She leaned forward, locked her eyes onto mine and said:

“To make more money.”

That was her answer when I asked why she wanted to change the way her business operated.

The business owner had come to me looking for help in hiring an admin person — someone to reduce administration tasks to allow her to concentrate on growth. The business had reached a level where she was drowning.  Working long hours.  Under constant pressure to keep up with client demands.  Various people had been tried in the role.  None had worked out. This time around she was seeking a fresh new perspective on finding the right person.

I listened as she walked through the problem — the admin tasks piling up, the clients demanding more, the feeling that she was always one step behind.  Her focus had narrowed to answering one question: how do I find the right person?

So, I asked a different one:

“Why are you looking to improve the way the business operates?”

A pause. Then:  “To make more money.”

I said nothing. Just repeated the question.

The silence stretched. Leaning back, she searched for the answer that was apparently obvious to me but not her. I held the silence.

When she finally broke the silence, something had shifted.  The stress, the overwhelm wasn’t about the business. It was about the time she was sacrificing with her family. In that moment, finding the right person was no longer a business problem.  It was the first step in getting her life back.  She walked out with time in her diary for the recruitment process – even though it meant fewer billable hours in the coming week.

Two days later, I had the identical conversation with a different business owner. Same situation. Same answer. Same silence. Same realisation.

Two people who had never met, arriving at the same place.