So there I was… exhausted from another 12-hour day of spinning a hundred plates to keep my business going. After working 60 hours week after week, I started to forget my kids’ names.
I had wanted to ditch the 9-5 grind. I wanted to be my own boss. I wanted to rule my own destiny! But instead… it felt like I had gone from prison to house arrest.
“Wait a second!” I thought. “Becoming an entrepreneur was supposed to save me time and energy, not completely wear me out!” Thankfully, I had an epiphany that solved the problem.
In my agency, I tried to do everything by myself, even if I had no skill or desire to do it. But back in the corporate world, I had a whole team to help me accomplish tasks and goals. I decided to give delegation a try. At first, I had a hard time giving up control of and entrusting tasks to anybody else. I shouldn’t have worried, though. I soon found having a reliable team made my business grow AND freed up my time!
As entrepreneurs, we’re used to taking on a load of responsibilities. After all, we built our businesses from scratch, learning new aspects as they came up. Our success or failure rides on our shoulders, and we’ve got to keep the ball rolling to make the business work. Or at least, that’s what worked for us during phase 1…
But I gained some important wisdom after spending a long time doing everything all by myself: I didn’t need to keep doing everything all by myself! Take it from someone who learned the hard way: don’t take on more than you need to. You might be surprised to learn that you don’t actually have to learn how to do every single part of your business.
Getting It All Done
Sometimes, we owners have a hard time trusting anybody else to do the essential work it takes to make our business function. We’ve already invested time, energy, money, and more into getting this company off the ground and running. Who else cares as much as we do? How could they put as much into it as us?
Agency owners often think they can’t spare room in the budget, or that they won’t be able to find someone they can trust to complete the task. But one person can only go so far when building a business. Plus, the longer we try to do every single task it takes to run the business, the more we run straight toward burnout.
Naturally, we don’t have expertise in every area, so we spend a ton of time figuring out new skills—some of which we really despise doing, by the way. We actually waste valuable resources if we don’t delegate to other people with more skill and knowledge in certain areas than we have.
For these reasons, prioritize your own expertise from the beginning. Do what you’re good at and passionate about. Delegate the rest to others who can fill in with skills and expertise you don’t have. Ultimately, outsourcing to a professional will save you time and money.
Which tasks should you consider outsourcing? I’ve got tips to help you to decide.
The Work You Need Someone Else to Do
Delegate these three types of tasks:
1. Work You Want to Increase
We all feel the weight of how much needs to get done! When we try to increase our work quantities by exerting more and more energy, we just end up burning our candle at both ends. We end up physically exhausted and mentally fatigued, and we don’t get the results we actually want.
If there’s a specific service you want to provide more of, or a task you need completed regularly, hire a specialist to perform that service. For example, you could outsource cold calling and email to someone. Or, you could take the helm when it comes to finding new work, but bring in team members to perform the work.
You’ll best serve your business efforts by saving your energy for the aspects you’re passionate about—the ones that made you want to start your business in the first place.
2. Tasks You’re Not Good At
Outsource EVERYTHING that doesn’t fall under your expertise.
If you have trouble keeping up with social media, or you detest balancing the books, find an expert with skills to cover those responsibilities. There’s no reason for you to struggle through tasks when professionals can easily complete them more efficiently.
As the owner, you’ll foot the majority of the responsibility, and you care more than anyone else about the fate of your endeavors. But you do get to invite collaboration, and with it, you discover new connections, increase your productivity, and expand your success.
3. Tedious, Everyday Tasks
You know the saying: “Work smarter, not harder!” Give someone else the tasks that have to be done but that take up huge chunks of your time. This frees up more space in your day to accomplish really important tasks that no one else can do—the ones that propel your business forward. I’m talking about future plans, content creation, and networking.
For example, when I began to podcast, I delegated the process of editing, uploading, and creating show notes. This saved me a couple of hours every week. Plus, the person I hired was faster at it than me.
Good business leaders recognize their limits—and smart ones know how to build a team around those limits. You’ll find success comes easily when you have a healthy team and system set up. Don’t sit on the border of burnout or drown under the weight of work. Learn how to delegate and see flourishing results!
If you want to learn how to build a recession-proof, automated business, check out our FREE, 15-minute training and start generating at least $8k per month in weeks.