Every business has lots of moving parts. By default, an owner must have a wide ranging skill set if they hope to achieve any success with their enterprise. Those skills include, but not limited to, sales, marketing, human resources, bookkeeping, production and administration.

Of course, at the onset, we as owners tend to do all these activities. But as your company evolves, and demands on your time increase, you need to seriously consider getting out from under all of those responsibilities. Doing so, would free you up to focus on what you do best as an individual and allow the company to grow.

Fortunately, for many of these areas mentioned, you have choices on how to free yourself from these tasks. You can either hire someone or, outsource those activities to a freelancer. Either way, the end result would be to unburden yourself.

What to give up

What to give up or delegate varies with each entrepreneur. But be aware, there is a fine line between delegate and abdicate. Let’s face it, your enthusiasm for the various roles in your company range from, enjoyment to sheer torture.

What I have found is that we tend to keep doing the things that we’re comfortable with, regardless if it’s a good use of our time, and eschew those things that we don’t like, or have little knowledge.

One of the very first areas that entrepreneurs can’t wait to get rid of is bookkeeping. Heck, some don’t ever do it. They just outsource it right from the beginning and are glad to be rid of the responsibility. Too be fair, it can be a little tedious and many of us just don’t have the patience for administration.

Ignoring powerful information

This is also a great example where delegation turns into abdication. When questioned, most owners simply answer that they don’t understand it, or it’s too complicated. Although it is primarily a record keeping function, what I find absolutely amazing is how little attention some owners pay to this area. For many, they are quite content to run their businesses blissfully ignorant of the powerful information contained within the available reports.

Far too often it takes a crisis to get the entrepreneur to take notice and by that time it may be too late to save the company. These crisis usually take the form of missed government remittances, seriously overdue account payables or worse, a nasty case of fraud. But more often than not, it’s simply a matter of inattention that’s built up over an extended period of time.

Maintain oversight

Delegating doesn’t mean never having to deal with it again. It simply means letting someone else take care of the day-to-day activities. For instance, if you used to spend eight hours a week on something, you can now reduce your time to an hour a week simply reviewing the other person’s activity. You still must maintain oversight and ultimately remain accountable for the results.

All areas of a business can be delegated but successful entrepreneurs stay sufficiently engaged to know exactly what’s going and avoid surprises

Delegating is mandatory if you want to grow your enterprise. It frees you to rise above and plan for the future. Just remember though, delegate not abdicate.

You may also enjoy Delegating is easier than you think

Copyright © Greg Weatherdon 2017

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