Starting a business begins as a unicorn job, and if you're lucky you find out that you also enjoy running a business. And get to keep your unicorn part-time job. Also, having other people help build your unicorn. I LOVE what I do every day - used to complain I wasn't coding enough, but it was because I was controlling the output too much and not delegating. It wasn't that I wanted to code more, it was just that I wasn't getting enough done. So I hired more staff and found I really like the balance of entrepreneurial life, helping my staff code their best (and towards our goals) and coding in the quiet hours.
Completely agree here. Anything specific that helped you delegate more? I'm getting started on that, but still feel I'm not getting nearly as much done as I could, and I'm a bottleneck for my outsourcers.
Delegation means knowing exactly what results you want, and if your staff aren't skilled enough being able to lay it out down to the line with direct tasks with clear finish lines for each task. We do a lot of training, so when working with junior developers you want to break it down, break it down, and be able to think laterally in case they can't achieve exactly what you want - there are always other ways to get things done. Then trust them, and make sure you get daily reports. At first it feels like you are not getting anything done and then they start flying and it feels great.
I think all knowledge workers should note what they did at the end of the day - it helps with accountability and gives a sense of achievement. For example a tool like idonethis.com helps you and everyone stay up-to-date and see quickly where problems are. Or ask everyone to just email you at the end of the day or a fixed period. Always read them and respond if needed.
You note that you feel you are slowing your team down - if it's because you are relied on to be building core tasks, try building mock-ups first so they can work. Another good tool is apiary.io if you work with APIs for example: it combines fleshing out your API with actually providing a functional framework so the front-end guys can get to work.
If it's documentation slowing you down, give everyone some days off or get them on another task and catch up. Use paper and pen or whiteboarding or a design tool like Flairbuilder if you need to really understand your ideas before trying to explain them to someone else.
We only use this method for new and junior developers, for maybe 2-3 months depending on how quick they are to get up to speed and we trust that every day is spent on something constructive.
