Last week I talked about Step #1 of successfully delegating: deciding what to delegate. The next two steps are to find qualified, reliable professionals and to delegate the work to them. But…how?
Step #2: Choose Qualified, Reliable Professionals
When you delegate to professionals, you have to choose the right ones- people who you can trust to do high quality work on time at a reasonable price. You’ll want to look for people who you can work with personally, who you like and find pleasant to work with. You’ll want people who meet your needs professionally. It’s important that they are able to meet your standards, time constraints, and price requirements.
I have a database of pros I’ve been working with for the last fifteen years, people I know I can trust to do great work on time and within set budgetary requirements. I’ve been sharing these folks with my clients exclusively for years, but what if you’re not one my clients yet? In 2012, I’ll be providing you with an option to access my database of amazing pros, but for now let me say that there are few guarantees when you work with someone for the first time, so protect yourself by getting excellent referrals and references, preferably from sources you know and trust.
Step #3: Delegate to Your Team
Now let’s talk about Step #3, the how of delegating. When you delegate a task to someone, you must remember that you know how to do it- they don’t. Of course there will be some things you’ll offload that are tasks your assistant or web developer handle regularly, but much of the time, your tasks will be unique to you and your business, at least in some way.
As you move forward with delegating, focus on the following: a) Breaking down your tasks into easy-to-follow steps.
Every task can be broken down into steps. And even if you aren’t quite ready to delegate something, it’s never too soon to start creating a “manual” for each task- you never know when you might need or want to have someone step in and manage something for you.
In the book, The E-Myth, Michael Gerber talks about creating a manual for each part of your business. For every job that you do, create a manual that would allow someone to take over that job at any time. And when someone takes on the job, it becomes their responsibility to keep the manual updated with any changes or new procedures. This makes it easy to promote people or replace people, when necessary.
b) Writing clear and concise instructions for each step.
When you write instructions for someone, start by assuming the person reading your instructions has no idea what the job is or how to do it. Write down every single step, even if it’s something that seems obvious to you. Remember, what seems obvious to you may not be so apparent to someone else.
c) Answering questions before you get them.
Sometimes, including an FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section in your instructions can be useful. That way you can head off spending a lot of time answering things you might already have answered previously. Check through your sent e-mails for answers to questions you’ve had in the past and re-use the answers in the FAQ. And again, this is a great place where the person you’ve delegated to can take over- let them manage and update the FAQ section as needed.
d) Being available as any questions you haven’t anticipated come up.
As you delegate to others, you’ll find that you want to be sure you have a little time set aside to reply to e-mails and phone calls as your new assistant has questions about his/her new tasks. there are always questions that need to be answered and fine-tuning that needs to be done, so plan ahead and make sure you have the time to manage the transition.
I’ve been thrilled with delegating various tasks and the time (and headaches) I’ve saved myself. There’s always a transition, but it is relatively painless and the reward is almost always worth the effort. A year ago, I delegated the management of one of my online stores to my assistant. There was a substantial learning curve- it took about two weeks before he felt comfortable managing the stores on his own, and during that time, we were e-mailing back and forth several times a day and talking on the phone at least once every couple of days. But once that transition was complete, I was free to spend my valuable time working on other, more profitable tasks, while he managed the day-to-day updates and operations of my store. I saved both time and money and was able to start a whole new business as a result (which he now also manages for me).
Don’t be afraid to delegate. It may be one of the best decisions you can make for your business!
When you outsource, you have more time with family, and also more time to work on the stuff that actually makes you money!
There’s so much talk about outsourcing and delegation. And there’s no question that outsourcing should be a part of your overall business plan. But how do you delegate successfully so that you can make use of the economic advantages of outsourcing? In this two-part series, I’ll cover the ins and outs of successful delegation so you can stop doing the things that don’t bring in either income or joy and start doing more of what you love.
STEP #1: Figure out what you can delegate.
When I analyze my business, I look at what I’m spending my time on. Periodically, for a week or two, I’ll use a special online time timer to see how I’m spending my time- this is a tool I occasionally have my hourly contractors use- and then I go back and look at where my time went. This helps me narrow down how I’m spending my time and what things I’m spending time on that aren’t profitable. I look at the big chunks of time but I also look at the smaller chunks- a few minutes spent here and there on little things can really add up, so you can’t ignore those little chunks of time.
Once I see where I’m spending my time, I ask myself a list of questions about activities in my business to help me determine whether or not I can delegate them:
1. Do I enjoy doing this?
2. Is this an income-generating activity?
3. Could someone else do this better or faster than I do?
4. Is it necessary that I do this myself?
5. Can I afford to outsource this?
6. Is this a task that can be outsourced?
Let’s talk about a few examples so you can see how this works. I enjoy working on my own web site and I have the experience and skills to handle it. And because of that, I can often make changes quickly and easily when it’s just a few lines of text. In those case, I know it’s faster and easier to do it myself. But sometimes, more in-depth changes to the design or the programming are needed, and that’s when it makes sense to have someone on my team handle it. If it takes me less time to dash off an e-mail to my assistant than it does to make the change, then my assistant can handle the change for me.
Another example is articles marketing. I love writing, but I hate articles marketing with a passion. That said, it’s an important part of my business model and marketing plan. So I have someone else handle writing abstracts, extracting keywords, and uploading my articles to the sites they need to be on, and I get to do the stuff I love and none of the stuff I hate. And for every job like this that I can outsource, that’s more time for me to spend serving my clients, developing new products, and frankly, spending quality time with my family.
The point here is that you need to ask yourself what tasks do you dislike, what things are you doing that aren’t actually generating income for you, what things are you doing that someone else could do faster and/or better than you, and what things are you holding onto that just aren’t necessary? Ultimately, there are things you’ll want to hold onto for good reason, but take some time to do a little soul-searching, too, so you can see if, like me, you’re occasionally holding onto a few tasks because you feel a need to be in control of them.
You can outsource almost anything these days. You can delegate so much more than you ever imagined, and it doesn’t always have to be a full project- sometimes it can be part of a project. So, start with Step #1: asking yourself the five questions and figuring out what you can delegate. In Part II, I’ll cover how to find solid professionals to help you manage your projects and get more in-depth about what to do once you find them.
Let’s face it—we’re all looking for shortcuts to help manage our businesses and social media interactions more efficiently and effectively. One of the best ways to make your social media activities run more smoothly is outsourcing—having someone manage certain tasks for you.
But when it comes right down to it, there are certain things that shouldn’t be outsourced, and there are really good reasons why “you” need to be a part of your social media strategy.
In fact, if you’re thinking of hiring someone to manage your social media accounts and handle your online networking, you may want to think again, because you might end up with exactly the opposite of what you’re after.
This article will look at social media tasks and what should and shouldn’t be outsourced, to see maximum results for your small business. READ MORE AT SOCIAL MEDIA EXAMINER
