More Than WE Know

A few weeks ago Sarah Natividad asked me to write about how to determine what tasks to delegate or even outsource. 

It was a good question, because each person’s list is going to be different, based on her own particular skills and goals. 

So, I’d like to share some questions to ask yourself when determining whether a task is appropriate for delegation.

1) Does it require an expertise that you do not have?

This is usually the easiest type of task for us to delegate because we know we can’t do it ourselves. We don’t spend any time feeling guilty about asking someone else to do it or worrying that they won’t live up to our levels of perfection. 

Depending on your own mix of talents this might be tasks like - calculating your taxes, managing your books, writing your contracts, creating your website, etc. 

2) Is it routine, repetitive, or does it require very little skill?

Ironically, these tasks are sometimes hard to give up. They seem so simple that we underestimate the amount of time and energy that they consume.  Unlike the first category that requires expertise we are willing to pay for, we find ourselves hesitant to pay for this type of service. We rationalize that we can just do it ourselves.  But it is important to remember the opportunity cost involved - if you are doing these tasks you are using up time and energy you could be spending on more important work.

Items that fall into this category could be tasks like answering the phone, opening the mail, creating spreadsheets, packaging shipments, running errands, etc.

3) Is it low-risk?

While we often think that absolutely everything in our business must be done to perfection, the reality is probably not that dramatic.  Truth be told there are times when good enough is really good enough. In fact, it’s even better than good enough if it means you can put your focus elsewhere on more critical things. 

The way to tell whether a task is low-risk is to ask yourself “If this doesn’t get done on time, or doesn’t get done right - what’s the worst that could happen?”

If you can live with the worst consequence - then it is low risk.

Low-risk items might be setting up your filing system, responding to routine email, organizing your office, etc. I also tend to include things like housecleaning and other chores into this category.

4) Is it something that another person could do?

Notice I didn’t say - is it something another person could do as well as you? This is usually the hardest category to let go of. In fact, it might even be the core of your business. 

Sarah Natividad faced this in her business when she outsourced the development of her product - baby booties - to other people to manufacture. 

She gave up the very task that she founded her business on - crocheting booties - in order to focus her energies on marketing her products and creating new designs.  This gave Sarah the opportunity to take on a large wholesale export order from a boutique in Japan - something she never would have had the opportunity to do if she felt she had to do everything herself.

By now you might be starting to wonder what will be left for you to do in your business if you delegate all of those tasks!  The answer is - the good stuff!

The following criteria indicate tasks that are not good candidates for delegation and should be done by you.

1) Is it sensitive?

A sensitive task might be creating a proposal for new business, dealing with an irate customer or managing an underperforming employee, etc.  If it is something that should be kept confidential - then it belongs with you.

2) Is it high-risk?

When you determine that you can’t live with the worst case consequence, or even the medium-case consequence, then a task is high-risk.  Examples of a high-risk task include negotiating a contract, wooing a new client, responding to the media, etc.

3) Is it something that only you can do?

By this question, I really do mean that it is something that only you can do - where your presence and your unique gifts are really necessary.  An example of this is networking. While other people can certainly do referral networking for you, at some point you are the one who needs to step up and meet the prospective client or customer. 

And if you are a solo professional, then this is also where you would provide the technical service or skill that your business is about, be it accounting, consulting, coaching, public speaking, etc.

4) Is it strategic?

A task that determines the direction your business is going to take should be done by you. In fact, this is where you want to be spending the majority of your time - analyzing what’s working and why it’s working, anticipating trends in the marketplace, identifying opportunities you haven’t explored, letting go of opportunities that haven’t panned out, expanding your products and services, refining your brand and your unique selling proposition. 

You might get help and input on these things, but they are really the core of your business and at the end of the day, you want to be sure these decisions are made by you.

So, those are my criteria for determing whether a task should be delegated - now you tell me - what did I forget? What do you use?  Do you think I propose delegating too much, or do you think it is possible to cut even deeper?

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Working On Your Company Rather Than In It 

(Guest post by Julie Lenzer Kirk)

When I started my business, I was one of “them.” As a software programmer, I developed roughly 50% of our initial product release elbow-to-elbow with my programming staff. It was clear we were all in it together and shared a great deal of the successes and bumps in the road.

As my business started to grow, I realized I had to pull out of my role as programmer and transition to the CEO. Unfortunately I had no idea what this meant. Over the subsequent seven years as we built our business to multi-millions in revenues, I learned many valuable lessons about how to make that transition. The following, taken from my book The ParentPreneur Edge: What Parenting Teaches About Building a Successful Businesscan help prepare you to make the successful transformation into the company’s leader.

1. It is more important to be fair than liked. When I was working at the same level as my employees, I was part of the gang. When I began to extract myself from the day-to-day development of our products I began to realize how alone I was. I was often faced with tough decisions that one way or another would upset someone. For example, while we believed in providing flexibility in our work arrangements, not every position in the company afforded the same flexible work possibilities. While a programmer may be able to develop software from home, an office manager hired to answer the phones would have a hard time fulfilling his duties working from home. While it was a clear business decision, my office manager wasn’t thrilled with it.
2. Find and use outside advisors. The saying that it is lonely at the top is true. It is especially hard if you started out as a doer in your company. Finding and using outside advisors whom you can use as sounding boards helps mitigate the growing isolation you can feel as your company begins to grow. Likewise, if you feel lost in your new role and unsure what you should be doing like I did, an advisor can help direct your focus to the aspects of your business that require your leadership to move the company forward.
3. Hire for cultural fit before skills. Many skills, with the exception of highly technical disciplines, can be taught and refined. Attitude and work ethic, however, rarely change over time. I learned the hard way in building my management team that just because someone has a fantastic resume and all the right skills, their methods and approaches may not be cohesive with your company’s culture.
4. It’s not personal, it’s just business. I agonized over every decision I had to make that impacted an employee. Even when a decision was clear, I felt I was letting people down if I had to disapprove their request or, worse, let them go. Likewise, when someone quit or had a problem with a decision I had made, I took it personally. I learned quickly that growing a business in that manner would be not only painful but counter-productive. After all, employees will ultimately do what is best for them no matter how loyal they appear. While it is good to consider the impact of your decisions on your employees, you should ultimately do what is best for the business.
5. Embrace “no.” If you’re not hearing “no” from customers, your not going after enough work. We used to boast about our 100% proposal win rate but the truth was, we weren’t going after enough new opportunities. The odds are that if you are pursuing enough work, you’ll get rejected. Oftentimes, you can learn as much or more from a lost contract that you do from a project you land. Likewise, if you’re not turning any customers down, you don’t have a strategy. Saying “yes” to any work that comes your way can leave your business unfocused and diminish your odds for strategically positioning your company for future growth.

By taking the above lessons to heart, you will position not only your company but yourself to support the growth of your company while keeping your sanity in tact.

Deleegation is the key to success.

I know many Women Entrepreneurs don’t want to hear that and don’t believe it - but it’s true. As long as we try to do everything ourselves - we limit our effectiveness.  We are constrained by our own time, talent and energy.  And we put a limit on how big our business can grow.

When we delegate - we increase our power and our productivity. We leverage other people’s time, other people’s talent and other people’s energy.  We take the limits off of our success.                                    

Reasons I hear for not delegating are:

• money - it’s cheaper to do it myself
• skill - no one else can do it as well as I can
• time - I can do it myself faster than explaining how to someone else

All three of these reasons are limiting beliefs that will get in your way of achieving success.

Money - You may believe you are saving money when you do everything yourself. But in reality all you are doing is wasting time and energy.   That time and energy could be spent on doing more profitable and more important tasks for your business.

Skill - It may or may not be true that no one else can do the task as well as you can. But even if it is true, the question to ask yourself, is “does it matter?” As heretical as it sounds - not every task needs to be done to perfection.  Some tasks just need to be good enough.  Anything more is a waste of time and energy. 

Time - Time is important. It is your most finite resource, even more than energy and money. You can increase your energy level, and you can make more money - but you only have a limited amount of time.  The only way to increase time, is to use other people’s.  And the only wise way to do that - is to invest the time upfront, once, to get their help.

In the coming weeks, I’ll discuss more about how to decide what to delegate, and who to delegate it to. 

In the meantime, let me ask you - what is stopping you from delegating for success?

Photos by jsc*

Recently, I published an article written by Tracy Phaup called the Top 10 signs you Need an Assistant. Today, I thought I’d balance out the message by identifying the Top Seven Signs that You Aren’t Ready to Hire a Virtual Assistant.

1)     You’re the only one who understands the vision.
When your business is new, it’s hard not to be protective of it. You are sure you are the only one who really understands what it’s all about and the beautiful future that lies ahead. And that might be true. Sometimes our ideas are still only half-formed and unclear. You know what you want but you don’t know how to articulate it.

It’s important to define your business as clearly as possible – for yourself and for others. Having a business plan, a marketing plan, a projection of growth – all of these are ways for others to see what you see, whether they are an assistant, a client, an investor or a loan officer.

If you are really struggling with articulating your vision, consider hiring a specialist to help you clarify it.   The clearer you can make it for others, the more they can help you make it a reality.

Until you can accurately describe your business, you are probably going to set yourself up for frustration and miscommunication if you hire an assistant.    

2)  You’re the only one who can do it the way you want
It’s hard to let go of control. It can feel scary; especially when you are sure you know exactly what you want and how you want it.  But sometimes it’s good to let go of control; it allows for more creativity. It enables you to use other people’s ideas.

Go ahead and describe the task in as much detail as you can: identify what you want, and when you want it, but don’t specify how you want it done. 

Your assistant is an expert in knowing how to do the things you ask. He or she has done these things for multiple clients and knows what works and what doesn’t. If you take the chance to let him or her do it their way, you might find that they have a more efficient or creative way to meet your needs. 

You always have control of what and when your tasks get done, but unless you can let go of some of the control of how they get done, you’re probably setting yourself up for aggravation if you hire someone else to do the work.  

3)   You are not sure exactly what you want
Maybe you know that you want a new web page, or an email campaign, or an accounting system, but you don’t really know the details of what you want. It’s outside of your area of expertise and experience.

You have a sense of what you want, but you can’t clearly articulate what you have in mind.  If that is the case, it is doubtful that the assistant is going to be able to come up with something to suit you.  You should have some idea of what you are looking for before you hire someone to build it. 

You can solve this gap by collaborating with an experienced assistant who can ask insightful questions, or show you portfolios that help you identify your needs. But don’t make the mistake of jumping in and giving assignments without being able to clearly describe the outcome you are looking for.

Unless you clearly identify the outcome you are looking for, you risk paying for re-work and extra hours, as your assistant struggles to get it right.  

4)   You’re not ready to share  
It’s okay to admit – early on your business can feel a lot like your baby – you want to do everything yourself.  But just like with a baby, if you insist on doing everything yourself for very long – you will get overwhelmed and burned out.  Pretty soon, what started out as fun and exciting, will turn into drudgery and stress.

Don’t get caught up in the honeymoon phase for too long – this is business after all – and you are your business’ most valued asset – you need to treat yourself with respect and care.

Be sure you really want help before you hire an assistant – otherwise you run the risk of continuing to be overly involved in the work itself, and not getting the benefit of increased time and productivity.  

5)  You have difficulty trusting others
Hiring an assistant may mean opening up parts of your business that make you uncomfortable.  For some assignments, your virtual assistant may need access to passwords, accounts and client information. There are certainly tasks they can do that are not confidential, but if the thought of letting someone in to that level of detail makes you worried – you may not get the full benefits of using an assistant.

Until you’re really comfortable sharing confidential information, don’t hire an assistant to help with sensitive tasks.    

6)  You’re not sure it is a real business  
Many entrepreneurs grow their businesses out of a hobby or special interest. It takes them a while for them to concede that they have a business and to treat it in a professional manner.  When you can confidently refer to yourself as a businessperson, and make plans for revenue and growth, then you are ready to treat your business, as a business. 

Until you are ready to admit that building your business professionally and taking it seriously is important to you, don’t bother investing in an assistant.   

7)  You are not yet earning any profits
While an assistant is an important person to hire soon in your business – because it enables you to focus on more of what is profitable – it is difficult to justify hiring one while you are still unprofitable. 

Early on, it’s possible you can handle the workload yourself. If there is little revenue, there is probably also little book-keeping to do, and few administrative tasks to handle. 

But as soon as possible, when the phone starts ringing, the receipts start piling up, and the products start needing to be shipped, hire a virtual assistant to help with the overflow, and free yourself up to do more of the value-added stuff. 

Until you have some positive revenue stream from your business, you might not want to add the expense of an assistant.  

In conclusion:  
When done for the right reasons and at the right time, working with a virtual assistant can give you a competitive advantage.  He or she can free you from routine tasks and enable you to focus on expanding your business without taking on the commitment of a full-time payroll.  But, done at the wrong time or for the wrong reasons – it can end in frustration, wasted expense and even disaster.

So, before you hire one – read the signs – are you ready for an assistant?

Have you hired an assistant? Why or why not? How has it worked for you?