How Ecommerce Founders Accidentally Build Jobs Instead of Businesses

As an ecommerce brand founder ask this tough question:
have you built a business or have you created a job with a fancy title?

I’ve worked with countless ecommerce brands generating millions in revenue, but when you look under the bonnet, everything still runs through the founder.

Nothing moves without their approval. Every lever of growth depends on their personal energy. When they stop pushing, things stop moving. That’s not a business. That’s a job.

Why It Happens

This usually isn’t about ego or control. It’s about momentum. In the early stages, founders have to wear every hat. It’s often the fastest way to move. You launch products, build landing pages, write emails, troubleshoot ops, and chase down suppliers. And it works for a while. But somewhere between £1M and £5M in revenue, the business starts to shift. Instead of evolving your role, you keep scaling the same behaviours that got you there. You stay at the centre. You make yourself essential. And without realising it, you’ve built a system that can’t function without you in it.

Three Signs You’ve Built Yourself a Job

First, you can’t take a real week off. I’m not talking about going away and checking your email from a beach. I mean a full reset. No Slack, no approvals, no last-minute fire drills. If that feels impossible, you haven’t built a self-sustaining machine.

Second, your team keeps coming to you for answers they should already own. If you’re still the one approving ad copy, signing off on campaign calendars, fixing shipping delays, or making every product call, you’re not delegating you’re controlling.

Third, your calendar is full but your thinking time is gone. That’s often the clearest signal. Founders stuck in “busy mode” tend to solve the wrong problems. Instead of leading, they’re reacting.

What a Business Looks Like

A business creates leverage. A job demands energy. A business can operate with or without you. A job collapses when you stop working. The difference isn’t just headcount it’s structure. Real businesses have systems that carry decision-making forward without requiring the founder at every turn.

Habits and hustle (I don’t like using that word, but you get the point) get you to £1m. Systems and structure take you beyond it. This shift doesn’t happen by accident. It requires founders to actively extract themselves from the middle of every conversation and build the infrastructure that lets others lead.

What I Tell My Clients

When I work with founders through the Ecommerce Growth Audit or via ongoing strategic support, one of the first areas I focus on is founder dependency. You can’t scale what you don’t control and a founder-dominated structure is fragile, even when the revenue looks strong.

An investor can hire me to evaluate whether investment is viable. One of the key elements of my work is understanding just how reliant upon the founder the business may be. We break it down across three areas.

Ownership: what are you still holding on to that someone else should manage?

Decision-making: where are you still acting as the bottleneck?

Structure: is your business operating with rhythm, or simply reacting to problems? These aren’t just operational questions.

They’re strategic ones. They often determine whether a brand becomes a saleable company or a very expensive, full-time job you can’t walk away from.

If This Hit a Nerve

If any of this sounds familiar, you're not alone. Most founders hit this wall at some point. Revenue is up. Operations are humming. But you’re stretched thinner than ever. That’s the moment you have to decide: are you building a company, or just more work for yourself? If you're ready to make that shift, that's what I help founders do.