The Art of Delegation:
As a small business owner, you’re likely wearing many hats, juggling everything from customer service to accounting. While involvement in every aspect of your business can seem necessary, it often leads to burnout and limits growth. Delegating specific tasks allows you to focus on what you do best—growing your business and serving your customers. Here's a guide to the tasks you should consider outsourcing to free up your time and energy.
Tasks You Should Delegate
1. Bookkeeping, Payroll Processing, and Tax Preparation
Managing finances is crucial but time-consuming. Unless you have a background in accounting, these tasks can be overwhelming and error-prone. Outsourcing bookkeeping, payroll processing, and tax preparation ensures accuracy and compliance with regulations, reducing your stress and the risk of costly mistakes. Professional accountants or bookkeeping services can handle these tasks efficiently, providing you with detailed financial reports that help you make informed decisions.
2. Consistent and High-Volume Production or Service Tasks:
If your business involves producing goods or delivering services at a high volume, these routine tasks can quickly become time-consuming. Delegating production or service delivery to trained staff or third-party providers ensures consistency and allows you to scale without burning out. This delegation is instrumental if your business is growing and you need to maintain quality and efficiency.
3. Intaking and Screening Inquiries:
Customer inquiries are the lifeblood of your business, but handling them personally can eat up your day. Delegating the intake and screening of inquiries to a dedicated team or virtual assistant ensures that potential customers receive prompt attention while allowing you to focus on strategic tasks. These professionals can qualify leads, respond to frequently asked questions, and schedule appointments, streamlining your sales process.
4. Marketing and Social Media Management:
Maintaining an active presence on social media and managing marketing campaigns is essential but time-consuming. A marketing professional or agency can create content, run ads, and engage with your audience, freeing you to focus on other aspects of your business. They bring expertise in digital marketing strategies that can help increase your brand visibility and customer engagement.
5. Administrative Tasks:
Administrative duties such as scheduling, data entry, and document management can quickly pile up, diverting your attention from more critical business activities. Outsourcing these tasks to a virtual assistant or an administrative service can save you time and reduce stress. They can manage your calendar, organize files, and handle routine correspondence, keeping your operations running smoothly.
6. IT Support:
Technical issues can disrupt your business and lead to significant downtime. Outsourcing IT support ensures that you have professionals available to troubleshoot problems, manage software updates, and protect your data. This support is crucial for maintaining productivity and safeguarding your business against cyber threats.
7. Specialized Expertise:
Tasks You Should Keep in Your Control
1. Vision and Strategic Direction
Why Keep It? As a business owner, your vision and strategy are the driving forces behind your business’s success. No one else can steer the company in the direction you envision. Your involvement is essential in setting goals and defining the path forward.
How to Manage It? Regularly review and refine your business goals and strategies. Work closely with your CPA to align your financial planning with your business vision.
Read our Tax Strategy Handbook.
2. Key Client Relationships:
Why Keep It? Your clients trust you and the personal relationship you’ve built with them. These relationships are vital to your business’s growth and should be nurtured directly by you.
How to Manage It? Maintain open communication with key clients and involve yourself in major decisions or negotiations that impact these relationships.
3. Company Culture and Leadership:
Why Keep It? Your company's culture reflects your values and leadership style. While you can delegate HR functions, you should guide your team's overall culture and morale.
How to Manage It? Lead by example, communicate your vision clearly, and actively foster a positive work environment.
4. Product or Service Innovation:
Why Keep It? Innovation drives your business forward, and your unique insights are crucial in developing products or services that resonate with your market.
How to Manage It? Stay engaged with your development team, encourage creative thinking, and ensure that your innovations align with your business’s core values.
5. Crisis Management:
Why Keep It? In times of crisis, your leadership is crucial. Whether dealing with financial challenges, PR issues, or operational disruptions, your ability to lead decisively will determine the outcome.
How to Manage It? Have a crisis management plan in place and be prepared to step in when needed. Your team should look to you as the go-to person in critical situations.
Delegation is not about giving up control; it’s about maximizing your efficiency and leveraging the expertise of others to grow your business. By outsourcing these tasks, you can focus on strategic planning, innovation, and building relationships with your clients. Remember, your time is your most valuable asset—use it wisely!
