A question we often ask is when did you last take a step back from your business, to look at how it is performing without being inside it. In my experience as a business advisor, one of the most valuable pieces of advice I offer to business owners is the importance of occasionally stepping back from their business. It’s a strategy that can lead to significant insights and improvements. Here’s why taking a step back is not just beneficial, but essential for the health and growth of your business.

1. Gaining Perspective from Taking a Step Back from Your Business

  • Seeing the Bigger Picture: Immersed in day-to-day operations, it’s easy to lose sight of the overall vision and long-term goals. Stepping back allows you to see the bigger picture and realign with your strategic objectives.
  • Identifying Opportunities and Threats: A higher-level perspective can help you spot new opportunities and potential threats that might be missed when focused on the minutiae.

2. Improving Decision Making

  • Reduced Emotional Bias: Distance can provide clarity, reducing emotional biases that might affect decision-making.
  • Thoughtful Strategies: With a clearer head, you can make more considered, strategic decisions that will benefit your business in the long run.

3. Enhancing Creativity and Innovation

  • Break from Routine: Stepping away from the routine can spark creativity, leading to innovative ideas and solutions.
  • Exposure to New Ideas: Time away from the business often exposes you to new concepts and approaches that can be applied within your business.

4. Personal Well-being and Avoiding Burnout as you take a step back from your business

  • Reducing Stress: Continuous involvement in the business can lead to increased stress and potential burnout. Taking a step back is essential for your mental and physical health.
  • Work-Life Balance: It promotes a healthier work-life balance, which is crucial for long-term personal and business success.

5. Empowering Your Team

  • Building Leadership Skills: Your absence allows team members to develop their decision-making and leadership skills.
  • Fostering Accountability: It encourages a culture of accountability and empowerment among your staff.

6. Evaluating Systems and Processes

  • Operational Efficiency: A step back provides an opportunity to assess the efficiency of your systems and processes objectively.
  • Identifying Improvements: You can better identify areas for improvement or automation that streamline operations.

7. Reflecting on Customer Feedback and Market Trends

  • Customer Insights: Use the time to reflect on customer feedback and changing market dynamics.
  • Adapting to Market Changes: This can help in adapting your business strategies to meet evolving market needs.

8. Planning for the Future

  • Strategic Planning: Use this time for strategic planning and setting new goals.
  • Succession Planning: It’s also an opportunity to think about succession planning and the future leadership of your business.


Taking a step back from your business is not a luxury, but a necessity for sustainable growth and success. It allows for gaining perspective, improving decision-making, fostering innovation, maintaining personal well-being, empowering your team, refining operations, staying attuned to customer needs, and strategic future planning. As a business owner, remember that stepping back periodically is a strategic tool that can propel your business forward.

It is therapeutic to have a step back from your business, often working in it too closely we are unable to see the problems that the business is facing in an objective way. It is often a strategy taken by the best business owners, to understand their business from the outside, how their customers and staff are seeing and then making sure that they are able to improve it into the future.

Want to discuss advisory options, the Team at C&D Advisory are specialist business advisers and offer a comprehensive business growth and accountability.