You’re too busy. Handling many things all at once, at times you wonder, how can I free up some time?
You have read it all over the internet, you should delegate to others. Is it really that simple?
You know it’s not simple, you care a lot about the end result of the task and delegating sounds expensive.
In this post I will share a simple process that will help you decide between delegating and doing it yourself, but I won’t stop there.
I will go further into how to effectively delegate the task so when you do, the outcome will satisfy you instead of frustrate you.
Changing your mindset about delegating tasks is also very important.
Delegating tasks is an investment instead of a cost, which means you get something in return, if you do it right.
You will get more time as well as more money than you invested, simply put, if delegating a business task won’t make you money or save you time, you should avoid delegating the task and more often than not you should also avoid doing the task altogether.
Avoid internal debates, use this simple process instead
A simple decision making process so you can avoid the debate whether you should do it yourself or if instead you should delegate the task at hand.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- Is the task worth doing?
- How long will this task take me?
- How much money is my time worth? (Set an hourly rate for yourself, i.e $50/hr)
With this information you can now know how much will the task cost you and here’s the rule of thumb: If it cost you more to do it yourself, then you should delegate the task. Here’s an example:
John has all the necessary skills to do the research that he needs to start promoting a new product, after some thought, he realized that he would need about 3 hours of his time to do this task.
John values his time at $25/hr which means it would cost him about $75 to do this project.
Now he can decide. If he can find someone to do this project for anything below $75 it would mean that he’s actually saving time and money, but John is unsure, like you probably are: how do I make sure that whoever I give this task to provide me with exactly what I need?
A framework that will help you get exactly what you need when you delegate your work:
- Communicate to your assistant or freelancer what’s your ultimate objective, i.e: I want to know the best places to promote this product
- Show what would the end product look like, i.e, fill this google sheet table
- If you have an internal process that you follow, share it with your assistant or freelancer, i.e:
Step 1: Search on google
Step 2: Look for this signals
Step 3: …
Taking your motivation into the equation
The framework that I provided gives you a clear path to follow, we humans are not that simple, there will be times where delegating a task will be more expensive than actually doing it yourself.
Let’s say 30% or even 50% more expensive but if by overpaying you ensure that the task will actually get done, then it’s only fair that you factor your motivation and procrastination tendencies into the time equation. You can also factor in, how valuable to you the end result of the project is.
How to calculate how valuable the end result of a project is?
Let’s say that you need a landing page. The end product of the landing page combined with your marketing skills could net you $500/month, so the end product to you would be as valuable as $6000 per year.
What kind of tasks you can delegate:
There are many tasks that you can delegate those include:
- Graphic Design
- Marketing
- Writing
- Video editing and production
- Podcast editing
- Quick programming tasks
- Data entry
- Market Research
- SEO
Services & Freelancers that will help you with some and even all of these tasks:
- Kapa99 (graphic design subscription service)
- Fiverr (Most gigs start at $5)
- Upwork (You’ll find qualified freelancers from all around the world)
Conclusion
Delegating a task is investing rather than a cost. As a rule of thumb if delegating a task cost you less than actually doing it, based on your hourly rate, you should delegate the task without ignoring your motivation in the first place.
Author bio:
Ka kei Ho. Founder of Kapa99, Unlimited graphic design help with free trial. Soccer fanatic by night, entrepreneur all day. My goal is to inspire other entrepreneurs to live life on their own terms, by saving them time, money and frustration.