You know the old saying, “it takes a village to raise a child”? Well, the same thing applies to creating, building, and growing a company! If you’ve been trying to handle every aspect of your small business by yourself, you’ve probably noticed how overwhelming it can be.
While we’d all love to think we have the time, knowledge, and skills to handle running a business on our own, let’s face it - we probably don’t! Spend too much time working on your business, and your personal life suffers. Spend weeks in a row strictly dealing with personal matters, and your business is all but guaranteed to take a hit.
It’s a simple fact of life: we’re not meant to handle everything on our own all the time! Even the world’s most successful business owners understand the importance of relying on others, and you should too. Realizing you need a little bit of help is the first step in true growth.
The Difference Between Having the Time and Having the Space
I don’t know about you, but I’m a firm believer that there’s no such thing as “not having the time” to do something. If something is important enough, there’s always a way to find the time you need to do it!
However, finding the time to get something done is not the same thing as having the space you need to do it right. Sure, you can probably set aside 30 minutes to get something done right before you go to bed. But, it probably won’t be done as well as it could have been, had you had a bigger window of time and more mental capacity to focus on it!
That’s why delegating tasks can help you streamline your business operations. Giving away some of the tasks you can’t handle on your own can not only give you more time, but more space and mental energy to focus on the thing that matters most: your clients.
Why Focusing on Your Clients Matters
As a small business owner, there’s nothing more important than building relationships with your clients. Having these kinds of personal relationships will keep clients coming back time and time again, and it also increases the chances of them referring you to their friends and family!
But, focusing on building relationships and interacting with your current customer base can be difficult. There are a lot of moving parts involved in running a business, and you don’t want to get so bogged down in the details that you neglect this important engagement!
The answer to this problem? Delegating! As the owner, you are the face of your company. While you might be spending a lot of time and effort on improving your everyday operations, this doesn’t matter to clients nearly as much as those personal touches do. To ensure you have enough time for this crucial part of running a business, delegating to others is key.
Delegating Tasks to Streamline Your Business
Think about other small businesses in your area. While a few may be run by a single person, the vast majority have a team of managers, customer service associates, and assistants. While your business may not need an entire team yet, it’s always best to look for additional help as you need it.
Delegating Personal Tasks
Many entrepreneurs operate at least a portion of their business from their homes. While working from home offers many advantages, including fewer expenses and greater availability to your family, it can also make balancing work with your personal life difficult.
Focusing on interacting with clients to build relationships, and ultimately get more sales, can be difficult when you have to run around grocery shopping, helping your kids with homework, or cleaning up around the house.
Thankfully, in this day and age, help is just a few clicks away! Here are some of the personal tasks you can delegate to others so you can focus more on interacting with your clients:
● Hire a nanny to pick the kids up after school
● Sign-up for meal prep or grocery delivery services
● Find a tutor to help your children with their homework
● Hire a housekeeping service to keep your home neat and clean
While this type of assistance won’t reduce your workload, it will give you the space you need to handle things properly. You’d be shocked how much more time and less stress you have when you delegate simple tasks like these to others!
Delegating Business Tasks
When you first establish your small business, it’s likely that you won’t have the need or resources to hire employees or contractors. However, as your business grows, you’ll have more to handle and more resources for delegating.
Think about your strengths and weaknesses when it comes to running your business. Maybe you’re a pro at copywriting, but lack the resources to create eye-catching graphics that draw people to your page.
Perhaps you’re an excellent salesperson, but your website and social media profiles don’t reflect your expertise. Or, maybe you just want to focus most of your energy on building relationships with clients and gaining referrals - not the tedious everyday tasks.
Figure out what you need help with, then find someone who can handle these tasks for you. Some of the people you can think about outsourcing to include:
● Copywriters
● Office assistants
● Graphic designers
● Digital consultants
● Small business marketing strategists
Think about what you need most and what will give you the most time to focus on clients. Then, delegate accordingly!
What If I Don’t Have the Means to Outsource?
Some small business owners have more on their plate than they can currently handle, but don’t have the resources to hire someone to help them out. If this sounds like you, don’t worry! There are still a couple of ways you can streamline your operations.
Schedule Social Media Content for Later
One of the best ways to streamline your business on your own? Schedule your content ahead of time! Set aside a few hours at the beginning of each month, and create a plan for your online content.
What events or holidays are coming up that you want to discuss with your followers? Will you be offering any promotions throughout the month? Do you have a new product or service dropping soon?
Think about things like these, then write out a content schedule. Choose your graphics and write your captions accordingly, then use Facebook’s Creator Studio to schedule Facebook and Instagram posts for later. (Psst... need help? Book a Training session with Promote Creatively here)
Although it might not seem like a big step, scheduling your social media posts ahead of time will save you a lot of time and stress. No more scrambling around to post something by the end of the day - it’s already taken care of!
Look for Solidarity in Other Small Business Owners
No one understands the stress of running your own business like other small business owners. For this reason, it’s always nice to have a group of others who can relate to any struggles you’re having, or congratulate you for meeting your goals! Look online or ask your local Chamber of Commerce if they offer any resources or groups for small business owners in the area.
Seeing how other people streamline their operations to increase growth might give you a few ideas that you can apply to your own business. They might offer some helpful advice you may not have thought of, and they can usually share the secrets of their success! Some advice you might find from other small business owners includes:
● How to get more referrals
● Ways to better handle the mundane day-to-day tasks
● How to use social media to build relationships with clients
Even if you get nothing out of it other than someone to vent your frustrations to, finding solidarity in other small business owners is never a bad thing. Whether you find your community online, through webinars, or in your local area, you’ll have a ton of resources available to help you learn how to better manage your time.
Final Thoughts
Running a business all by yourself is no easy feat. There are a lot of moving parts at play, and focusing too much on the back-end doesn’t leave you a lot of time or energy for everything else that matters!
This is why delegating is key to a successful small business. Whether you need a little help handling personal or business tasks, seeking and accepting the help of others can not only give you more time to focus on your clients, but the space you need to do it right, as well.