When you first start a small business, you take on a lot of responsibilities. You’re not just the owner—you’re also the accountant, the administration, the customer service representative, the installer, etc. In order to grow, however, you have to learn how to take some of these roles off your plate so you can focus on something much bigger: expansion. Delegating isn’t always easy, though. Especially not when you’ve become used to taking care of everything by yourself. However, if you start with these, you should be able to work your way toward an autonomous staff.
Marketing
Unless your small business is a marketing company, chances are this isn’t your area of expertise. This can include a variety of tasks from social media marketing, to website management, to graphic design and beyond. While some of these seem simple, most require a lot of technical knowledge and consistency that can eat away at your daily schedule. It’s also easy to tell when someone without experience is attempting to conduct his/her own marketing campaign. Despite the adage, “all exposure is good exposure,” a sloppy or inaccurate presence might be worse than no presence at all. Thus, whether you hire an employee to manage these tasks, or outsource them to a freelancer, it’s best to leave this area of business to the experts.
Bookkeeping/Accounting
When you’re the only employee, or functioning as a sole proprietor, you just have your salary and expenses to track. As you add employees to your company, you face more complicated tasks, along with the liability of potential mistakes. Thus, consider outsourcing items like payroll, tax preparation, and even the analysis of financial documents to the professionals. Not only will it eliminate stress, but also with the proper system in place, you’ll actually be able to see how your business is doing. It’s hard to evaluate your growth and make future projections without accurate, organized data from previous years. That’s where we come in!
Administration
Though this should be the easiest one to delegate, it can also have the biggest impact upon your day. After all, we’ve all started the work day with specific tasks in mind, only to be derailed by unexpected requests and interruptions that demanded our attention. With a good administrator, though, you’ll be able to focus on the bigger picture, while allowing him/her to handle the little things. This can include basic tasks like answering the phone, managing your email inbox, preparing materials for specific projects, scheduling appointments, coordinating calendars, etc. Depending on the size of your operation, you may have separate employees to handle customer service calls and/or data entry. In a smaller business, you might be able to find one capable person to carry out all of these, or perhaps, you only need someone in the office part-time for such purposes. The primary benefit to delegation is the flexibility, after all.
While it may be difficult to parcel out these tasks at first, once you have good people to help you, you’ll see a huge difference in your business. So, be selective, figure out which roles are most important to you, and train your employees to handle them in your stead. It’s also important to avoid micromanaging, which can continue to eat away at the most precious commodity (time) while frustrating your newly found staff. Don’t forget to ask us how we can help with your bookkeeping and accounting needs!
