The Delegation Dilemma: Do I Have to Learn it Before I Outsource it?

 

Guest post by Melanie Benson Strick, The Million Dollar Lifestyle Business Coach

With so many tasks and so little time, we all get the value of delegating to other people to get more done. The ability to leverage other people’s strengths can not only bring more joy and excitement back into your life (cause you aren’t doing tasks you hate) but the revenue potential is unlimited.

So why then is James spending so much time and energy learning how to do the shopping cart so he can outsource it to someone else? Why is Amy investing $2000 on a “learning to blog system” when there are other’s who can do it better, faster and cheaper than her?

Maybe it’s the compelling feeling that many of us have to learn. The quest for knowledge that somehow validates a deep need to know it all. And I think for some, it provides a sense of security or control to know how everything is supposed to work. But is it really serving you to spend your valuable time, money and energy learning all the ins & outs of your business?

I remember the feeling I had when I graduated from San Diego State with my Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management. After getting past the culture shock of not having piles of assignments and the constant pressure of assignments due, I felt like there was a big gaping hole in my life. I missed learning.

So what did I do? I of course took on more learning…taking every class that Motorola offered on leadership, team building, project management, and soon found my way to my Master’s program in Organizational Management. Not too long after graduating again…there was that old “void” again. I needed my learning fix…and I started taking spiritual classes at my church (which 8 years later resulted in my spiritual counselor license) and at the same time I decided to get trained as a coach. Then it was on to marketing, online traffic generation, blogs, social networking…you get the point I think.

As I got serious about my business I had to reflect on how much time and energy I was spending learning new things. What was my time worth and did it really make sense to keep investing in all this learning? What was it getting me? I began to ask myself the tough question with every learning opportunity “Is this going to make me more money?”.

The truth is I was just feeding a little gremlin inside of me. For me, learning gave me a sense of control and power. If I knew what to do and when to do it, then maybe I’d be good enough to have my dream lifestyle and business. What I realized is that learning kept me from doing what would actually make me successful. It was like a big cozy comfortable blanket that kept me safe…and kept my worst fear in front of me…a real lack of financial results.

At some point I had one of the “I should have had a V-8 moments”. It hit me that no matter how much I learned it was not helping me get there any faster. It was much more cost effective to hire someone who knew how to do it so it would get done faster and hence, make a lot more money. If I had to learn it first, then I became the bottleneck!

The key to mastering delegation is adopting this CEO Mindset:

“Know enough to set the vision, goals and desired results. Delegate the tactics to people who can do it faster, cheaper or better than you.”

Here is an example. I have absolutely no idea how to update my website. I know what I want it to look like, what should happen when a visitor is on the site and even what experience I want them to have. But I made it a point to not learn how to update it.

Same thing with most of our marketing efforts. I know what I want done and I hire talented people who already know how to do it. I have a vague idea of what steps my team goes through each month to publish this ezine but I have no idea how to publish one myself. Set up a bridge line? Nope. I’m talented enough that I could probably figure it out (and I know my team has the system published in our online procedures guide) but why bother?

My job as CEO is to stay focused on my top 5 – 10 high payoff activities like writing, mentoring entrepreneurs on how to create their ideal business, designing powerful programs that serve my clients, and planning out where I want to be in 90 days to 5 years from now!

My challenge to you is to look at where you are holding yourself back by being the bottleneck. Where is your need to learn and be in control getting in the way of what you delegate? What are your false beliefs about what can be delegated well costing you playing the bigger game?

If you haven’t yet downloaded our free report on the 101 Ways to Triple Your Income by Outsourcing Your High Payoff Activities, I highly encourage you to do it now. This process will help you get clear on your highest payoff activities and bust this delegation dilemma for good!

About the Author:

Most entrepreneurs are continually battling overwhelm with too many things to do, opportunities to capture and money to make! Melanie Benson Strick, Million Dollar Lifestyle Business Coach & Virtual Team Building Expert, teaches entrepreneurs how to stop feeling overwhelmed so they can create more money, more freedom and more prestige.

Get the Entrepreneur’s Secret Weapon to revolutionize your results and get on the fast-track to a freedom based business. Take this free chapter from my book, The Power of The Virtual Team, as a gift from me at http://www.thepowerofthevirtualteam.com

Copyright 2007 Melanie Benson Strick and Success Connections Inc.

 

Leverage Your Expertise: Create Virtual You’s

 

Do you sell your services and products one-on-one?  If so, you are inherently limited in how much money you make.  You are trading hours for dollars and can only generate as many dollars as the hours you are willing to work.  To take your business to the whole world, you must deliver to more than one person at a time.

The first way to deliver your advice to more than one person at a time is to teach your expertise to groups of people.  This could be a one-hour class, a weekend seminar, a 4-week teleclass, or a virtual webinar.  The idea is that you already have a system that you use with your clients, one-on-one, and you can deliver that advice or teach people how to use your system, en mass.

The simplest way to start is with a one-hour teleclass.  You can obtain a bridge line for free (under 100 participants), and advertise the teleclass to your list and via various calendar services (newspapers, websites, seminar listings).  You may even want to start with a free seminar and use it to deliver your marketing message en mass, just as practice.  (By the way, record your teleclass and have it transcribed, and you have a free Special Report to offer your prospects and clients.)

Yes, It Does Become Easy

My first teleclass, How to Avoid the Top 10 Money Mistakes, had 12 people sign up, and only 1 person showed up (6 downloaded the file later).  I was scared to death, and practiced my presentation 3 times before the class.  I was worried about the bridge line not working, or that I would screw up the recording.  After the call, I was a wreck for the rest of the night.

Now I feel comfortable enough to do teleclasses, radio interviews, and my radio show with just a few bullet point talking points, and I’m fine with thousands of people listening to the sound of my voice.  Just like riding a bike, it takes a bit of practice to get used to it.  It eventually becomes easy.

An even more powerful way to deliver your advice to more than one person at a time is via information products.  Books, E-books, CDs, downloadable files, home study kits, seminars-in-a-box — these are products that teach your system or gives your advice.  These products are infinitely scaleable; you can deliver your advice to a million people via a book, with no additional work on your part (except for the marketing).  

As you are thinking of expanding your business, set aside time to explore leveraging your expertise.  Yes, there will be an initial investment in time to create the content or train assistants, but the potential long-term upside is infinite.  

 

Ep #60 Personalities & How They Impact Your Business and Life

Elizabeth speaks to Marquesa Pettway, International Keynote Speaker and Author about recognizing how your personality impacts your business and personal life. Marquesa shares the Four Distinct Personality types and the fact that everyone actually has two, how to begin the self discovery process and why figuring out your personality will help you fill in gaps in your business.

For Marquesa’s free Personalities Mini eBook and information on her upcoming teleseminar series click here.

Click here to Download the show.

Elizabeth then answers a listener question about what your reaction should be to the crazy economy and shares her Entrepreneur’s Success Tip of the Week: The Art of Conversation, First in the Series The Art of Social Networking.

Transcript: Elizabeth Potts Weinstein welcomes small business owners, entrepreneurs and anyone who dreams of opening a business someday to this empowering hour of the Wealth Spa Radio Show where you’ll find answers to your most pressing financial and legal questions.  Now here is your host, Elizabeth. Read more

How to Delegate: Why Are You Doing Everything Yourself?

Guest post by Ali Brown

One problem I often see with solo professionals is that their businesses aren’t growing because they’re simply not making enough time to do it! 

It’s not that they don’t understand the value of those efforts, or they don’t WANT to make the time. It’s that they’re simply trying to do too much by themselves. They’re so busy running their business that they’re not working ON their business.

Are You Spending All Your Time on the Little Stuff?

Owning your own business requires wearing a lot of hats. But it seems that when many people leave their jobs to “go solo,” they think they must work completely solo as well. They insist on doing everything themselves — even tasks they know darn well they’re not good at. 

They try in vain to design their own Web sites and brochures, write their own sales copy, process their own orders, manage their own mailing list, personally respond to every customer call and e-mail, ship their own products, and more. Pretty soon they’re running around like that proverbial headless chicken. Read more

Ep #55 Virtual Organizing for Your Business

Elizabeth welcomes Beth Flarida, a Certified Professional Organizer® of GetBeth.com who specializes in helping business owners with organization. Beth shares her tips and tricks to help you organize your business, be more effective, productive and make more money!

Elizabeth answers a listener question about working with reports and keeping track of your sales as well as shares her Entrepreneur’s Success Tip of the Week: Being Kind to Yourself.

Click Here to Download The Show!

Ep #51 Three Mistakes You Are Making With Your Employees

Elizabeth welcomes Marcia Hoeck, President & CEO of Hoeck Associates, Inc. to share the Three Mistakes You’re Making With Your Employees and how to stop making those mistakes. Elizabeth then answers a listener question about hiring a Virtual Assistant, staff or employees and shares her Entrepreneur’s Success Tip of the Week: Time Perception Series #3, Every Project is not the most important project.

Click Here to Download the Show!

Click through to access Marcia’s Special Report.

Ep #45 Protecting Your Most Precious Assets

Elizabeth invites Blue Melnick, Co-Founder and Lead Storage Specialist of Virtual Tape Drive Canada and Crash Ready Backup to share his tips about file backups. Blue takes the boring, non-sexy topic of file storage protection to a realm of realization explaining why most people don’t do it; sharing common mistakes made when developing a backup strategy and the pluses and minuses of software versus document backup. 

Elizabeth answers a listener question about the difference between trademark and copyright; and which you may need, when and for what. She also shares her Entrepreneur’s Success Tip of the Week: Taking Time! 

 Click here to download the show!

 

 Blue has a special offer for listeners of The Wealth Spa Radio Show check it out – Be Crash Ready

 

Ep 39 How to Get More Done With Less Effort

Elizabeth speaks with Systems Expert, Beth Schneider of ProcessProdigy.com.  Beth, a systems "guru" explains the 3 steps to take in order to create your system in your business that may double your revenues and increase your productivity up to 6 times.  Elizabeth answers a listener question about how to manage delegating bookkeeping on a budget and shares her Entrepreneur’s Success Tip of the Week:  Masterminding.

Click here to download the show

What Do Virtual Assistants Do, Anyway?

If you’ve read the blog for a while, you know I’m constantly advising you to delegate more, using the power of leverage — but don’t necessarily hire an employee; instead hire an independent contractor "Virtual Assistant."

A true Virtual Assistant owns her (or his, but I’m using her to be pithy) own business & has multiple clients — which lets you avoid dealing with employee tax or other employee admin issues. Yes, they cost a bit more than some kid from the local college, but this makes sense — you are saving money by no employee taxes, admin, or benefits costs — and a VA is theoretically more experienced/skilled.

But working effectively with a Virtual Assistant does not start when you sign the contract. You have to figure out which tasks, or even better, which roles, to delegate to your new staff. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard a solo-entrepreneur tell me they hired a VA on retainer but have not yet given them anything to do (for months!).

To give you some ideas, below are some of the tasks/roles delegated to my two primary Virtual Assistants: Read more

Ep. 31 The Most Powerful & Often Overlooked Business Relationships

Elizabeth speaks with Attorney Alexis Martin Neely of FamilyWealthMatters.com about the most powerful business relationships every business owner needs to grow their business. Often overlooked, these relationships could be the difference between your business being a hobby or an enterprise. Elizabeth answers a listener question and shares her Entrepreneur’s Success Tip of Week.Click here to download the show

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