Look, no judgement. As you start building your business, founder-led marketing makes total sense. You’re the one who is closest to your customers and knows your product like the back of your hand. And I bet no-one else could tell your story and talk about your ‘why’ as passionately as you can.

BUT! As your business grows, the way you approach marketing is going to need to change. So, how do you know when that is?

What founder-led marketing actually looks like

Yes, there's the obvious stuff. You're writing the LinkedIn posts, crafting the website copy, you might even be building your own branded laptop stands for events (I worked with a founder who did this once - true story. I was impressed).

But founder-led marketing isn't just about doing the marketing. It's about owning every marketing decision too.

You're the one:

• Deciding what to prioritise and where to focus your marketing efforts.

• Coming up with campaign ideas and deciding which ones are worth pursuing.

• Juggling so many ideas that you're becoming your own bottleneck.

• Making every marketing decision, from the day-to-day to the more commercial, strategic ones.

At first, that’s fine to manage. But as your business grows, it becomes almost impossible for one-person to keep all of that in their head. You can try, but you’ll probably lose your sanity somewhere along the line.

7 signs you've outgrown founder-led marketing

How do you know when you’ve reached tipping point? These are some of the signs.

1. Marketing only happens when you have time

When you’re growing your business and have competing priorities, I regularly see marketing slip down the priority list. And I totally understand why that is. But it means no progress is being made towards scaling your growth long-term.

2. Everything needs your approval

You’re giving the go-ahead on everything. Of course, you are! You are the one who is confident on your positioning. You know the problems your product or service solves inside-out. But this means that nothing can progress without your input, which means you aren’t really freeing up anymore of your time or mental load.

3. Marketing feels reactive

Many plates are spinning and you have to turn your attention to whichever one is about to drop. This means you end up flip-flopping between planning that event presentation, drafting your LinkedIn posts, and crafting that web copy which is in desperate need of an update. It’s exhausting.

4. Your team keeps asking what to do next

In the instance where you’ve invested early in a junior marketer, you become their go-to for knowing what’s next. It’s not because they’re not capable. It’s because there is no direction or clear priorities because you haven’t had the time to create it.

5. Sales and marketing aren't joined up

Oh boy, have I seen this in my time. Marketing produces things. Sales is focused on something else. Every team has excellent intentions, but nobody is owning the bigger picture and creating a unified effort towards a set of goals.

6. You know marketing could be better, but don't know where to start

If you had all the time in the world, you could probably get your marketing to the next level. But, the reality is, you don’t. You’re overwhelmed by advice and each week a new opportunity lands on your desk which you feel compelled to pursue. And that begs the question: where should you focus your time?

7. You're spending too much time thinking about marketing

I mentioned mental load earlier in this list. That's because I know the pressure you're putting on yourself to keep things growing in the right direction. Marketing is always in the back of your mind. Even when you're not actively working on marketing, you're thinking about it. When you have the freedom to step back from owning every marketing decision, you can finally stop holding the whole function in your head.

Why this happens

You haven’t outgrown founder-led marketing because you’re not good at it. To be honest, the founders I’ve worked with have been exceptionally creative and had great marketing instincts.

Why it stops working is because your business has become more complex as it’s grown. You’ve probably launched new products or services, you’re testing new channels, you’ve gained more customers, you’ve started hiring a team. This means your attention and time is split across so many different contexts.

There’s only so far that founder-led marketing can scale.

What happens next?

You know you can’t continue operating in this way, so something needs to change. There are a few options available to you. And you’re the only one who can make the decision on what feels like the right next step for your business.

1. Hire your first marketer

If you've got a clear strategy and just need someone to deliver it consistently, hiring your first marketer might be exactly the right move.

The important thing to note here is that you're able to give them direction, such as what your priorities and goals are. If that's in place, bringing in someone to execute can free up a huge amount of your time.

2. Hire a marketing manager

If you've got one or two junior people involved in marketing already, but nobody is coordinating the work, a Marketing Manager could be the right next step.

They'll take ownership of day-to-day activity, keep projects moving and make tactical decisions without needing your input on everything. They can be a great fit when the challenge isn't capacity, but coordination.

3. Bring in fractional leadership first

And if you're not quite sure what marketing should look like over the next couple of years, it can be worth bringing in someone to help you answer those questions before making a permanent hire.

A Fractional Head of Marketing can help you define your strategy, prioritise where to invest, support recruitment and build the right foundations. Once that's in place, you'll be in a much stronger position to hire with confidence.

4. Use agencies or freelancers more effectively

Agencies and freelancers can be absolutely brilliant, but only if they're working towards a clear plan.

If you're relying on external support, ask yourself who's setting the direction. Who's deciding what gets prioritised? Who's making sure all the different pieces fit together?

Without that, it's easy to end up with great execution that doesn't add up to a joined-up marketing function.

Here’s my take…

It's par for the course to own the marketing function when you're starting out. You're the founder. You're closest to your customers, your product, and your vision.

In my experience, it really becomes a problem when you continue to hold the reins as the business grows. Your time isn't freed up, you become the bottleneck, your attention is pulled in too many directions and the mental load keeps growing. Before you know it, you're signing off social media posts at 11pm on a Saturday.

If your marketing is working, but it's only working because it depends on you for every decision and every priority, it's probably time to think about what comes next. And I can definitely help with that.