Why Delegating Can Fast Track Your Financial Success: Part Two

Sometimes we just become so caught up in the day-to-day craziness that we don’t even stop to consider other options. Make the time to stop, look and listen; find out what the issues are in your business and how you can address them. You can’t solve a problem that you don’t know about. This is common problem for entrepreneurs. They are so used to being experts in their field and doing everything themselves that they are reluctant to hand responsibility to others. If you want something done properly you have to do it yourself, right? Wrong! The tasks for which you earn your highest hourly rate are best done by you, but let me tell you something: for most other tasks in your business, there are people out there who are better at it than you—and that’s fantastic! Chances are you are not an expert bookkeeper, or warehouse manager, or marketing manager, or customer liaison, but too many small business owners try to wear too many hats and don’t perform any of these tasks as well as they could be done. You need to trust your staff and service providers. You don’t need to be afraid of outsourcing to Bangladesh or maybe even Russia.

As a business strategist this response drives me nuts! The reason you think you are too busy today is that you didn’t stop and make changes yesterday. You must make the time to improve things today; that’s the only way you’ll be less busy tomorrow. Got it?

Putting Things In A Format People Can Follow

Because small business owners get used to doing everything themselves, they often develop their own unique methods and this becomes an impediment to delegation. But this is an easy problem to overcome—you just need to spend some time developing processes that you can easily pass on. It may take a bit of extra effort now, but I guarantee it will save you time in the long run.

We Can’t Afford It

Let me dismiss this one for you here and now – if you want to grow your business you can’t afford not to delegate and outsource. Even if you are outstanding at what you do, if you don’t let go of managing the day-to-day issues in your business, you are putting a ceiling on how much you can grow, and that ceiling is how many hours you can work in a week. If you think you can’t afford it, can you afford not to? If you are this close to the edge something has to change.

If any of these are holding you back you have to address them—now. You need clarity about where your best work is done and what is getting in the way of growth. It might be you. The sooner you do this the faster you will build a business that gives you the outcomes you deserve.

Stefan Kazakis is a business strategist, sought-after presenter and speaker and author of the new book, From Deadwood to Diamonds (Major Street Publishing, $29.95). He is a futurist and an inspiring communicator with the voice of experience. Stefan has had over 20 years’ experience running successful small to medium sized businesses – including a family business which he took from near bankruptcy to be a multimillion dollar business. Stefan has helped clients from a variety of crossroads and industries seize their opportunities to achieve ongoing business success and substantial profit growth. For more information please visit www.stefankazakis.com or email [email protected].