“If you are not growing, you are dying.” – This is what some people say and that’s where effective delegation comes in.

Of course, there is no other way but up. Growing your business and reaching new heights of profitability is important.

As you start to grow into more management-level positions, you may need to loosen your grip on being a technician. 

What do I mean by being a technician?

Entrepreneurs often begin their businesses as technicians.

This means we apply a skill, specialty, or trade to serve our clients. In opening our businesses, we offer the products or services we have the most interest in.

Some business owners enjoy being technicians. But the reality is that if you want to grow your business, you have to let go of the technician role. You can’t spend your time on penny jobs.

How to know when it’s time to grow?

As demand increases and you can no longer manage the company because you are too busy running it. You spend eight hours on client projects, then you spend four hours on business development and marketing.

At this point, you should step back and ask yourself, “What’s the highest income-producing activity only I can do?”

As a Profit Coach, my highest income-producing roles are teaching, coaching, and selling clients.

For accountants, it might be preparing/presenting financial analysis and presenting accounting workshops. For speakers, it could be delivering the keynote.

What are the tasks to be delegated?

Consider your other obligations: Would the other activities be as high-priced and could someone else fulfill them?

What if you could hire an administrative assistant to email new prospects you recently met at a chamber of commerce event for a fraction of what you are earning? Doesn’t that make more sense?

In this scenario, if you make $250 per hour providing financial analysis reports, and it costs you $20 per hour to hire an administrator to process business cards, you are essentially losing $230 per hour doing work that should be done by another person.

It’s possible that your admin could complete the task in three minutes instead of the hour you usually take, so by doing his/her work, you are losing $240.

While you think you are saving money, you are actually wasting it.

Having others do the things they enjoy and are good at will ensure everyone gets paid. Allow them to take the lead while you earn more money. Are you doing the work of someone else for a greatly inflated price? Inspect your job description.

How is effective delegation done?

Managing a delegation of responsibilities sounds easy-and it often appears easy to others who do it well-but it really requires a great deal of trust, communication, and coordination.

Even so, learning to delegate can be beneficial for your entire team if you do it well.

Understanding your employees’ skills, limitations, and preferences is vital to being a great leader. If you need to delegate a task that is going to require a great deal of collaboration, don’t give it to someone who is very comfortable working independently. Ensure it is handled by someone who enjoys collaborating.

Discuss the list with your team and allow each member to self-select the tasks they’d like to take on. People are more likely to engage and trust you when they have the choice as to what they are assigned to do.

Resources and training should be provided. SOP plays an important role in this phase. In order for a task or a project to be successful, it is vital that the person assigned it has the tools and the resources it requires. 

If hiring a new VA, make sure that there is a plan for your new team member to learn how to use a tool they have never used before they are asked to complete a task using it for the first time.

When your employees have completed their work, make sure they did it correctly, and give them any feedback they need for the next time.

For perfectionists, delegating tasks is difficult since they want things done exactly as they do. However, you have to realize that you cannot do everything on your own. 

Often, leaders build inefficient businesses that cannot sustain themselves without their founders, and when the founder leaves for a moment, the business doesn’t survive because the leader didn’t learn effective delegation skills. 

Focus on the highest income-producing activity that only YOU can do.

Do you want to grow and scale your business to the next level? You may need tools and a system to do so! Are you ready to take the challenge? Sign up HERE for free and let me help you.

Are you a control freak? Learn how to delegate! Watch this video as I point out the tasks that really matter to your bottom line!