TL;DR:
Delegation is often avoided due to concerns such as trust, time management, and quality control, but holding onto every task can lead to burnout and stagnant growth. If you don’t delegate as your business grows, so do non-billable tasks such as invoicing, marketing, taking care of your website and even IT/tech issues consume your time, leaving you stuck in a cycle of “firefighting.”
To start considering what you may want to delegate, list all tasks you currently handle, identify time-consuming ones, and highlight those requiring your expertise. Delegate what remains, starting small to help build trust with the right support in place.
Trust concerns in hiring the right support can be mitigated with proper due diligence—seek references, clear agreements, and proper governance. You can measure delegation success not only by tangible outcomes (e.g., increased revenue opportunities, more subscribers to a mailing list etc) but also by intangible benefits such as peace of mind, feeling more in control and organised and having more time to focus on what you want.
Effective delegation lightens your load and drives business growth. Taking the first step may be daunting, but the rewards are worth it.
Approx. 5 minute read
Why Delegation Feels Daunting
What runs through your mind when you hear ‘delegation’?
- “So, I need help, but don’t know where to start” or “how will I know what to delegate?”
- “I don’t have the time” (oh, the irony!)
- “Will I have to spend more time explaining the work than doing it myself?”
- “What if no one does it as well as I can?”
If these sound familiar, you’re not alone. These questions can feel overwhelming, but avoiding them might be costing you time, energy, and even business growth.
The list above may closely be followed by further questions such as:
- “Can I delegate without risking my reputation?”
- “What if it doesn’t work out and I’m back to square one?”
- “I’ve tried to get help before, but it wasn’t worth it—why would this be different?”
- “Won’t it take me more time to manage someone else?”
- “How will I measure if it’s actually helping my business?”
- “How do I trust someone with my confidential business information?”
It all becomes rather noisy all of a sudden, doesn’t it? and perhaps you run for the hills with the long to-do list (that – let’s face it, is not getting done) stuck to your heels.
What Happens If You Don’t Delegate?
Let’s start by thinking about what if you did nothing about this.
The answer is simple, without any action of any kind your situation stays the same and will probably get worse. You spend more time in a spin or ‘firefighting’ and less and less time focussing on what matters to you, whether that’s growing your business or spending time on what you want to do.
No one person is an expert in all areas of running a business.
As your business grows the rate of non-billable hours does too:
- Invoicing
- Accounts
- Marketing
- Training courses for your ongoing development
- Enquiries
- Resolving IT/tech issues
- Onboarding clients
- Taking care of your website (functionality as well as content updates)
The list goes on. Not delegating when you have too much to do puts pressure on you, your business, and your life outside of it. Eventually, if you don’t get the support and help you need (whatever that may look like) it will unfortunately lead to burnout – and there is certainly no joy in that!
There is also the pressure of technology and all the new bright shiny things that will be the ‘silver bullet’ and fix everything. Sorry folks, there is no silver bullet – that’s a myth. However, technology is to be embraced as it can help in supporting efficiencies in your business. The thing is, technology on its own is not the overall answer, it’s part of it. It works best alongside human expertise, whether that’s a great Virtual Assistant or support partner, they’ll use these tools to maximise their effectiveness for your business.
Like everything in business, whether you’re thinking about your marketing strategy, your client value proposition, your business model or business strategy and direction it all DOES take time and thought. The same sentiment is also true in getting the RIGHT support in place so you can reap the rewards.
Letting go can be hard, especially if you’ve never hired support before. I mean, you wouldn’t let someone you just connected with on LinkedIn to babysit your child or take your dog for a walk, would you?
Support is an expertise. There are many niches. You are hired by your clients for your subject matter expertise because what you deliver gives them value. The same applies when hiring support for your business. They are expert in what they deliver to you, giving you the value needed.
If your business is at the stage of needing support – having that support can help your revenue grow (or at least the opportunity for it) – without it your revenue remains the same, or less.
You may not be convinced yet (and I fully understand that), so those of you who are reading this that may be expecting some kind of checklist – you won’t be disappointed, it’s coming right up!
Practical Steps to Start Delegating
If you’re starting to consider delegation might be worth exploring, here are a few practical strategies to get you thinking about how or what to delegate:
“So I need help, don’t know where to start” or “how will I know what to delegate”?
- Make a list of all the activities in your business (that you are currently doing yourself). This is from basic administrative tasks to the ‘thing’ that creates revenue for you.
- Go though the list and mark the tasks that take a lot of time (for whatever reason, even if it’s down to your procrastination).
- Go through the list again and mark the higher-level activities (such as tasks that require your expertise or tasks that directly impact your business, like strategic planning, client relationships, or perhaps some creative work).
- The rest of the list that remains, are tasks that potentially can be delegated (you may not want to, but that’s a different story!)
“Will I have to spend more time explaining the work than doing it myself?” and “Won’t it take me more time to manage someone else?”
- This will depend on who you hire. Anyone you engage with will need some initial instruction or some level of explaining. Think of it like this: Do you deliver better to your clients when you have a clear brief of what they want and expect? The same sentiment applies when hiring support.
- Expect there may be lots of questions initially (this will depend on how detailed your brief is) – however you do want to encourage people to ask you questions if you want the relationship and what’s delivered to you to work well.
- Generally speaking, if there is good communication, over time management takes less. Have regular check-in meetings – this keeps you both on the same page and you informed. As a solopreneur/small business owner, you do need to consider business continuity too and if you ‘don’t know’ what’s involved in supporting your business this could get you unstuck.
How to Build Trust with Your Support
“What if no one does it as well as I can?” and “Can I delegate without risking my reputation?”
- What if they can do it better or quicker than you?! This question is perhaps linked more about ‘trust’ and building trust. Trust is earned, however if you’ve done your due diligence in recruiting/hiring someone the trust does not start at zero.
- Consider delegating smaller tasks and over an agreed trial period to help build the trust and to find out if the support or service is the right ‘fit’ for you. Remember, you’re a business owner, it’s your business and you can change your mind!
“What if it doesn’t work out and I’m back to square one?” or “I’ve tried to get help before, but it wasn’t worth it—why would this be different?”
If it didn’t work out first time around – ask yourself why:
- Did you do your due diligence before hiring (be honest!)?
- Were your instructions/brief clear?
- Was there technology that just did not work for you/or help you in what you wanted to achieve?
- Did you communicate well with each other?
- Were your working styles compatible?
These questions are not meant as criticism or ‘fault’ finding. We often learn more from things that don’t work out, than do – every day is a learning day!
It will mean the next time around you’ll be better placed with engaging with the RIGHT support for YOU. Afterall, the need for support has not changed, it just wasn’t the right support for you at this time.
We are all individuals, we all have different ways of working and working together – support that works well for one person, may not work well for you. It’s just the way it is. We must find what works for us. Doing your due diligence beforehand can really cut the time down finding the right person to engage with. Like I said before – you wouldn’t ask someone to babysit your child or walk your dog without finding out more about them first.
“How do I trust someone with my confidential business information?”
People who are serious about providing good support to businesses will have the right governance in place. If they haven’t provided you with the following information as a minimum, you should ask for it:
- Professional Indemnity Insurance
- Registration with the ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office).
- Recent testimonials/references
- Terms of business
- Data Processing Agreement
You can also ask them to sign your Non-Disclosure Agreement or Confidentiality Agreement – this would not be an unusual thing to ask of someone who is supporting you and your business.
Measuring The Impact Of Delegation
“How will I measure if it’s actually helping my business?”
It’s up to you how you want to measure the success of the support. It will depend on what you have hired the support or service for. You might have already agreed some Service Level Agreement as part of the service.
Some measurements will be tangible/quantifiable such as increased hours for you to spend on business development, seeing an increase in subscribers to your mailing list etc and other ‘measurements’ won’t be. These might be: ‘peace of mind,’ feeling more in control and organised, or being able to take time away from your business knowing it’s in safe hands to keep it operating at some level, in your absence.
Just because a measurement is not necessarily quantifiable, doesn’t mean it’s the less valuable.
Delegation might feel daunting, but taking that first step can unlock time, energy, and focus for the things that truly matter. Remember, the right support doesn’t just lighten your workload—it helps your business grow. Good luck!
© Jasmine Boyle, 2024
