Key to business success – leverage through delegation
Most businessowners I talk to indicated that they have decided to go into business for more freedom and to work for themselves.
Perhaps the reason why they started their own business was as a result of them working for a lunatic before, or they were forced to find a solution to their unemployment, or they are a true entrepreneur who wants to have their own business and be in charge of their own destiny. The sad part is, now they have no freedom even though they are self-employed.
If you can relate, then you will probably nod your head when I say most people spend more time planning their vacation than they do planning their personal and business growth.
Successful and driven businessowners are very busy. To be one of those highly-successful driven businessowners or executives, one must find ways to receive leverage through delegation – not to be confused with abdication.
Delegation takes pro-active actions; it means that the not yet urgent, but most important tasks are done in advance such as planning, defining clear objectives, job descriptions, relationship building and job matching.
Reversely, abdication most often occurs at the last minute and is the result of procrastination, lack of communication, poor focus and limited planning. This all ends up costing more time fixing mistakes and quite often this is where the businessowner spends most of his/her time.
It is important to remember there are four key areas of leverage in every business:
* People and Education
* Delivery and Distribution
* Testing and Measuring
* Systems and Technology
These critical areas of any business is what puts the businessowner in control of his business and his personal life. By leveraging on these four key areas, the business can run without the owner.
This is as long as they identify the KPI’s, which will provide them with the necessary information to ensure that critical business decisions can be made based on true and current data.
If you are taking your business seriously and value your time then ask yourself the following questions:
* Should you not have strategies that will allow you to create more activities which will pay you forever, rather than just once every time you do it?
* How would you use the free time you’ve created by managing a team of top performers that runs like a well-oiled machine?
* Think about an area of the business that consistently distracts you, needs your constant input, or happens on a repetitive basis. Are there any parts of these tasks that with the proper systems and delegation could be done by a lower wage person?
* How much more business and more referrals would you get if you could focus your attention on the growth of the business more often?
* What are you waiting for? You have the same 24 hours each day just like the rest of us driven, highly-successful, focused business owners.
Implement those strategies now and improve your business to allow you more free time to work on your business rather than in your business. Only by allocating enough hours in a week to work on your business can you grow your business to the level you want it to operate at.
Elsa Groenewald is a Franchisee of Business Coaching Firm – Actioncoach. She is a certified business coach who has successfully assisted businessowners to significantly grow their profits and their entrepreneurial skills. To find out more information contact Elsa on 082 321 7704.
You are invited to send your business-related questions or any topics you would like to see covered in the monthly articles to elsagroenewald@actioncoach.com.
