If Delegation Hasn't Worked For You, Try This

Welcome to Ali and you, the Business Success and Lifestyle Show. I am Alyson Maslin. My friends call me Allie. And you have come to the right place if you have a business and you are ready to grow it. So every week I either highlight a successful entrepreneur that is sharing their journey, the ups and the downs, the highlights and the low light so that you can learn that and be inspired by their wisdom. But I have something special actually. For the next three weeks, I am going to be talking to you about scaling your business, delegating, hiring and building a team. Many of you have, you've gotten into business because you're passionate about what you do. You have a mission, or maybe your mission is that you just want to make a lot of money, whatever that is, you are all excited. And as you've gotten deep into the growth of your business, maybe it feels like you've created a glorified job for yourself. Can any of you relate to that? Well, what happens as you grow your business? Of course you've got to bring on more revenue, more customers, because that's going to drive the engine of your business. Right? That's where the growth is. But if you do that and you don't have. I needed to return some things. I had phone calls I had to make and, oh, I needed to be packed and there was just so much and I had like a mini meltdown. And I thought, okay, this is it. Like, I need a really good assistant to help me with this stuff. And so you, some of you may be at that point, some of you may have an assistant, but there are probably a lot of other things that you're doing or not doing that you either need to let go of, completely delegate or delete. Okay, so I work with, and my team and I, we work with business owners all over the world. And this is one of the things that we coach them on is how to, how to delegate, how to build a team, how to figure out what it is that you need to let go of. And in the beginning, you know, there's a lot, oh, I don't know if I can do that. What if I don't have the right person? What if this doesn't work out? But once you take that step, it is so liberating, I can't tell you. And then you get to focus on where your magic is, where your real value is, so that you can get out there, build relationships that are going to open doors for you, follow up on sales, work on the vision of the company, the strategies and so forth, rather than Being in the weeds. So I want to give. There's so many different facets to that. So let's start today with delegating. So, first of all, look at where you are in your business. What is taking up most of your time? What are the things that you wake up maybe thinking, gosh, I really don't want to do this, or this is taking up so much of my time. I don't have time to get out and get new customers, right? Or I've got people calling me for business, and I don't have time to call them back because I'm running to this place or I'm doing my books or, you know, I've got this project to take care of, right? So that doesn't make any sense in your business. So first of all, let's think about for a second. What is the role as the business owner, as the CEO of the company, the founder, you. Where are you supposed to be spending your time? Well, truly, what you really should be doing is working on the business, not in the business we start out. And as a business owner, you're doing everything right. You're the one man or one woman band, right? You clean the office, you get the clients, you do the books, you run the errands, you create your product. You're doing all of these things. And then you realize that that is never going to work. But we like it done right. And you're very particular about how your clients are taken care of and how a job is done. So you might be having a hard time letting go of some of these responsibilities. Or you might think, well, Alison, how can I really do that if I don't have the money to hire a team? Or, we're not really ready yet. Oh, I could just do it myself. Does that relate. Can you relate to some of that? Now, here's the thing. If you are trying to do everything in your business, and because you are wanting to save money, you are losing money. You're losing money because, let's say, your value, you know what you could be paid? Let's say it's $200 an hour, okay? I'm just throwing out a number. Maybe you don't work by the hour. Maybe you sell something for a couple thousand dollars. But if you break that down per hour, what is your time worth? Okay? And if you are doing everything and you're pushing paper around, you're doing things that you could pay someone $15 an hour, $20 an hour, you are losing money, okay? Your business will not grow if this is how you're running it. Okay. And it's. A lot of entrepreneurs do that. We're like control freaks. We want to hang on to everything, and we're afraid that someone can't do it as well as us. Or you're thinking, like, I don't know who I would get to do do it. But first, you need to understand that by not hiring, you're actually losing money. And studies have been shown that when business owners hire in that first six months of business that you get to seven figures so much faster. Now, I remember earlier in my business career when I just felt like everything was falling through the cracks for me. I was getting ready to go out of town for a business trip, and. And I had all these errands to do. I needed to return some things. I had phone calls I had to make, and, oh, I needed to be packed, and there was just so much. And I had, like, a mini meltdown. And I thought, okay, this is it. Like, I need a really good assistant to help me with this stuff. And so you. Some of you may be at that point, some of you may have an assistant, but there are probably a lot of other things that you're doing or not doing that you either need to let go of, completely delegate or delete. Okay? So I work with, and my team and I, we work with business owners all over the world, and this is one of the things that we coach them on is how to. How to delegate, how to build a team, how to figure out what it is that you need to let go of. And in the beginning, you know, there's a lot, oh, I don't know if I can do that. What if I don't have the right person? What if this doesn't work out? But once you take that step, it is so liberating, I can't tell you. And then you get to focus on where your magic is, where your real value is, so that you can get out there, build relationships that are going to open doors for you, follow up on sales, work on the vision of the company, the strategies and so forth, rather than being in the weeds. So I want to give you a little exercise. Okay. I have this great handy chart that I made. I'm super visual, and I love these things because it helps me think through. So I call this delegate and automate to freedom. So, first of all, I want you to think of the work that you do divided into three levels. Level one are all of the things that take a lot of your time that you honestly hate. All right? I mean, you just can't stand doing this stuff. It doesn't resonate with you. It doesn't lift you up. It stresses you out. Maybe it's irritating you. And so that is level one. All right? So what I'd like you to do is just on a sheet of paper, I want you to write down all of this stuff you, in your business that you don't like to do. Because here's the truth. There's somebody out there that loves doing that. You know, for me, for instance, the books, forget it. That is not my thing. Pretty much 5th grade algebra. From then on, it kind of went downhill. Numbers are not my strength. Now I do know how to read Profit and Loss and my balance sheet. And I'm really into reading my reports and staying on top of those on a weekly basis. So I'm not saying I, like, put your head in the sand, but I'm not the one that is actually going to be entering all of that data. And you shouldn't be doing that either. Okay? Even if you are good at it, because that is really not bringing in revenue for the company, but it's an important role. So that might be level one for you, right? It could be running errands, it could be, you know, just organizing things in the office, things like that. So that would be level one. So think about those things, write them down. Level two is it's not like these things don't irritate you. You like doing them. It's not your favorite thing. It's not what, you know, gets you excited. But it's an important part of your company. And so you need to keep, keep it. It just doesn't have to be you, right? So that's level two. Level three is what you love, what fascinates you, what excites you, what you're passionate about. And this is where you need to be spending 90% of your time. So divide it up into those three levels, right? And really think about, you know, what are the things that I am doing every single day? Even if you have to take out a diary and write down from 7 in the morning every 15 minutes for three days to just get an idea of how you're spending your time and what is taking up most of your time, because you may not be aware, but it might be handling a bunch of phone calls that you don't need to be handling. Somebody else could do that. Or maybe it's saying things or repeating yourself something over and over that you could videotape and upload it on Dropbox or Kajabi or something like that that, you know, when someone needs that information, you just say, go right here and play it instead of repeating it. Okay, so by analyzing how you're spending your day, then you can divide it up into the level one, level two, and level three. Right now. Then what you want to do here on this next column is you want to take everything in level one, and you want to write down who you could delegate this to. You know, what of these things could you delegate? And who could you delegate them to? And if you don't have that person yet working for you, who's that dream person? Like, if you had that person, is it a marketing person? Is it, you know, is it a financial person? Is it someone in the legal piece? Is it an admin? Is it in sales? You know, write that down. Okay, this is a really good way to get this, all this mess out of your head. Then level two, how could you either delegate or automate? What are some things, if they're important pieces to your company, are there some aspects that you could put some systems together that would help you automate? So, for instance, we use infusionsoft. That's a big. That's the CRM of our company. And that is like the back end of my business as far as the, you know, for our online sales, for. For all of our clients, all of our database, all of our filing systems, we can hook our financials to it, everything. So there's so much in infusionsoft that we can automate, but there are a lot of other resources that you can use as well. And then what are some outside resources that you could hire? Maybe it's a graphic designer, or maybe it's a virtual assistant, or maybe it's, you know, a resource could be an Uber so that, you know, you're running around, but you're able to actually work while you're going somewhere instead of driving. Maybe it's, you know, maybe. Maybe the resources is having a pet sitter, I don't know. But your time is money, and money comes and goes, but your time, you cannot get back. So how are you spending your time? If we can get you to delegate and get more of your time in level three, it will change your life. You'll be able to create a lot more revenue for your company, and you'll be more excited about what you do. And when you're excited about what you do, you generally just attract the kind of customers and the people that, that you want to be with, because you just are a happier person. In general. So that's where we need to start. I'm going to talk to you next time about how to hire and then the following week on how to build a team. But first, you need to be thinking about what are those things that you need to get off your plate, okay. So that you can truly be do the magic in your business. All right? So I hope this was helpful. And if you have any questions, please let us know. You can also subscribe to us on our YouTube channel. You can find me on Facebook. It's Allison's fans and I'd love to hear from you. I'd love to hear your thoughts from the show, any questions that you have, and I will answer them the next episode. And we'll see you next time. We'll be talking about how to hire. See you later. Hi, it's Alyson Maslin. And if you are at the stage of your business where you're at the high six figures or into the seven figures you're really scaling, this is time for you to have a higher level conversation, Higher level training. Well, I am so excited to announce the CEO Success Network Retreat. Imagine being on the beach this summer in beautiful San Diego, surrounded by the most dynamic business owners and getting the new strategy, the new direction that you need, the new game plan to take your business where you are right now to a whole new level. I am so excited to support you in this new level of your business. Apply today and we'll see you this summer in San Diego.