Are you juggling all the plates because you hold on to every task to make sure it gets done your way?
Stop it. Stop being a perfectionist. It will get you to nowhere. Stop freaking out. Doing everything by yourself is a recipe for disaster.
As Andrew Carnegie said, “no person will make a great business who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit.” Admit it, you don’t want to do the simple, repetitive tasks that can be done by anybody. You want to earn big, but also avoid the stress to reach your target sales. You want to scale up, but time-consuming tasks are keeping you preoccupied. You wish there were two of you to accomplish the tasks.
There is nothing wrong with being in control of everything, but it doesn’t have to be that way. You don’t have to end up feeling burnt out or like you’re losing your sanity. Your business doesn’t run you. Stop being bogged down with the mundane tasks and start doing the things that only you can do. If you keep finding yourself overwhelmed, stressed out, and worried, you won’t be giving your best self to your clients.
Do what scares you until it doesn’t scare you anymore. You won’t grow when you’re comfortable. Your business will not grow when you’re too busy barely making deadlines. Letting people help you with the workload is essential to growing your business. Growing a business is about delegation. No business can scale up when it lacks manpower.
Stop thinking that nobody can do it better than you do because the truth is, many can do just as good of a job as you and possibly with less effort. If the thought of delegating a few of your workloads makes you feel uneasy, here are some things you can do to get over your fear of outsourcing.
Make a list of tasks
Create a list of everything you do to keep your business running. What tasks are within your expertise? What are the tasks that drain your energy? What are repetitive tasks you have to do? What can other people do better or faster than you can? What are low-paying tasks that take a lot of your time but don’t do much to move your business forward?
Categorize your tasks. Keep those high-level tasks and delegate mundane tasks. Letting go of the things you don’t enjoy first is much easier for a control freak when learning how to delegate.
Create a process of completing a task
Once you figure out what you want to outsource, create a step-by-step process for everything that needs to be done by your virtual assistant. You could write documents or create training videos to show exactly how to do the task, step-by-step. This is useful for teaching the virtual assistant something new or a routine exactly how you want it to be completed.
Allocate time to train them on the process
Providing the virtual assistant with the training files is not enough. You need to train them. You must expect some mistakes since they are new to your team. You have to give some time to allocate to training them, overseeing their work, and correcting their mistakes. “Delegation requires the willingness to pay for short term failures to gain long term competency,” as Dave Ramsey would say.
Training someone new can take about two weeks to six months or even more depending on the complexity of the tasks you are handing over to them. So, be patient with them and give your virtual assistant the time to adjust and familiarize themselves with the tasks.
Set clear expectations
You need to set clear expectations for your virtual assistant. Elaborate on the tasks. The more specific you can be, the better because you’ll be much happier with the outcome if you tell people exactly what you expect. In giving deadlines, make sure you give ample time for the virtual assistant to finish the tasks you have delegated.
By being clear on what you expect from them, you’re providing a clear path to follow and an overview of what success looks like for your business.
Set them up for success because that’s the end goal, right? You want them to be successful so that you can happily outsource more tasks to them as needed.
Appreciate them
The small victories are just as important as the big ones. Say thank you to them. Appreciate them for completing a task. Don’t exclusively speak to them when something is wrong. Create a connection, make a bond with them. They are vital to your business. Give some gratitude once in a while to boost their self-confidence, and you will see a big difference in how they get tasks done.
The most important thing you should know is to not give yourself a hard time for being a control freak. Learning how to delegate is essential for every entrepreneur to gain more time to do what it takes for a business to reach its full potential.
Now that you have learned how to outsource and give up some control, will you take action and outsource your tasks?
Once you’re clear on the decision to outsource, download a FREE copy of, “Questions To Ask When Hiring a VA”.