Grow your business through delegation
It’s a pleasing moment when you tick a task off your company ‘to do’ list, one that is short-lived when you realise lots more have been added to the bottom.
You are in a vicious circle of desperately needing support, but not feeling you have the time or budget to recruit and train a new permanent member of staff. Maybe you haven’t had a holiday for months, even years.
The Guardian recently reported that as many as six in 10 small business owners didn’t manage to take a holiday last year, and of those that did, three quarters worked every day.
Jonny Gifford of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development warned time off was important – a healthy business requires a healthy leader. He explained that “if you’re worn down, your business can suffer. If you’ve got fatigue or you’re anxious, you can make mistakes and lose sight of the bigger picture.”
Trying to take care of everything yourself can be harmful to your well-being and your business. But handing parts of your work over to an outsider can be a daunting thought. Will you lose control? How long will it take them to get up to speed? How much time will you have to spend briefing them? Some of the questions you are probably asking when it comes to facing the prospect of delegation.
Taking on the help you need to successfully run and grow your business does not have to be a painful process, in fact by investing some time now you can reap the long-term rewards of integrating a professional support consultant into your company.
In this guest blog, Emma Grossmith, business support consultant (BSC) of Purple Sunflower Limited provides 5 top tips to help you identify and delegate tasks. Here are the first 2!
1. Know your limits
You might already know which aspects of your business require additional support, if not take time to write down the tasks you currently complete on a weekly basis, but could be passed to your BSC. What about that pile of admin for example, or your website and social media updates? Maybe you have a wish list of jobs that could do with your attention, but always seem to get moved down the priority list. The blog you lovingly started, but hasn’t seen a new post for months; research into a new product idea or customer satisfaction survey; a website content overhaul. You might even have a short-term, one-off project that just demands an extra pair of hands, an event or product launch for example.
2. Let go!
If you want a job done right, do it yourself, yes? Many people have this point-of-view, however should you take the decision to delegate part of your business function you can still be confident that projects will be completed to the highest professional standard. If you are worried about the thought of relinquishing control of your business, start small – admin tasks or routine website updates for example. As you become more confident in the work of your BSC you will find the opportunities for delegation are endless.
The final 3 tips will be published separately!
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