Why Delegate?
We’ve all been there; the admin tasks are building up and you are spending more time keeping your company running, than actually doing what you set up your business for. This often means that your business isn’t actually doing any of the core activates that makes you money and this could lead to cash flow problems and worse case scenario – the end of your business. Alternatively you could be drowning in your own success and simply not have the time to respond to, or administer everything and you simply want to get your head back above the water line so you can breathe again.
Thankfully there is a solution at hand – delegate. Simply pass on the tasks that are taking you away from what you are good at, so you can focus on what you enjoy and what you do best.
Free Up Your Time
In certain situations, such as doing your back office tasks and accounts, the solution may be to form a long-term partnership with individuals or companies specialising in providing assistance to small businesses. These companies often charge very reasonable rates and are worth their weight in gold in terms of the amount of time they will free up for you to concentrate on your core business. Some tasks such as, getting a website created and written, or getting someone to automate some of your processes, can be one offs that will save you time and money in the future.
Alternatively if you want to keep things in house, it might be worth considering expanding your team to include a dedicated business support / office admin person. If you work alone and can afford an additional salary, having someone else in the office with you can be motivating, and can free up a lot of your time without resorting to outside help. Quite often you can find people prepared to work part time and for a very reasonable salary, through the local job centre or adverts in the local press.
If you need a little support, either temporarily or on a permanent basis, then here are a few things that are easy to delegate:
- Designing and formatting of reports, documents and presentations.
- Managing your finances and preparing cash flow forecasts.
- Creating automated forms to improve efficiency.
- Creation and management of your customer database.
- Setting up Social Media profiles and creating a strategy for their use.
- Managing newsletter email subscriptions and un-subscriptions.
Save Yourself Time and Money
It is sometimes hard to let go of tasks and trust someone else to do them for you, especially if you perceive that it is costing you money, which you could save by doing things yourself. It is important to remember that this is a misconception; any time you are spending away from doing your core business activity, you are in fact wasting money. For example, if you pay someone £7 per hour to make appointments, that means when you are making appointments you are only earning £7 per hour. Think how much you would earn in an hour doing your core business and you will see that you are better off paying someone else (who will probably do it much quicker than you) rather than losing time that you could be spending much more productively.
Where Do You Find Help
There are lots of places where you can find support services and ways to delegate tasks. There are a number of dedicated business support companies that will take care of the tasks you don’t want to perform, either on a short-term or long-term basis. The best way of finding these is by personal recommendation; otherwise an online search on Google will uncover some suggestions. Just make sure you check their site for references and ensure you have a clearly agreed budget. These companies will be able to take all the back office tasks, invoicing and accounting off your hands for a reasonable annual or monthly fee.
So when you are feeling snowed under consider delegating – it could save your business.
