Dr. Paul Borosky, DBA, MBA
Business Plan Writer & Financial Projections
When Does a Small Business Need a Middle Manager?
A Manager Without Authority Is Just Another Messenger.
You promoted someone good, gave them a title, and the questions still line up outside your door. Trucks leave late, customers wait, and you spend the day answering things your manager already knew. This guide lays out how to hand off decisions for real. It is the same approach business consultant Dr. Paul Borosky, DBA, MBA, uses with clients.
Last Updated: 11/08/2026 · Written by Dr. Paul Borosky, DBA, MBA
The Definition
What Exactly Is Middle Management?
Short Answer
Middle management is a layer of people between the owner and the front-line team who make day-to-day decisions so the owner does not have to make them all. It only works when it is written down which decisions belong to the manager, which stay with the owner, and how the manager reports back on what they decided.
A working manager = a written list of their decisions + a list of yours + a regular report
Doctor Owl, in Plain English
“Your manager already knows the answers. The rules just never said he was allowed to give them. Write down whose call is whose.”
How This Guide Works
Need the answer fast? Read the Short Answer above and the numbered steps. Want the full picture? Follow Frankie, a fox with four pizza trucks from Dr. Paul’s Fabled Forest Business School Series, as every question in the business still lands on his desk. His story shows up in a few short gold notes along the way. The math sits in one section, clearly marked.
Ready to Hand Off Decisions?
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Meet Frankie Again: Four Trucks Waiting on One Fox
Some lessons stick better as a story. Dr. Paul’s Fabled Forest Business School Series teaches business through a forest full of small business owners. Doctor Owl, a dry-witted consultant who lives in the Lone Oak, helps them fix the same problems real owners face.
Today he checks in on Fast Frankie, the fox with four pizza trucks. Marco, a marten, has owned the schedule since winter and knows the business cold. But every morning, the drivers still line up outside Frankie’s closed office door with questions, and the trucks leave late.
Why It Matters
What Makes Questions Still Come to the Owner After You Hire a Manager?
Most owners promote someone capable and assume the decisions will follow. They do not. Without a written list of what the manager can decide, every unusual question still goes to the owner, because nobody wants to guess wrong.
The cost is real. Work waits while the owner is busy, customers wait while work waits, and the manager learns that their judgment is not trusted. Middle management only adds capacity when the authority is explicit.
In the Fabled Forest
Marco kept a tally for one day. Sixty-three questions went to Frankie. Marco could have answered forty-one of them himself. That morning, truck four left late, missed the ferry crowd, and did half its usual business.
Splitting the Decisions
What Decisions Should a Middle Manager Own?
- Daily operations. Schedules, shift swaps, routes, and moving a job to another day if there is room.
- Substitutions. What to use when you run out of something, within set standards.
- Small spending. Repairs and supplies up to a fixed dollar limit.
- What stays with the owner. Prices, hiring, major purchases, anything over the limit, and anything the manager chooses to ask.
- How many people report to them. Keep the span of control small enough to actually manage.
In the Fabled Forest
Frankie chalked a line down a kitchen wall. One side said Marco decides: the schedule, swaps, moving events, substitutions, and repairs up to twenty coins. The other said Frankie decides: prices, new trucks, hiring, anything over twenty, and anything Marco wants to ask.
Making It Stick
How Does a Manager Report Back Without Asking Permission?
Replace the questions with a report. Once a week, the manager reads out what they decided: what was fixed, what moved, what it cost. The owner listens, asks about anything surprising, and adjusts the list if needed.
This keeps the owner informed without pulling them into every decision. The hardest part is for the owner: not taking decisions back. A manager who sees the owner overrule small calls will stop making them.
In the Fabled Forest
By Friday, only nine questions had reached Frankie’s office since Tuesday. All four trucks left on time, and truck four caught the ferry crowd and set a record. Marco read Frankie the week’s decisions out loud. Brakes fixed, eleven coins. Event moved to Thursday. Everything else handled.
The Numbers
What Did One Day of Owner Questions Cost?
Here is what the question line cost Frankie’s trucks, and what changed after the decision wall went up.
| Before the wall | After the wall | |
|---|---|---|
| Questions to the owner | 63 in one day | 9 in four days |
| Questions the manager could answer | 41 of 63 | Handled by the manager |
| Truck four, ferry morning | 14 coins (usually 28) | 31 coins, a record |
| Lost to waiting, four trucks | About 60 coins a week | Close to none |
Step 1: The handoff share. 41 of 63 questions = about two out of three could have been answered without the owner.
Step 2: The cost of one late truck. A 28-coin morning turned into 14. Across four trucks, waiting cost about 60 coins in one week.
Step 3: Your version. Count the questions you get in one day. Mark the ones your manager could answer. If it is more than half, the problem is not your team. It is the missing list.
Illustrative numbers in forest coins, from the book. Count your own questions for one full day.
Step by Step
How Do You Set Up a Middle Manager to Succeed?
Four steps to stop being the bottleneck.
Count one day of questions.
Have your manager log every question that comes to you, and mark the ones they could have answered.
Write two lists.
What the manager decides and what you decide. Include a dollar limit.
Post it where everyone sees it.
The team needs to know who to ask. Point questions back to the list, not to you.
Hold a short weekly report.
The manager reads out what they decided. You listen, ask, and adjust the list. Do not take calls back.
In the Fabled Forest
Doctor Owl’s scroll had three columns: what Marco decides, what Frankie decides, and what Marco tells Frankie on Fridays.
Frankie’s Full Story
Did Frankie Stop Answering Every Question?
This page gives you the short version. The book gives you the whole week: four drivers in the hall at seven o’clock, the tally of sixty-three, the slate in the hallway, the line down the kitchen wall, and the record Thursday on the ferry route.
Every chapter of Growth for Small Businesses works the same way. One owner, one problem, one real idea you can use on Monday, plus a one-page worksheet to do it.
A Business Consultant’s View
What Do Business Consultants Hand Off First When Adding a Manager?
Dr. Paul Borosky, DBA, MBA · Business Consultant
When an owner adds a manager, Dr. Paul hands off the decisions that happen most often and cost the least to get wrong: scheduling, swaps, supply substitutions, and small repairs. Those clear the owner’s day fastest and build the manager’s confidence. He sets a written dollar limit and a weekly report instead of an approval process. Pricing, hiring, and big spending stay with the owner until the manager has a track record. The mistake he sees most is giving a title without the authority. The manager is still blamed for problems they were never allowed to fix, and the owner wonders why the new hire is not working out.
FAQ
What Do Owners Ask About Adding a Manager?
When does a small business need a middle manager?
What should a middle manager decide in a small business?
Why do employees keep asking the owner instead of the manager?
Keep Going
Where Can You Learn More About Building a Team That Runs Without You?
This is foundation 11 of 20. These pages build on it. New to a term on this page? Every one is in the growth glossary.
Written by Dr. Paul Borosky, DBA, MBA, business consultant and author with 14+ years of experience and 1,000+ clients served. Weighing a growth move and want a second set of eyes? See business consulting and prices.
This page is for general educational purposes only. It is not legal, financial, employment, or other professional advice. Figures are illustrations. The Fabled Forest and its characters are fictional. For decisions about your own business, consult a qualified professional.