As a startup founder, you are enthusiastic, motivated and industrious, and you believe that hard-working is the key to success, so you roll up your sleeves and force yourself to be a hands-on CEO – “Control Everything Officer”.
You take care of everything, from product development to delivery arrangement, from sales and marketing, to office management, to HR and accounting, and you feel so good because everything is under your control.
A tough day of a startup founder
Until one day…
You wake up at 6 am as usual, as you want to devote more time to your business. After having a quick clean-up, you walk back to your desk, and switch on the light, and… Oh My God! You forget to pay the electricity bill again and the supply is now cut! You need electricity because you have tons of work to do for today! So, you have no choice but to go to the cafe downstairs.
After setting yourself up at the cafe, you open your scheduler and find a list of things marked on today –
Source a new product
Plan the next promotion event
Issue invoices to customers
Buy office supplies
While you are thinking about today will be easy with only 4 tasks to do, your phone rings. It’s your vendor. He said he has sent you an invoice for over a week, but still hasn’t received your payment. You are not going to ruin your relationship with your vendor, so you immediately search your messy mailbox for that invoice, verify it and arrange payment right away.
Ok, now you can go back to your 4-tasks list, and then…
More challenges to come...
“Ding!” – Yes, you’ve got mail!
It’s from a customer asking when she will get her order. You understand that order delay can be a big problem, so you put aside all other stuff, and check the order status for her. Half hour later, you finally get everything clear and reply to the customer that her order will arrive at her home tomorrow.
And then, another email comes in, this time is a complaint about no one replying to her Facebook message. Yes… you haven’t checked the Facebook messages for two days already because you are too busy. You respond to the complaint right away, then you think you should take care of the Facebook messages first.
So, you login to your Facebook account, and find that there are over 100 messages waiting for you…
“I can do it! I can do it!” You keep saying it to yourself, and reply to the message one by one.
After you reply to all the messages, it’s already 7 pm. You stare at your scheduler, the 4-tasks list is still there, so you rewrite them in the box of tomorrow again. These tasks are rewritten for the 3rd time this week. You then pack your things and head to your mom’s home, because yours is out of electricity…
You don’t feel good anymore…
"You can do anything, but not everything.”
– David Allen, Author of “Getting Things Done”, The Bible of business and personal productivity
It’s common for startup founders to try doing everything on their own, but common doesn’t mean good. Your time should be used on the most important and impactful things, for instance, generating ideas to develop your business and making sales, not administrative work, shipping documents, data entry, billing, and… everything!
To be a smart business founder, you’ve got to learn to delegate before you are burnt out. Look, you have to stay energetic, because you are the soul of your business, and your business needs you!
Who to delegate
You may say delegation is not working for you, because you are the only person in your company, and you cannot afford a full time in-house staff due to a tight budget.
Well, you don’t have an in-house staff doesn’t mean you can’t delegate, because there is another option called “outsourcing”! For instance, you may consider outsourcing your irritating routine work to a virtual assistant.
What is a virtual assistant
A virtual assistant is usually a self-employed person who offers administrative and business support services to corporates in a remote location. They normally work at their home, that means you don’t need to provide any office space and work equipment to them.
A virtual assistant can do whatever an in-house staff does, except shredding papers and making coffee for you. Compared to in-house staff, hiring a virtual assistant is more flexible and cost-effective. The engagement level of the virtual assistant is completely dependent on your business needs, and you can hire a virtual assistant for long-term, short-term, or even one-off. It’s totally up to your needs.
Also, hiring a virtual assistant is more affordable than hiring an in-house staff, because you don’t need to pay their taxes, remuneration packages, sickness and leaves, which can be quite a significant amount to a startup.
“If you really want to grow as an entrepreneur, you’ve got to learn to delegate.”
– Richard Branson, CEO and Founder of Virgin Group
Want to grow as an entrepreneur? Then, delegate! Contact us to book your FREE 30-minutes consultation TODAY, and we’ll walk you through how to start.
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