Nobody Can Do This But Me!

Have you ever heard "Nobody Can Do This but Me! I must do it myself" in your business or personal life? It may have even been you who said it. We often feel that we're the only ones who can do something and do it best. This is probably the most challenging area for business owners to get their heads around when starting, setting themselves up to scale, adding people to the business and removing the reliance on themselves.

Delegate to Others and Scale Your Business

Typically, you cannot scale a business on one person. It is essential to delegate to others, whether employees, contractors, or outsourced workers. Unfortunately, many business owners are standing in their way. They don't realize that they are holding themselves back by not embracing delegating.

Outsourcing

You can have an employee, intern, or outsourced worker handle tasks at a fraction of the cost. Look at your value. What's your hourly rate, $100, $500, or more? If you're wearing all the hats, you are not getting the value of your hourly rate. Business owners don't often look at it this way. They only think it will take them longer to show someone else how to do the task. They may as well do it themselves. Owners must get around this mindset to succeed.

Many entrepreneurs started with nothing and worked their way to being successful, like Oprah Winfrey, Howard Schultz, and of course, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, to name a few. ** Of course, they started on their own, but there was a time when they had to add others to the team to succeed. In these cases, we know it turned out well.

In early 2020 with the pandemic started, many business owners found themselves with the weight of the world on their shoulders, having to do everything themselves because staff couldn't come in. Many soon realized that the knowledge of the business was in the head of the team member doing the job, and nobody else knew exactly what they did. This highlights two challenges that entrepreneurs face. The first is wearing all the hats and doing everything themselves. If something happens to them, the business stops. The second challenge is their key worker knows how to do their job, but if the process is only in their heads, others don't have access to it, and you're in a whole pile of trouble if the employee is not available. Realizing this, consider setting up your business with the end in mind, documenting processes and systems that others can follow when given the information.

McDonald's has approximately 200,000 staff worldwide, many teenagers, who follow processes and procedures every day. It's about having the correct information at their fingertips to follow a process to get your product or service from creation to client with success.

Determine the Tasks

Admittedly, delegating to others is a challenge. It is frightening to hand tasks to someone, especially when you are not familiar with their skill level. However, there are steps that you can follow to assist with your success;

• Make a list of activities or tasks you do regularly
• Prioritize what is to be done first, order of importance, or other criteria
• Look at what you must do, meaning absolutely no one else could learn to do it. Be honest with yourself!
• Outline the steps needed to do the other tasks
• Indicate the frequency for the task to be executed
• Determine a benchmark for the time to complete the task
• Determine a model for the acceptable quality of the work
• Evaluate viable options to delegate each task, e.g., staff, contractors, intern, strategic, partner etc.
• Assign the task as applicable, and start with a trial task first
• Assign additional tasks as skill and time permit, removing them from your plate
• Understand there may be a margin of error initially. Remember, you didn't start perfectly either.

I've never worked at Macdonald’s, but I'm confident each step of serving each item is documented. They are leaving nothing to chance or interpretation, and neither should you.

Challenges

It will be challenging to give up the reins at first. Over time you will see the reward and may even find a better way to do something. The more you delegate, the better you will become at giving instructions and outlining the process. This process becomes your "System" for the task. Tasks may include giving a presentation, handling sales, or setting up social media. Whatever the job, it has its process and system. Once you set up these systems, you should be able to hand over the information to delegates. Following your instructions, they can get the job done.

Discover more about Managing for Growth https://books.wardell.biz/2-Management_1/1-chapter_1#managingforgrowth

Here is some additional guidance so you can set up systems

https://books.wardell.biz/5-Finance/8-chapter_8/1-systems_review

**Source: https://www.uopeople.edu/blog/10-successful-entrepreneurs-started-with-nothing/

By Michelle Ricketts