Many of the clients we work with at GBW are small businesses just like us.
With blogging we can help businesses grow their website traffic as a way to bring in more customers.
But we also like helping businesses with other aspects. That’s what the GBW Blog is for and in this post we’re going to cover a very important topic: delegation.
Delegating is a challenge for small businesses. It seems that in order to make the step from small business to medium business it’s necessary to delegate. There is only so much one person can do that there is no way to push yourself to your limits as the owner and still perform a great service.
I’ve gone through it myself at GBW. I’ve tried to handle much of the writing, but knew I would only get burned out. So in order to take GBW to the next level of quality service I had to hire other writers.
Today, I don’t handle hardly any of the client writing. There are too many other tasks to take care of. I’ve become okay with the transition because the team of writers at GBW are truly some of the best around.
In working with small business owners I’ve come to realize that we all struggle with the same types of things in delegation. We see it all the time at GBW because so many businesses want to start a business blog, but don’t have the time. It’s one of the most common reasons people reach out to us.
So with this post I’m going to share some other things you can delegate so you can free up your time to grow your company.
1. Production
The biggest win you can get with delegation is to delegate your production.
At GBW, it was creating blog posts. I used to do nearly 100% of the production or blog post writing for clients and for the posts you read on the GBW Blog. As the business added more clients it became too much. I was working into the night. My health was slipping. I wasn’t getting enough sleep and I wasn’t happy.
Now things have switched around almost entirely.
Nearly 100% of the production is done by other writers. They’re all extremely talented. That was one of the challenges. I don’t know why I thought people wouldn’t be able to do as well as I could. The opposite was true. The writers on the team bring their own individual talents and their collective efforts far outweigh anything I could do on my own.
Whatever your production is for your business you should look to delegate it as a whole or in pieces. There are many parts of any operation you can delegate.
I’m still working on getting the production at GBW 100% delegated. I’m not sure we’ll ever get there, but that’s the goal.
2. Research
At my last job I learned that research was an important part of business. We researched new markets, new products and the competition. We were always looking at what was happening and what we could do better.
This was all done by the staff. The executive team would review and make decisions. They would even come up with the direction for the research in many cases, but they rarely did the research on their own. There just isn’t enough time with all the other tasks they had to perform. They had to trust the team to do the research.
It was incredible to watch because the business did so well during this time.
It’s fine to do research on your own, but you can save yourself time by delegating the research into new markets allowing yourself the time to consider all possibilities so you can make the best decisions for your company.
3. Social Media Sharing
Sharing content from your website (and from other websites) has become so important to building your following on social media.
However, too many business owners feel they have to take care of their social media accounts on their own. It’s just too much to handle. This repetitive task is one you can delegate to your team.
If your brand has social media accounts you should have someone on your team trained to complete the sharing each day. Don’t overload them with too many social channels. Focus on the ones that give your business the most opportunity for success.
Then provide a procedure for sharing so your employee can share items that will grow your following.
It will lead to more followers, more traffic and more customers for your business.
4. Reporting
Another thing I learned while working for a successful company was that reporting was very important. But the team handled the reporting. We went through a process every month and we met with the director.
In that meeting we discussed the results. We looked for anything that looked out of place. It was our job to make sure the numbers made sense. If something didn’t make sense we had to go back and figure out what was going on.
The director was skilled enough to look at the numbers on the surface and see how the business was doing. From there we could make business decisions that would drive the company into the future.
You don’t have to do the reporting on your own. You can have help in this area. It’s a tricky one because you’re letting someone else in on the numbers in your business, but if you want to focus on the big picture you have to give up this control so you can grow.
5. Communications
Email, phone and even mail are all things you can give up to someone else.
That’s right. You don’t even have to answer all your emails and phone calls.
You don’t think the owners of the big companies out there are taking every sales and customer service call are you?
Of course not. There is no reason you should have to that either.
If the communication is repetitive you can build a procedure for it so someone else can handle it. It will take some time to setup, but once the machine is going you’ll have time to focus on other activities.
General Rules For Delegating
After reading these five things (and keeping in mind blogging) you’ll start to pick up on a few general rules for delegating.
Since your business is unique you’re going to have a few other items that can be delegated to others.
Here are those general rules.
You can delegate if the task is:
- Repetitive
- Procedural
- Vital
With each of these components you know the task can and should be delegated. You’ll open up new avenues for success in your business by taking something that’s repetitive, creating a procedure from it and delegating it to another person. If the task if vital to your business it will contribute to the bottom line. If a task doesn’t do that it should either be eliminated or simply enjoyed as a nice-to-have item.
Hopefully this post will help you delegate some of your repetitive tasks.
Take it from me – delegating can really help your business. It will help you personally as well. You’ll have more time to think about your business because you won’t be so busy working in your business.
That can lead to some big things.
Image: Tulane Public Relations