Wearing Too Many Hats?

The roles of a small business owner

Owning a small business in many cases requires you to wear many hats: manager, marketer, sales person, receptionist, human resources and so on. On top of all that is the role you went into business for in the first place. If you are perpetually tired from trying to keep up with the day-to-day operations of your business you may need to either delegate or outsource.

The Fear
Many business owners find themselves afraid to let go of tasks. “This person won’t do it as well as I do” or “I waste too much time trying to explain what needs to be done, it’d be faster to just do it myself.” What this really means is that you are afraid to lose control. However, allowing someone to complete a task does not mean you are no longer involved. As a business owner, you still have the final say.

The Cost
This is the most common resistance, and outsourcing or delegating can certainly cost time and money. However, if you have relieved yourself of tasks such as bookkeeping or marketing, you could free up more time to being out making sales, providing better customer service, and spending more time increasing the quality of your product or service. In turn increase the value you are offering your clients, contributing to higher earnings, making the initial cost well worth the investment.

Where to Start & What Are My Options
Make an assessment of how much time you contribute to each of your 'hats' on a daily, monthly or weekly basis and what you would like to see that time spent on instead. After you've come up with what you need help with, look around for options to relieve yourself of the tasks. Hiring staff to take on the tasks may or may not be your best option, depending on the workload and your budget. However, it can be as simple as delegating more tasks to staff during any downtime they may have. Sometimes outsourcing is better; no overhead, only paying for the hours you need or use, and you are hiring a professional trained specifically for that task. Another option may be technology, for example a point of sales system that connects directly to your bookkeeping software to keep track of your day-to-day transactions, without you spending hours manually keeping your books.

Delegating or outsourcing, to relieve some of your tasks, does not mean you lose control of your business or that the job won’t be done as well. In some cases it may even be done better if you are outsourcing to the skilled professionals. The biggest benefit of taking off a couple hats is that you free up your valuable time to grow your business and maybe even leave the office early on Friday.