I’ll bet that when you launched your business one of the main reasons was freedom: from doing things someone else’s way and freedom to enjoy a different lifestyle. You knew you’d have to work longer and harder to reach your goal but the sacrifice seemed worth the reward. Now you’re successful but the freedom still isn't reality. Could it be that you’re missing freedom because it’s difficult to surrender some of your work to others?
Some of the risks associated with not letting go are: stress and its’ related health issues, being unable to grow your business further and personal conflict either at home or at the office. I’m not suggesting that you delegate everything to someone else but perhaps it’s time to surrender a little bit. Here’s how to get started:
- Consider how you spend your day. Write down where your time goes. Do you spend most of your time doing repetitive administrative tasks? Do you spend your day focusing on the big stuff and let the details pile up until they’re overwhelming? Where would you rather spend your time?
- Can anything be discarded without affecting your bottom line or regulatory requirements? If any of the tasks you’ve listed in step 1 do not directly affect your bottom line, consider eliminating them. Look at the way you’ve worked since the beginning; are there any outdated processes that could be refined or eliminated? Reducing redundant tasks and processes are quick and easy solutions for freeing your time.
- Start delegating. Start with the tasks that directly affect your bottom line, such as invoicing and collections or customer administration. If you were to document a process, could someone else do it? If yes, delegate it; if no, keep it. I’ll bet you find a lot of “yesses”. How happy would you be to discover that there’s someone who can do these tasks even better than you?
Be honest with yourself. If you were to spend some time to give someone good direction and support to learn any task, isn’t it worth the investment to free up your time and energy? Just because you are the only one who can do something now, that doesn’t mean you always need to be the only one.
If you don’t have staff that you can delegate things to, look at the possibility of hiring a Virtual Assistant or consider contract workers. For example: hire a VA for administrative duties and contract someone else for customer administration. Struggling with the concept of paying others to do work you can do? Think of it this way: you’re buying freedom.
If you need more help with this exercise please contact me through my website, I’d be happy to give you a few more tools and a little coaching if you need it.
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