What are you holding on to?

It's one thing to start a business; it's quite another to keep it growing. At some point, it's no longer enough to be your business's number one employee. You need to become the boss, the leader.

So if you are finding that your own free time is shrinking, that you are turning away potential clients, that you are still doing the same things as when you first began - it might be time to look at what you are holding on to. Each week I am talking with business owners who all shared how they are actually working more hours in their business than they ever planned to and are not sure how to change this. But remember it doesn't have to be this way... as a business owner you have the 'freedom of choice' to be able to make changes in your business, including if need be hiring the right help to get things off your plate.

So how can you begin?

Step 1 Make a list of all the tasks you currently perform. Remember even the most basic administrative tasks can derail you from focusing on your big-ticket items.

Step 2 Go through and group them into specific tasks; for example invoicing, paying bills, entering MYOB etc can be grouped together as say 'finance'; answering emails, mail, updating your website, creating client folders etc can be grouped together as 'office admin'. Make as many or as few groups as you like.

Step 3 You can either do this two ways by prioritising your list from: a) most important to least important or b) what I hate doing the most to what I don't mind doing!

Step 4 Now go through this list and choose the 2-3 groups that would make the biggest difference to you and your business if you were to either outsource or hire in someone to do these.

If by outsourcing only one of these groups allows you to get one or more clients, that in itself should be a reward.

(c) 2009 DebPilgrim.com