The Art of Delegating: What They Didn’t Teach You In College

Contributed by Allison Maslan, Serial Entrepreneur. 

Entrepreneurs notoriously start out as complete do-it-yourselfers. It is common to see businesses founded on a one-woman or one-man show. However, if you continue to operate your business this way, you will prevent it from growing into its highest level of success. Here are a few real-life, beyond-the-classroom, practical tips to help you understand the importance of learning how and what to delegate so your business can thrive.

Delegate or Delete!

What is taking up most of your time? What are the things you wake up thinking you really don’t want to do? What is taking up so much of your bandwidth that you don’t have enough time to go out and get new customers? Do you have people calling you for business but you don’t have enough time to call them back? Does any of this sound familiar?

What you really need to be doing is working on the business, not in the business. It simply isn’t sustainable to do every little task ourselves forever and expect our businesses to grow. When we like things done a certain way, though, we may have trouble letting go of all that responsibility. Or, you may feel you can’t afford to hire additional help right now. Here’s the catch: If you continue to run your business trying to do it all, you are actually losing money and preventing your business from growing. The time has come to take account of all that you do and determine which activities can be removed altogether from your process, which can be delegated and which are in the sweet spot of using your talents and vision to the best of your ability.

Delegate and Automate to Freedom

Take some time to really think about what you do every day. Make a complete list of all the tasks you undertake. Do this for three days or so. Start with the moment you wake up in the morning and go through the end of your day. Be sure to record anything and everything that relates to your business. Once you’ve done this, it’s time to categorize these tasks into three very important levels:

Level 1: Which of your tasks take up your time and you honestly can’t stand doing them? Write these down under Level 1 on a piece of paper. These are tasks that simply don’t resonate with you, don’t lift you up, stress you out, irritate you and so on. This could include things like bookkeeping, running errands, organizing and cleaning your office space, answering phone calls and emails, etc. What tasks just really slow you down and bring you down?

Level 2: Now, create a Level 2 column and include tasks that don’t necessarily irritate you or bring you down and which are important to the life of your company, but they don’t have to be completed by you. You don’t mind doing them occasionally, but your time would be better spent elsewhere.

Level 3: Your Level 3 column should be a list of things that you love! What fascinates you about your business? What excites you? What are you passionate about? This is where you need to be spending 90% of your time in order for your business to achieve healthy growth and success.

The next step is to take all of the tasks in the Level 1 column and determine who you could delegate them to. If you don’t already have this person working for you, write down the ideal type of person who would handle this for you (i.e., a marketing person, administrative assistant, finance expert, legal support, social media guru, etc.).

For the Level 2 items, look at which you could delegate and which you could automate. Are there some tasks on this list that you could create systems for to simplify the process? For example, there are a variety of CRM (customer relationship management) software programs out there that allow you to house everything from sales to financials to internal filing systems and more, all within the umbrella of the software. (If you don’t know what programs are available to help you automate, it is worth the time to look into it!)

In terms of delegating Level 2 items, who could you hire for these tasks? Maybe it’s a virtual assistant or a graphic designer. Look closely and determine who, in your estimation, would be the best person to complete each task.

The more you can delegate, the more time you will be able to spend in your Level 3 perfect-for-you tasks. This will change your life! You will increase revenue for your company and you’ll be more excited about what you do. Take the leap to delegate and change your business for the better. You won’t regret it!

Contributed by Allison Maslan, a serial entrepreneur who has created and successfully run 10 different companies including cultivating a 20-year practice as a holistic physician. Her company Allison Maslan International offers Pinnacle Global, a three-tier business coaching program that teaches entrepreneurs how to accelerate their growth, capitalize on their success and balance it all with a meaningful life. Learn more about Allison and the Pinnacle Global programs at www.AllisonMaslan.com. For further high-impact support, listen to Allison’s free audio for business owners, “The 8 Millionaire Secrets of Successful Business Owners,” at www.AllisonMaslan.com/cd.