It takes a village to raise an entrepreneur, and the sooner you embrace the practice of hiring key team members to take things off your plate, the faster you will grow and profit from running your company. As an entrepreneur, your initial urge may be to handle every aspect of your business by yourself. After all, it is YOUR business. But, as you begin to experience success, you will quickly realize that, in order to truly grow and expand, it is unlikely that you can do it alone. And, not worth it!
Learn how to delegate some responsibilities and “duplicate” yourself, to get more done in less time and push your business to the next level. Time is money, and if your time is being spent on tasks that you could outsource for $15 an hour, it doesn’t make sense to lose precious time that could be spent creating thousands or tens of thousands of dollars in new business and revenue.
Here are four key steps to keep in mind when contemplating whether or not it’s time to hire key team members.
- What is taking up your time that isn’t directly income producing ? Obviously, doing the books, emailing clients to set up appointments, processing payments, and paying bills are great places to start, but think about household tasks as well.
If you’re spending a lot of time grocery shopping, cooking, running personal errands, and organizing your shelves, all of these tasks can easily be handed off to someone who could free up at least 20 hours of your time a month. How much business could you generate with those 20 hours? Maybe it’s time to hire someone to take care of your household chores. Not only does it free you up, but imagine how wonderful it would be to come home after a busy day to a clean house and full fridge ?
- What isn’t within your wheel house ? If you’re spending hours of time trying to update your Quickbooks, and you could hire someone who can do it in less than an hour, what makes more sense? The same goes for updating your website, formatting your newsletters, and posting to social media sites. Wouldn’t you rather get that extra time back to look for speaking opportunities, call prospects, or meet a friend for lunch ?
- Dip Your Toe In : Hiring an assistant doesn’t have to start with a full time schedule and full benefits. Start with a commitment of just three to five hours a week, and then gradually add more hours if the arrangement works out. You will figure out soon enough who works well with you, and what tasks can be delegated to which person.
Just remember to hire slow and fire fast if it doesn’t work out, but if you take your time in the hiring process, you’ll have a better chance of hiring the right person to begin with.
- Decide and Take Action : The cool thing about life, is that often when we make a clear decision, exactly the right person often shows up “coincidentally.”
Make the decision to commit to yourself and your business, and then place an ad, or post to Facebook that you’re looking for someone. It can be scary to move forward, but it will pay off in more ways than you can imagine.
Learning how to delegate tasks is a big step for any entrepreneur, but, if you think that the founders of the biggest, most successful companies are still managing all of the smaller tasks themselves…well, they aren’t! Act like a big company, and become a big company!
Wondering what’s next for YOUR business? Apply for a Business Analysis Review session and get my feedback on what the next steps are for your business: www.CherylHeppard.com/biz-review-session