Delegating well worth it

Jeremy Tauri.

One of my resolutions this year was to start delegating more.

It's really easy when you have your own business to want to do everything yourself.

After all, no one else gets the work done in exactly the way you want it.

And it is your name that is associated with the business. Who wants to risk that by leaving everything to the staff?

But when you try to do everything yourself, you put a big roadblock in the path of your business success.

Sometimes you might even let down those you're trying to keep happy by doing too much by yourself.

If you can change that this year, you might be surprised at what you can achieve.

Delegating sounds deceptively simple.

First, make a list of all the things you do in a typical working day. Get right down to the little details.

Do you answer all your phone calls yourself? Do you sign for deliveries? Then, objectively go through them, one by one, and ask yourself: Could one of my team handle this? You will probably be surprised at how often the answer is: "Yes."

If you can start delegating work to your staff members, it will show them that you have faith in them - and it will free you up to focus on the things you are good at.

Invariably, these will be the sorts of things that you started the business in the first place to do, and which will help grow the company.

Make sure you're clear in your delegation, take the time to brief them and be clear on what's expected - write it down even.

If you can spend your time doing things that earn the company an extra 10 per cent in revenue through better planning, why would you give that up to waste your time doing something else that someone who earns $30 an hour could do for you?

Letting go can be a wrench but if you set up some good systems, invest in good training for your staff and manage well, it will probably be one of the best business decisions you'll make this year.