How delegation can grow your business and give you more freedom

Aug 3

When you’re in the first few years of business, you’re wearing ALL the hats and doing ALL of the things - it’s very easy to burn out.

That’s exactly what happened to us.

In 2017 we’d just expanded Open Space and as a result our expenses also increased. We knew we needed to make some changes in order for Open Space to be sustainable and continue to grow. And for us to not just survive, but thrive.

So one of the first things we did was to delegate.

Things You’ll Learn in This Episode of Hustle With Heart:

How to manage your to-do list and free up your time without losing your special sauce
The key to focusing on your genius and moving your business forward
How to find the right fit person for your business, and to effectively delegate tasks to them without the hassle
How to brief your team so you can be confident they will execute important tasks well while you’re working on your business and moving the needle forward

What we’ve learnt about delegation and why it’s important

We figured out what our tasks as the CEO’s of the company were...and then we delegated everything else.

And as a result we went from operating in the red to very high multiple 6-figures and to now be reaching 7-figures in gross revenue. We did this in 3 years.

And in those 3 years we learnt that you need to work ON your business, not in it for the business (and for you) to grow.

You are the CEO of your business. So act like one and embody that CEO mentality.

This looks like taking the driver's seat and implementing the 70% rule of delegation.

So, you do 30% of the tasks in the business - the needle movers, the things that only you can do…and the 70% leftover, you delegate

Another key thing is that you need to invest to grow.

In order for your business to actually uplevel and to move into the next phase you need to invest money to make that growth happen.

Because if you’re doing everything in your business, then your business will stay small as you only have a limited capacity.

Your business will only grow to the capacity that you can hold.

Think of a hermit crab. It can only grow to the size of the shell that it’s inhabiting. And when it grows too big, then it exits the shell and it moves to another shell.

Without delegation you end up doing everything yourself which can often build resentment towards your business - and you don’t want that!

You want to thrive and enjoy it.

If you don’t delegate there’s a lot of stress and you don’t move forward so your business doesn’t grow.

But when you’re delegating you’re proactive instead of reactive. This means you're in the planning and visionary phase. You free up your time so you can focus on the things that move your business forward and result in more income and more impact.

Where to begin delegating

Start by writing down every single thing that you currently do in your business and everything that needs to get done in your business.

For example, admin, ordering stock, sending emails, writing blogs, and visual merchandising, organising staff leave, meetings, all of those little things.

Then you can use that information to start fleshing out what to delegate.

It’s now time to go through those tasks and prioritise them as to what you're going to do and what you're going to delegate to someone else.

Mark the number one next to all the items that:

You do daily or weekly that you don't enjoy doing
You're not very good at doing
Takes you out of your genius time

So these are items that absolutely need to be delegated as top priority. You don’t want to spend your time doing tasks that drain your energy. Your time would be better spent elsewhere.

All of the tasks that are marked with number one are to be delegated.

Then you need to put a number two next to all of the things you do daily or weekly, that you're okay at - you may not necessarily love them.

All of the tasks that are marked with number two are things that you may continue to do, or you may decide to delegate later.

Then place a number three next to those tasks that you're good at but not necessarily the best at it. So these are the things that you can do.

All of the tasks that are marked with number three, you either commit to doing them yourself, or delegate them into something that is your own genius.

And finally place a number four next to the items that are your bread and butter - your zone of genius.

These are the things that only you can do (it’ll only be a small handful of things). So these are the tasks that light you up, that you're great at, and that move the needle of your business forward.

All of the tasks that are marked with number four are where you should spend most of your time.

If you’re thinking “I don’t have the budget to be able to spend as much as you on my team…”

We hear you.

You don’t have to delegate everything today, but you need to start somewhere and we promise that you’ll see the rewards.

Start small and build up to delegate more.

Build your delegation dream team

It’s time to begin to build your dream team that is going to make your delegation dream come true.

We’ve found that there are three types of people to invite into your business team that can really help.

Those with a specialised skill set. For example, someone who can manage Google ads, a videographer, or someone who can do Facebook ads etc. In the past, we created our own Facebook ads but it just took us so much time. And we found that we weren't producing what we needed to produce, because we didn't want to do it. So the results spoke for themselves - they were pretty poor. By bringing in a seasoned, amazing skilled professional it has helped to exponentially grow our company
An in house manager, or a virtual assistant. Someone who becomes your go-to person to help you with things like email templates, scheduling content, creating email automations, copywriting, graphic design.
Your helper or casual staff member. This person’s role is varied. They understand your business and the culture of your business. They may be a student, or a casual worker, or even someone that wants to learn from you in your business.

How you can utilise delegation successfully

So let's take you through this process as to how to brief this team member.

For example, you've decided that you need a virtual assistant.

Write down the specific tasks that you need them to execute.
Then write down what skill set is required to execute these tasks and if they also need to be proficient in any particular software that you use in your business
And then note down the part of the execution process that you want to control
How often do you need this person? Ad hoc, weekly, monthly, on a project basis - this needs to be clearly stipulated in the brief
When is the work due, in what format and how will you communicate with each other?
What are you willing to invest in a monetary sense?

The point here is that if you’re bringing someone on board to delegate tasks to and you're protective about the essence of your business and what's being produced - their work will be as good as your brief.

Give them as much detail as possible, be as specific as possible and make it clear what they will be doing and what you will be doing.

Work produced by a team member will be as good as the brief that you give them so be extremely clear about what you need.

So when you’re first starting out we recommend identifying those tasks that are sapping your energy the most and use that as the first piece of delegation and go from there.

And then once you've delegated all those tasks, it then leaves you in your place of a genius where you can do the work that lights you up. And that creates impact in your community.

And there you have it!

And there you have it - an insight into how delegation can grow your business and give you more freedom. Remember to start small and let us know how you go!

And before you go - if you’re enjoying our podcast then please let us know by leaving us a five star written review. We LOVE reading all of your comments.

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Jacinta Di Prinzio