How to Delegate Small Business Tasks to Leverage Your Time

February 17, 2016 by Ed Becker

Delegation is such a hard process for many business owners. Being the only one, the superhero, the jack of all trades is typical for business owners just starting out, and usually necessary. As a business owner, there comes a time when you either have to learn to delegate or you could stagnate your business, or even worse, yourself. Being a wise business owner means knowing when you are either at your limit, or your skills do not match the task. At these points you have to pass the baton to someone else, and trust them.

There are tasks that are easier to delegate or outsource than others, and there are simply some that you never will pass on. Think about what made you start your business, what did you love about the work? What are your best skills? What are your weakest skills? Make a list of what you love to do in your business and what you hate, what you are an expert at and what you aren’t. This list will be where you start learning to delegate. We will discuss some areas and tasks for business owners to delegate. It is necessary to divide and conquer in order for your business to grow and succeed.

Social Media

Social Media- is a time robber, a business owner’s time is better spent on direct income driven tasks. Social media is definitely a large part of your marketing and branding, but it is time intensive, so it is a very good task to delegate to someone with good skills that can do it quicker and stay on top of it.

• Web design- your website needs to be professional, this does not mean that it has to be expensive, but it is a project that could and should be outsourced.
• Bookkeeping- is another time intensive and tedious task that must be done in a timely manner. For many business owners it is something they hate and may not have the quality of skills to stay on top of it.
• Accounting- Again, this is a professional type task that should be one left to someone with the skills and knowledge to complete it properly.
• Customer service- For two reasons this should be outsourced or delegated
  • If the owner always answers the phone, potential clients will think you are the only person doing everything. That is not a trust builder.
  • Time saving and distractions- customer service will rob your time faster than any other task. A ringing phone is the worst distraction.
• IT- If you are in need of IT tasks, it should always be professional. The cost and lost time of down time heavily outweighs having it done right the first time.
• Marketing- This goes along with social media, but you may be delegating social media before you actually have or need a marketing plan and service. It is more cost effective in the long run to turn this over to someone that does it on a daily basis.
• Data entry and administrative tasks- are incredibly time consuming and unproductive tasks for a business owner. In the early stages you may have had to do these, but as s soon as you grow enough, you should delegate them to someone else.
• Lead generation and email management- may or may not go hand in hand, but they do overlap. These are more tasks, while important, should be delegated away from the owner because they are time intensive.

It is never easy to pass the baton when it is your business. Especially when you have put in many long hours getting the foundation built. Don’t let your ego get in the way of delegating, learn to trust and pass on the tasks that can be accomplished by someone else. You will free up your time to the tasks that you love and are best at, as well as reduce your stress. In our next article we will discuss new business apps that can also help save time and reduce stress.