When you’re just embarking on your journey as a business owner, you likely understand that juggling multiple roles is inherent to the job. You may find yourself handling administrative duties, reaching out to clients, managing social media, and providing customer support. However, as your business expands and new ventures arise, an array of tasks clamor for your attention.
You’re a lone operator with finite hours in the day. At this juncture, the only pathway forward, and upward, involves delegation.
But it can be scary to let go of tasks. You’ve been doing things a certain way, and it’s been working fine. You already have ways to deal with most of your daily tasks. But on average, business owners spend a lot of time on things like managing emails, scheduling, handling documents, and entering data.
These tasks are important for running your business every day, but they don’t directly help your business grow. They’re what author Cal Newport calls “shallow work” – things that don’t need much thinking and can be done while you’re not fully focused. These tasks don’t add new value to your business.
To take your business to the next level, it’s important to spend less time on “shallow work.”
As author John C. Maxwell says, if you want to do small things well, you can do them yourself. But if you want to do big things and have a big impact, you need to learn to give tasks to others. So why do many business owners struggle to do this, even though it has lots of benefits?
Here, you’ll learn about the four main reasons why business owners find it hard to give tasks to others. Once you understand these reasons, it’ll be easier to overcome them and start delegating tasks. We want to help you take control of your time and energy so you can reach the success you’re aiming for.
“I’m Not Sure What Tasks to Give to Someone Else”
One of the main reasons people struggle with delegation is deciding which tasks to give to someone else.
Since every person and business is different, what works for one may not work for another. So instead of giving specific tasks to delegate, we can offer some advice to help you begin.
If a task fits any of these descriptions, you might want to think about delegating it.
Your own special skills aren’t necessary.
Can only you do this task? Or could anyone do it with the right instructions?
You can use our free to-do list optimizer to see how much of your usual work you really need to do.
It happens again and again.
Think of small tasks that come up regularly, like clearing your email, organizing documents, or updating a social media schedule. These tasks might not seem hard, but because they keep happening, they’ll keep taking your time unless you get help.
If these tasks take up as much time as a part-time job, it’s a sign you should delegate them.
It takes up your time without giving back enough in return.
Ask yourself:
“Does this help me reach my goal?”
“Is this task contributing to my revenue?“
When you’re really busy and everyone wants your attention, every job can feel equally important. But just because something needs doing right away doesn’t mean it’s actually important.
The Urgent Important Matrix (also known as the Eisenhower matrix) is a helpful tool for understanding all your responsibilities. It helps you figure out where to focus and what tasks you can hand off to others.
You organize your tasks into four sections based on urgency and importance. Urgent tasks demand immediate attention, pulling you away from more productive work. Important tasks, on the other hand, align with your goals and require planning.
Tasks in the non-important sections can be delegated or removed from your schedule entirely.
You don’t like doing it, so you often delay doing it until it becomes very important.
When was the last time you updated your company’s blog? Or updated internal documents? These tasks take time and might not be your specialty, so they’re the first things you put off, waiting for the right time or mood.
These ignored tasks are good for passing on to someone else who is better skilled, experienced, or interested. This way, they will be done well.
You do like doing it, but it’s not necessary and often gets forgotten.
You might hesitate to pass these tasks to someone else, but with so many other important things to do, they keep getting delayed to a time in the future when you’ll have enough time.
Make a list of all the tasks you can pass on to others, and imagine how your daily life would be without them. If the thought makes you feel relieved or excited, then you know it’s the right choice.
“I Don’t Have Time To Delegate”
If you’re really busy and have a lot to do, it can be hard to find extra time to explain tasks to others or bring new people onto your team. So instead, you might think it’s faster to just keep doing everything yourself.
But in the long run, taking a bit of time upfront to explain tasks to others is worth it. Think of your time like money. For example, if you sell something for $60 but it cost you $40 to get it, you’ve made $20 in profit. It’s like having extra money in your pocket.
Similarly, if you give someone a task that takes an hour to do and spend 40 minutes explaining it to them, you’ve saved yourself 20 minutes in the long run. Many people focus on the time spent explaining and think it’s quicker to do it themselves, but they forget about the time they’ll save later on. Plus, as the person you delegate to gets better at the task, they’ll need less help from you, saving you even more time in the future.
“I Don’t Want To Lose Control”
As business owners, it’s only natural that we want to be in control of everything. After all, we’ve put in the hard work and dedication to grow our businesses from the ground up. As a result, we often fall into the trap of thinking that we’re the only ones who have the knowledge and experience to meet our own high standards or achieve the results we want.
But delegation isn’t about handing over authority and responsibility for your business. You are still leading the company and remain in charge of its growth, vision, goals, and values.
What delegation does is bring in people with the experience and expertise to complete more tasks faster than you could, implement new processes to improve your business, and free up your time so you can focus on being a founder and make the most out of your company. Focus on results, not the processes.
“I Don’t Want To Become Less Valuable”
This can be hard for some people to admit, but another common problem that stops people from giving tasks to others is thinking that having less work to do will make them look bad at their job. Some people think that doing everything and always being busy shows how important they are in their company.
But being a dedicated, ambitious, and hardworking business owner doesn’t mean working until you’re exhausted.
From my own experience, I’ve felt guilty about giving tasks to others. But if I hadn’t gotten over that feeling, I’d still be working 100-hour weeks on tasks that didn’t really matter, with almost no passion or excitement, and my business wouldn’t be as successful as it is today.
As the leader of your business, it’s not about how much work you do, but how well you do it.
What’s the Main Point?
Every business owner who has a successful company gets to a point where they can’t handle all the tasks alone. They have to face the truth – they need to bring in someone new to help with the work.
It might be tough to let go of some tasks, but it’s important if you want your business to keep growing. No matter why you’re delegating tasks or which ones you’re passing on, it’s crucial for you and your business to use your time wisely, focus on what’s important, and increase your chances of success.
Autosterea is committed to supporting dedicated entrepreneurs by connecting them with top virtual assistants. Book free 30 min discovery call with our expert team to begin, and we’ll match you with a dedicated professional who will help you stay organized.
Or why not give a skilled virtual assistant a try for free today?
Ready to take control of your time? Get in touch with us, and we’ll hook you up with a dedicated pro who’s ready to tackle those time-consuming tasks.
Book free 30 min discovery call with our expert team to begin, and we’ll match you with a dedicated professional who will help you stay organized.
Or why not give a skilled virtual assistant a try for free today?
