As a small business owner, you have a whole lot “on your plate.” At one point or another, you have probably filled just about every role in your business—from answering phones to issuing invoices to planning marketing strategy. The problem is that there simply aren’t enough hours in the day for this arrangement to continue. In order to truly grow your business and generate maximum profits, it is important that you are able to clear your plate and delegate tasks to professionals, employees, or other team members, such as contractors. In particular, tasks that are time-intensive but don’t require specialized knowledge or ability should be outsourced as soon as possible.
Below are five examples of the types of processes and tasks that many business owners are better off either delegating or outsourcing:
1) Billing. Creating invoices and sending them to your clients is time-consuming—particularly if you have a large list of clients or customers. It’s a task that others can easily perform so that you can spend your time more effectively somewhere else.
2) Collections. Receiving payments and properly accounting for them is another time-intensive task. Unfortunately, there are often complications—such as a customer or client not paying when payment is due—which magnify the amount of time required even further. The sooner you can stop worrying about collections, the better!
3) Providing standard customer service. Customer service is very important. And depending on the structure and size of your business, you may have to be involved to some extent. But you shouldn’t be involved in “standard” service unless you absolutely have to. Train your team to deal with everyday questions and requests so that you don’t have to be involved.
4) Everyday marketing efforts. Many businesses are engaged in marketing strategies that require ongoing attention—everything from writing blogs to posting on social media to making sales calls. While you will certainly need to be involved in the strategizing and the implementation, delegating the day-to-day work to others on your team is a winning strategy.
5) Fixing equipment and facilities. Most of the business owners I know love to play Mr. or Ms. Fixit. After all, they typically have built their business from scratch, and as a result know just about every detail inside and out. So when things break down, whether it is a computer, a printer, a leaky faucet, or whatever… they want to fix it. And it may not seem like a big deal to fix things from time to time, but if you had up the amount of time you’ve spent fixing things in a given year, you may be surprised. Teach your staff to fix minor issues and consider hiring a professional for more difficult issues!
It’s perfectly natural for a small business owner to wear many “hats.” The problem is that each “hat” consumes time that could often be spent more effectively and profitably somewhere else. So do what you can to outsource and delegate tasks such as the five we’ve identified above. Please contact me today to learn more!