this move is fear dressed up as pride. "Nobody can do it like I can." Maybe. But nobody needs to. You need it done well enough that you can go do the thing that actually grows the business.

Here's the exercise. Write down everything you did last week. Split it into two columns. Column one: only I can do this. Column two: someone at 80% could do this.

If column two has more than ten hours in it, you're the most expensive employee in your building. And you're doing the cheapest job.

The fix isn't working harder. It's letting go of work that was never yours to hold onto in the first place.