How to Start Delegating

In 2018, I learned how to start delegating the hard way. I made expensive mistakes (because you can’t be an expert at everything). And I wasn’t using my team and business resources effectively or efficiently. (So essentially throwing money in the garbage.) I was the only one who could do the job right. Does this sound familiar?

Without a doubt, delegation is something that nearly all new business owners struggle with. However, it is also a practice that, once learnt, will provide significant benefits to not only your business, but also to your personal life!

Step 1: Create a Task List

The first step in learning the art of delegation is awareness. It requires documenting and analyzing the tasks that you already perform on a regular basis. Task monitoring can be tedious, but it’s a worthwhile practice! If you don’t know what needs to be done, how can you delegate it?

In this step, you will record the tasks you perform over the course of a day, as well as the amount of time it requires. (We recommend streamlining this process by downloading ClickUp and using their built-in time tracking feature.) Ideally, this is a best practice that becomes a daily habit for you going forward in your business. For the sake of this activity, you’ll want to track your productivity for at least a month. In a one month period, there’s a high probability that you’ll complete most of your daily, weekly and monthly responsibilities. Keep in mind that there are also quarterly and annual tasks you’ll need to factor into the process a bit later.

BONUS TIP: If you plan to permanently grow your team in the future, this task list can also be used later on to help you create a formal job description.

Step 2: Task Sorting

Now it’s time to figure out what to delegate. Using the Task Matrix below, you will need to sort the tasks you collected in the first step. Each task will be added into one of these categories. It’s possible that a task applies to one or more categories, but it’s important to choose which category it most applies to. Be brutally honest with yourself!

For example, if you’re a Lash Technician and you love to post on social media – but your efforts don’t deliver the results your business needs – this is likely a pause and evaluate situation.

It’s going to depend on how much you actually like this activity. Would you do it as a hobby? Do you want to read books about social media? Watch movies about it? Spend your savings taking courses to learn more about social media? If it is truly something you are passionate about, put it into the pause and evaluate category. However, if social media doesn’t “light you up” the way we describe above – you might want to consider delegating it as soon as possible.

If you are a solopreneur, there will definitely be some non-negotiable tasks in the beginning stages of growing your business. Identifying tasks to be delegated in the future will also help you to identify the hire you need. (Not the one you think you need.) You may think that you need. For example, a Pet Hotel owner may think they need to a another attendant – but the results of the Task Matrix might show that they need to hire a groomer.

Step 3: Task Analysis + Delegation

Finally! Let’s start delegating! You will need the task list you created from Step 1 to determine how much you need to delegate. At Modus Operandi, we know that maintaining a healthy work/life balance helps ensure continued success in our clients businesses. Using recent studies from Sweden, experts believe that work performance is best when following a 30 hour work week schedule (6 hours per day). If you need more of a financial buffer as you transition from solopreneur to entrepreneur, you can always use the traditional 40 hour work week formula. With a sustainable weekly time commitment in mind, it’s time to begin delegating excess tasks.

• First – we are going to start delegating tasks in the delegate as soon as possible category. Hiring someone (whether it be an employee or contractor) with a complimentary skillset will be able to perform these tasks much better than you. More often than not, this looks like hiring an accountant or bookkeeper.
• FYI: Just because you are good at something, doesn’t mean you are passionate about it or particularly enjoy performing that task. That is when you delegate tasks in the plan to delegate section. It is an injustice to yourself to continue to perform tasks that don’t light you on fire and make you excited to wake up and start your work day. You will be happier and much more productive when you are doing more tasks you are passionate about. As your business directly benefits from you performing from these tasks, it might be hard to let them go. However, the real magic happens when you teach and empower a team to perform these tasks at the same (or a higher) level.
• Now, it’s time to pause and evaluate. If there are tasks that you love doing, but maybe aren’t so good at… How do you determine the best course of action? If the task is high value, urgent, and you do not have the time to dedicate to additional training or education, you may need to consider delegating the task. However, if you have the resources (aka: time and money) to dedicate to learning more about something that you are passionate about – I say go for it!
• And lastly; you never want to delegate the tasks you love doing (and happen to be pretty good at), but it’s important to know when you should. When you find yourself exceeding a sustainable work schedule, (30 – 40 hours a week) it’s time to start delegating the tasks you enjoy. It’s not easy to delegate these tasks, but it is possible and it can be necessary to increase your earnings and grow your business. You can still do the things you love and are passionate about, just don’t burn yourself out or alienate your circle in the process.

And there you have it! A hands-on guide showing you how to get started Digitally Delegating tasks within your business. We hope this helps you take the first step towards growing your business and achieving a more sustainable work/life balance.