How Small Business Owners Become the Biggest Bottleneck

Why your approval process may be slowing your marketing down

If you're a small business owner and wondering why your marketing always feels stuck, the answer might be staring back at you in the mirror.

You might be the bottleneck.

When every decision must go through you, from social media posts to email campaigns, things slow to a crawl. You may not realize how much you're holding up your own team, but if projects keep getting delayed, this is worth a closer look.

Why You Might Be Slowing Things Down

Many business owners start their company from the ground up. It’s your baby. You want everything to be right. That’s understandable. But if every piece of marketing needs your review, approval, or input before going live, it quickly turns into a bottleneck.

Your team can’t move forward. They’re left waiting for feedback or direction that may take days to arrive because you’re already overwhelmed with other responsibilities.

And the result? Missed deadlines, inconsistent content, and a growing gap between planning and execution.

You Don’t Have a Brand (Yet)

Let’s be honest: most small businesses don’t have a widely recognized brand. Customers don’t know your fonts, your exact shade of blue, or the “vibe” of your Instagram page.

You’re not Nike. You don’t have a brand to protect in the way major corporations do. People don't know your brand like they do a multi-billion-dollar company. If you changed your logo tomorrow, it's likely that only you and the design agency you paid for the work would be the only ones to even notice.

When business owners say something “isn’t on brand,” it often means they’re reacting based on personal preferences, not actual brand guidelines or market feedback. That mindset leads to endless revisions, slow approvals, and frustrated employees.

What I Learned as CMO at Grunt Style

When I served as Chief Marketing Officer at Grunt Style, I had to learn this lesson the hard way. Early on, I thought I needed to approve everything. Headlines, creative direction, email subject lines, you name it.

But the truth was this: my team didn’t need me to be in every decision. They needed clarity, direction, and support.

Once I focused on setting goals and ensuring teams had what they needed to succeed, things changed. We moved faster. Campaigns launched quicker. Our revenue scaled from $6 million to $80 million, not because I reviewed everything, but because I stopped doing that.

What Great Leadership Looks Like

Letting go doesn’t mean losing control. It means focusing on what matters:

• Setting goals and KPIs
• Defining your audience and messaging
• Hiring the right people
• Clearing roadblocks

Everything else? Delegate it.

You don’t need to rewrite every blog post or tweak every Instagram caption. If you’ve hired good people, trust them to do their jobs. Review results, not every individual action.

Don’t Be the Bottleneck

Marketing only works when it’s consistent and responsive. If you’re constantly holding things up, your team can’t test new ideas, respond to the market, or publish content at the speed needed to compete.

If your business is stuck, start by asking yourself this: Am I getting in the way?

The faster you let go of the things that aren’t your highest value, the faster your business can grow.