Delegate and Simplify Your Small Business Life

One of the discoveries you've probably made as an entrepreneur is how quickly your plate fills up…and that you can’t always keep up. I’m asked most often what tasks a new business person should delegate first.

Basically, you want to consider your strengths and weaknesses.

Face it. You definitely have strengths that make you good at what you do. You also have some weak areas that are costing you time, energy, and money. Think of those tasks that leave you feeling drained at the end of the day. Also, consider how many times you are frustrated because you never seem to have the time for those activities that you are passionate about. Spend too much time without working on your passion, and you will start asking yourself if you want to stay in business at all.

Anytime I work with small business owners, we take a hard look at what kind of relationship they have to specific tasks. You can do the same.

Make a list of all the tasks you have to spend time on throughout the month. If they fall into any of these six types of tasks, delegate them right away, so you have the space you need for your money-making activities.

1. Tasks Where You Procrastinate
   Do you have a task that you know brings you value, but you do everything you can to put it off? Hire someone who loves doing what you keep putting off. For example, don’t like making sales calls? Hire a salesperson. Can’t remember to pay your bills on time? Find a bookkeeper to keep on top of vendor invoices.
2. Activities That Burn You Out
   Maybe you can handle a particular activity, but you are burned out by the time you’re done. Find someone else who loves that action and hire them. Anytime you expend energy on tasks that deplete you, you are on a quick course to burn out, and your business may not grow. Take a hard look at the ROI for hiring someone else. In the long run, the cost of not hiring someone is too significant.
3. You Continually Make Mistakes
   Anytime you have to slow down and fix mistakes that you make, you cost yourself money. Why not employ someone else who can do it better? For example, I make costly mistakes making my own travel arrangements, such as mixing up travel dates and locations. I started having my assistant make all the arrangements because she gets it right and saves me time and money!
4. It Costs You Too Much
   You will never know how much an activity costs you if you don’t know how much your time is worth. I bet your time is worth at a minimum of $100/hour. Take your task list and compare the cost of hiring someone versus doing it yourself. If you can re-invest that time on activities that make you more than what you would pay someone else, then delegate!
5. Someone Else Can Do It Quicker
   No matter the number of multi-tasking skills you have, if you have to spend too much time figuring out a new software program instead of working on those activities that make you money, then you should probably delegate the task. That’s one of the advantages of knowing how valuable your time is.
6. There Is a Deep Learning Curve
   There is nothing wrong with knowing how things work in your business. However, when learning how something works keeps you away from your money-making activities for more than a couple of hours, it needs to be delegated. You don’t have to be an expert in everything, so hire an expert, or someone willing to learn, to complete those activities.

You may not be able to get all these tasks off your plate a once. But you should work towards freeing yourself and your time to keep your business growing.

Want to learn how to delegate profitably and build a high performing team? Check out this free training.

CLICK HERE to Discover the Real Secret to Building a “Dream Team” of Self-Starters who Play at the Work You Hate