Signature Series - Growth Without Burnout | Vol 10. CrewHero vs. Chaos A Year In the Life of an Owner - Before & After

CrewHero vs. Chaos

What It Really Feels Like to Run a Growing Company Without a System

By Dave Fairburn, Co-Founder of CrewHero and North Point Outdoors

If you’ve ever built a business from the ground up, the kind with trucks, field crews, changing weather, and real deadlines, then you probably know what I mean when I say:

“I couldn’t keep doing it all.”

was trying to grow North Point Outdoors with integrity, speed, and culture.

We had the people. We had the work. We had the momentum.

But behind the scenes, I was mentally carrying every single detail, every single day.

And the scariest part?

wasn’t just letting myself down. I was letting the team down.

The Hidden Chaos No One Sees

On the surface, everything looked good.

Crews in uniforms. Beautiful install photos. New trucks in the lot. Clients happy.

But internally? It was held together with memory, magnets, and a whole lot of adrenaline.

Here’s what it actually felt like:

❌ Our database was never accurate

We had names in systems, sure. But they were rarely right.

It didn’t matter, because no one looked at it anyway.

Field teams didn’t live in spreadsheets. They weren’t checking email.

The idea of a “clean database” was laughable when jobs were flying in and people were texting you that they were out sick mid-drive.

❌ Every hire meant printing magnets

Seriously.

Every time we hired someone, I had to physically print a magnet for the whiteboard.

It was like running a high-stakes board game — with real people and real money on the line.

If someone left? Pull the magnet.

If a name changed? Reprint it.

If we added a truck? Hope there’s room left on the board.

The system was tactile — and fragile. We were doing more Arts & Crafts than a 2nd Grade Classroom…

And if I was out of the office? Forget it.

It Was All in My Head. And That’s Why It Was Breaking Me.

I knew every truck issue.

Every crew assignment.

Every PTO request — usually delivered as a text on a random Sunday night.

Every rain delay. Every missing key. Every safety issue someone mentioned but didn’t write down.

All of it, lived in my head.

And while I could keep it there for a while, the weight never let up.

It’s hard to lead well when you’re afraid everything’s going to fall apart the second you stop watching.

That’s how I felt.

Like if I stepped away, it would all unravel.

Like I couldn’t rest without guilt.

The Worst Part: My Managers Couldn’t Help

This is what nearly broke me.

I had good people — great people — but they couldn’t help.

Because they were in the same trap.

Everyone was working out of their own phones.

Assignments, updates, crew changes, truck statuses — all in personal text threads, with no central place to see what was actually going on.

It was invisible chaos.

I couldn’t delegate because the system didn’t support it.

Even if someone wanted to take something off my plate — they’d still end up texting me to get the answer.

So I stayed the answer.

Always.

Field Teams Weren’t Set Up to Succeed

And I don’t blame them.

We made it really hard for them to do their jobs smoothly.

• They didn’t use email.

• They didn’t sit at a computer.

• Printed handbooks got lost.

• Plans got rained on or tossed in the truck.

• Repairs were surprises.

• Great photos were never sent because no one knew where to send them.

• PTO got mentioned but not documented.

• Assignments changed without warning.

And through it all, I just kept feeling like…

I was underwater.

The Vacation That Wasn’t

There was one trip that really did it for me.

We were going to the beach as a family. I promised myself — this time, I’d unplug.

But the night before we left, I stayed up late laying out a week’s worth of dispatch on the whiteboard.

• Printed names

• Crew assignments

• Directions

• Weather notes

• Backup plans

I taped it all down. I walked the team through it. I tried to pre-solve every problem.

And still — I knew.

I’d be the guy walking up and down the beach the next day with my phone pressed to my ear while my family played in the water.

Because no whiteboard can run a business for 7 days.

And no owner can enjoy real rest when their company only works when they’re watching.

Final Thought

If you’re a business owner trying to keep it all together, I see you.

You’re not failing. You’re just trying to run a company with growth-level complexity using startup-level tools.

And that only works for so long.

CrewHero gave me back more than time.

It gave me back peace.

It gave my team confidence.

It gave my business structure that didn’t live inside my head.

If you feel like you're drowning in endless little details — you probably are.

That's the CrewHero way.