Running a business can keep you very busy! There are many different tasks that you must attend to, if you want your business to thrive. But—there are many things that you can delegate to others, freeing up plenty of time for you to do the important work of developing your business, creating new ideas and strategies and taking things to the next level. Most successful businesses are not run by one person alone. The business that is run by one person is run by a very busy and overworked person—and is not making as much money as it could.

What can you delegate? Well, simply put, anything that is not directly tied to making money. So, this leaves your clerical work, your marketing tasks, any bookkeeping or accounting, client management and many other tasks that are going to take up tons of time and keep you from the important task—making money!

Do you know how to delegate? Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs are unfamiliar with the concept of delegating tasks. They assume that, in order for the business to be successful, they have to do everything themselves or it won’t be done right. This is not true, if you can find the right people to whom you can delegate anything that isn’t directly related to revenue creation.

One of the first things that can be extremely helpful is to hire an assistant to help you with staying organized, sticking to a schedule, making appointments, fielding phone calls and emails, and more. Your assistant can be your filter, the person who either solves a problem or sends it on to you for handling, if necessary. A great assistant can save you oodles of time, and is well worth the money you spend.

A note of caution—choose this person carefully. Hire slow, and fire fast.  You might be automatically drawn to someone you know, a spouse or partner, a young adult child, or a friend.

This is not always the best choice! Find someone with whom you can work well. Someone who is able to understand your directions and act independently upon them.

You definitely don’t want to spend a great deal of your time managing your assistant—they should not add to your workload. Great choices can often be found at local colleges or business schools, where there are plenty of people learning great business skills but not yet ready to take on their own business. In these cases, you can help each other!

Outsource the tasks that can be outsourced. Hire someone to manage your website or create content for you. Hire an internet marketing firm to get more exposure and help with the advertising. Hire someone to handle your accounting and bookkeeping. Hire someone who can handle phone calls and emails.

Once you develop a great team of people, you can train them to help you with lead generation and sales calls. They can help you get referrals, and then you can work on closing the deal and getting the client. Keep adding team members until your business is where you want it to be!

Focus on your goals, and your long term plans for your business, and make sure that everything you do is helping you work toward meeting those goals.

What do YOU need to start delegating right away in order to grow your business?  Leave me a comment below.