Tara Caverzasi Mikolay on the book that most helped her business — Susan Carter's How To Make Your Business Run Without You

I was at a major crossroads when I first stumbled upon this book.

My husband Scott and I were very young when we opened the store. Having just turned 25, we did all the work ourselves. We were proud of what we made, but were lost as to how to run a business. We had no set policies, no set plans. We relied on staff who had experience in the field, but very different ideas about business, and we quickly realized that what they were doing was not working. There was no professionalism, no basic customer service principles, and most importantly, no consistency.

Because we did not have any of these things in place, Scott and I micromanaged every situation. Many small business owners find themselves in this situation, having their hands in everything and not being able to keep up with the demands. But the fact is, you hire staff to take care of things for you, not to make your life more difficult. We decided we would burn out quickly if we kept up this pace, so I turned to literature.

What first struck me about this book is its founding principle: that your business should be a turn-key business with highly trained staff. And, that your role as the owner is to market and focus on making the business better, not actual one-on-one time with customers or various other basic duties.

So, I typed up an extensive training manual that covers everything: from how to handle a complaint, to how to speak about our repair/custom design shop, to seven essential questions to ask a customer who is shopping. Hours of research on how to treat customers, build a business, and sell products got combined into one of the most comprehensive manuals I have ever seen. Today, there is never a time when a customer comes in and asks our staff something that they do not know.

In addition, we had our manager conduct at least weekly trainings, complete with handouts, during morning set-up to reiterate certain policies and procedures to keep it fresh in staff members’ minds. Then I set about outlining clearly defined roles for each staff member as outlined in the book, covering all day-to-day duties and training. That leaves Scott and I the time to work on our online store, marketing, Scott’s own designer line, and our accounting. Because each team member’s role is so clearly defined, nothing is overlooked and we do not ever run into that awkward phone call from a customer asking, “Where is my order, you said it would be in ...?”

Five years later, our business has quadrupled. When we ask new customers how they heard of us, nine out of 10 times the answer is, “My friend had something redesigned and was extremely pleased with the outcome and craftsmanship” or “My friend bought a unique pair of earrings from you and was so impressed that you cleaned all her jewelry, gave her an espresso while she shopped, and educated her about her new earrings.”

When we opened the business, it was much less busy than it is today. Yet, at the time, I could have never imagined being free enough to work from home. But guess what? With the help of this book, I now work from home four days a week. I am at the store two days a week so that Scott can work on completing his designer line, and even though I am there, the staff has it completely handled.

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