The importance of delegation if you are a newly minted entrepreneur

"Why and How to Delegate Works" by Nguyen Hung Vu, in accordance with CC BY 2.0

If you are out on your own as an entrepreneur for the first time, making a living through your own labor can be an exhilarating feeling.

You can dictate the terms by which you add value to the world, making this an experience that will change your life forever.

However, as the years go by and your business grows, the workload that you will bear may pose a threat to the long-term sustainability of your enterprise

In this essay, we will relay the importance of delegating certain jobs to employees or contractors, as your workload can become an obstruction to your life plans, rather than a source of joy and fulfillment.

You shouldn’t have to do all the heavy lifting yourself

When you start to get busy as an entrepreneur, the load that you will carry may become too much to bear at times.

While you can power through times such as these for short periods, there will come a time in your business where your workload will be very high for an extended period of time.

This is a good sign, as it means the product or the service you are selling is catching on in a big way. However, you can only do so much as a solo operator, meaning that you will have to shift some of the burden to another person to avoid burning out.

Paul Gravette understands this concept, as he urges those in his direct selling business to have another content expert available on the phone should they encounter a question to which they may not have the best answer.

By having another partner available to answer questions outside one’s domain of knowledge, members of his business are able to bring new customers and sellers into the fold with ease.

Focus on your core competencies

When you are in the process of starting up a business, you will have to wear every hat in the joint to ensure that it gets off the ground.

While this is valuable in that this experience will cross-train you in a variety of skills that will come in handy in the future, there will come a time when your energy will be better directed towards higher-value tasks rather than mundane ones.

At this time, finding employees that can be given time consuming but necessary work will be essential if you want to find time for more important tasks.

Creating new product lines, crafting high-level business strategy and other thought intensive jobs can only happen if you carve out the time necessary for their completion.

You can do that the moment you tap other human beings to do the yeoman’s work that you had once been carrying on your own back.

Scale your business faster

If you want to multiply revenues at a rate unprecedented in the history of your service-based business, it is compulsory to hire people that can do the same tasks as you.

In the first years of your business, it is natural to work up to the natural limits that your body and spirit can take.

At this point, it doesn’t matter if you have clients lined up around the block waiting to give you even more work, as you can only do a set amount before your mind and body gives out.

You can try to charge more, but this model also has inherent flaws, as there are fewer buyers the more a unit costs on the market.

If you want to break through this earnings ceiling, you need to add employees to your business that can help you meet the increased demand for your services.

While you may not be privy to every drop of this increased revenue (you’ll have to pay someone salary/wages for the first time ever), your share of the pie will increase well beyond anything that you could earn on your own.