Business owners, learn to delegate
Updated 2024-03-26. Originally published 2010-05-21 on VocationVillage.com
Business owners, if you learn to delegate, your life will be better. I promise. The most common source of stress I hear from business owners is that they have more things to do than hours awake to do it all, and this imbalance causes a constant state of overwhelm leading to burnout.
Business owners give a variety of reasons they aren’t delegating some of their work. Here are some of the top reasons they give for reluctance to delegate, and some strategies to overcome the challenges.
"It would take so long to teach someone how to do some of my job, it is easier to just do everything myself."
It is true that it would require an initial investment of time to teach someone how to do some of the more routine aspects of running your business. But there are a lot of extremely smart people in the world and many of them know how to use accounting software, create or maintain a website, post to social media, respond to simple inquiries from clients, scan or file paperwork, run errands, etc. Once this person is up-to-speed, you can save hours per week by not doing these tasks yourself.
"I would love to delegate but I can’t afford to do so."
In making this financial decision, weigh the opportunity cost of doing everything yourself vs. creating more time to do the important work of strategic visioning for your business, marketing to land more work, delivering awesome results to generate repeat business, or simply having more time for self-care so that you don’t break down under the strain of an unmanageable workload. Can you afford to neglect the areas of your business that are the most important? Can you afford to become too exhausted to continue?
"I tried delegating once and it didn’t work well."
This excuse makes the assumption that if something doesn’t succeed the first time you try it, it isn’t worth trying again. But how many things in life are accomplished on the first try? You can identify which part of delegation was ineffective and change that part to do it better the next time. Learning how to delegate effectively is a skill that requires practice. Each time you try, make it a learning experience and be assured that as your skill grows, you are getting closer to becoming competent at delegation.
"I am afraid that if I delegate something, it won’t get done the way I want."
Effective delegation requires that you are able to specify the outcome you desire and to check in with the person doing the work so that they don’t get too far off track before you redirect in the right direction. Schedule frequent check ins in the beginning when someone doesn’t yet know your style and consider it an investment in the future. After you establish that you and the worker are in sync about expectations, you won’t have to track milestone progress so carefully.
"I’m afraid I will hire someone and then realize I made a mistake and be stuck with the person."
Many entrepreneurs find that it is easier if their first hire is an independent contractor / freelancer rather than a permanent employee. This way, you can evaluate for a trial period if there is a good match between what the freelancer offers and what you need. Make sure to follow the IRS guidelines about hiring an independent contractor, including the rules about allowing the freelancer to have control and independence about how he/she accomplishes his/her tasks as long as the output matches your expectations.
"I don’t know where to find freelancers."
There are lots of resources to find talented individuals to hire. Some options are HireMyMom.com, UpWork, and Fiverr. For marketing help, Acadium is an option.
Once you taste the freedom that effective delegation brings, you will be glad you learned how to do it. Then the only task left to do is to figure out the best ways to use all that time you have freed up!
