This is a guest post from Juliana Marulanda, Founder of ScaleTime.
Are your small business efforts going in circles?
Being an entrepreneur isn’t an easy-breezy, walk-in-the-park kind of profession. One day, you are the CEO. The next day, you are the marketer, finance manager, salesperson or hiring officer, and the list goes on. To say that it’s an all-in-one job is totally an understatement. And whether you like it or not, it’s an everyday challenge to make peace with all its magnified discomfort; like using your personal savings, reinvesting your paycheck, working on weekends and compromising vacations for the business.
But despite the owners’ passion to attain or retain progression, without a strong profit, only 50% of small businesses survive the first five years. It’s true that if you work hard enough, you can achieve your goals. But that’s not always the case especially if your business demands so much of your time and money.
To preserve your sanity and to avoid exhaustion, it’s time for you to develop trust and delegate the work.
Taking in all the stress and making all the decisions yourself lead you to experiencing “decision fatigue”, wherein your brain’s decision-making powers are overworked so it’s harder for you to rationalize things properly. As an added effect, you’re more reactive to issues, hindering you from effectively managing the whole organization.
According to a research from ScaleTime, 20% of small businesses fail on the first year, but leaders with delegation skills were proven to be stronger in overcoming the odds. Moreover, CEOs who are excellent in delegating showed 33% more revenue than CEOs who aren’t.
Delegating might be crucial at first especially if you’re used to doing most of the essential tasks. But, you cannot fully grasp the importance of delegation until you’ve experienced it yourself. You have to accept that you need help from people who are more equipped in accomplishing your objectives. For instance, you might need to hire a real accountant to monitor and audit your finances, or an HR officer to find people of better fit for your business demands. Hiring a dependable and trustworthy team is a good head start, whether full-time or part-time, depending on your need. Besides, both have their fair share of pros and cons.
Another way to be successful in delegation is to codify your business so you can always be prepared in overcoming the odds. To achieve this, you have to provide a common manual/guide which includes company overview, company systems and training materials that can be accessible for everyone. The goal is to mobilize people to function and operate the business independently, and so they won’t bother you every time they need to decide on something. In this way, you’re assured that all your operations are consistent, proactive and doesn’t depend on only one person’s know-how.
Set aside your fear, take on your much-awaited vacation and get all the freedom you need. Learning how to delegate well spares you from the so-called “decision fatigue” and makes you focus on business growth all the more.
To be confident in your delegation skills, check our infographic and learn the basic steps you can consider doing for your business.
About the Author: Jocelyn Pick
