One of the most frustrating aspects of running any business is the perceived lack of time to complete everything on the daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly “to-do” lists. Time management is at or near the top of the list of important business skills to master.

But let’s face it; you are JUST ONE PERSON and there really are only 24 hours in each day.

Therefore, the word-of-the-day is “DELEGATE”.

Delegation comes in many forms. If you have employees, delegating more duties and responsibilities to them would of course be your first option.

The second option would be hiring another employee to take up some slack or, if you are a one-man or one-woman show, hiring a part-time VA (virtual assistant) would be the place to begin delegating.

Words and thoughts are cheap of course. Talking about and understanding the need to delegate is one thing…acting on the process is quite another.

Why is the process of delegating so difficult for so many of us?

First, if a new VA or employee is required, you may be hesitant about committing the additional funds. If things are tight, the phrase “can’t afford it now” is often the reason used. In most cases, if outsourcing and delegation are being considered, the truth is probably, “you can’t afford NOT to do it now”.  If done thoughtfully, a business will always benefit if its owner has more time to work ON his or her business instead of IN the business.

The second reason for failing to delegate is the “no one can do it as well as I do it” syndrome. It’s usually true…at least in our minds. VA’s should know they are NOT usually hired because a business owner believes someone else can do the job better. If that was true, 90% of outsourcing would cease to exist. (Sorry VA’s, but it is a fact.)

Let’s assume there is a job that needs delegated and it’s true that no one can do it as well as you do it. So what?

The 80/20 rule comes into play here. 20% of your time produces 80% of your income. That 20% is VERY important time spent. Delegating more of the 80% means you can spend more time on the profitable 20%.  The purpose of any business is to make profit. Get over the fact that your delegated tasks may not be done EXACTLY like you would do them! Resisting delegation is costing you money!

Some of your daily time, such as creating a new marketing campaign, can be worth many thousands of dollars per hour of time worked. Other tasks you spend your time on may not be worth more than minimum wage. Take a hard and honest look at your daily routine and see what needs to happen in order for you to spend more time on the thousand-dollar per hour tasks!