I was the bottleneck of my own company

I found the bottleneck.

It answers to my name.

For a long time I thought Foxnice was slow because there was too much work. Too many clients, too many small fixes, too many emails. More hands, I told myself, and everything would flow.

Then we did get more hands. Freelancers for design, people outside helping with code. And things still waited.

So I started looking at where they waited. Not in a spreadsheet. Just honestly, in my head.

The answer was embarrassing. Almost everything was waiting for me.

How you become the narrow bit

Nobody decides to become a bottleneck. It happens by accident, and the accident feels like being useful.

At the start, you do everything because there's nobody else. That's not a choice, it's survival. When Foxnice started, I was the developer, the support line and half the sales team.

The problem is that the habit outlives the reason.

Years later, I was still the one who knew where every server lived. The one who answered when a client had a doubt. The one who had to say yes before anything went live. Not because nobody else could. Because nobody else had ever been allowed to.

A bottleneck isn't the person who works the least. It's usually the one who works the most. Everything passes through them, so everything is slow.

The most dangerous bottleneck is the one who thinks he's the engine.

The flattering trap

Here's the uncomfortable part. Being the bottleneck feels good.

Being needed is flattering. Being the only one who knows is a kind of power. When a client asks for you specifically, part of you is proud, even if that request is exactly the problem.

I suspect a lot of small founders are stuck here without noticing. They call it "high standards" or "caring about quality". Some of it is. Some of it is just not wanting to let go of the steering wheel.

I know because I've said both of those things. Out loud. With a straight face.

What I'm trying to change

I don't have a clean fix yet. I have some suspicions about where to start.

• Write things down. Every time I'm the only one who knows something, that's a small weakness in the company.
• Stop being the default answer. If someone else can reply to a client, they should, even if I'd reply a bit faster.
• Decide what really needs me. Probably less than I think. Probably more than zero.

It also matters for the bigger plan. We pay for our own products with client work. That's slow by design, and I'm fine with slow. But if every hour of the company squeezes through the same neck, slow stops being a choice. It becomes a limit.

And there's a less noble reason. A company that can only work when I'm there isn't a company. It's a job I created for myself, with extra paperwork.

So, yes. I found the bottleneck.

Now I just have to get out of the way.

P.S. This post was ready a week ago. It was waiting for my approval.