The 2 Reasons Your Life and Business Aren’t Expanding, Part 2: Delegation

By Charlie on February 10th, 2008 | 2

Even if you don’t have teammates, you can still have a team

In Part 1, Waste we talked about how wasted time and actions (same thing, really) make it appear that you just can’t expand.

You feel you can’t work any more than you do, can’t make any more money and you’re tied to the desk with no relief in sight. Even if you’re making killer dough, you can just feel that you’re busier than you should be and can’t seem to make even more dough. And that is our Constitutional right, as stated in Article XII which reads:

“We the People can and should make as much dirty smelly filthy lucre as is humanly possible. Can I get a hell yizzle?”

The problem with waste is really a very simple equation:

If you give yourself 7 hours in a day to do your actual work and waste two of those hours, you’ve now got to work 9 hours instead of 7 to make up for the 2 you wasted. Then you’re late to pick up the kids, your wife and/or husband is pissed and now you’ve added stress to your life.

The screws start tightening and you decide “I’m really gonna buckle down now!” and you get all serious about shit. But everyone knows the more serious you are, the more your work and life suffer and the vicious cycle continues.

But that’s only one of the problems, and wasted time doesn’t mean much to people who don’t waste time. Some people are just plain insanely busy and really can’t get any busier. They intelligently grew their business by removing extraneous actions and now find it impossible to streamline any more. The only way, or so it seems, for these sorts to make more money and do more business would be to make the days longer.

Science tells us that ain’t happenin’. So what is this wall they’re running into and, more importantly, what do they do about it?

Past a certain point, you’ll never grow if you don’t delegate

First, a definition. This is my own definition, but it’s a good one, based on how I use delegation to grow my businesses in the real world. If you want a real definition use a dictionary, but don’t expect a better definition. I define words for use and action. Dictionaries don’t necessarily do that.

“Delegation: Making other people or other things do the work so you don’t have to.”

Brilliant.

Notice it says “people or things.” That’s because there are more ways to delegate than hiring an assistant or secretary. While you can do that, it’s a very one-dimensional view.

The problems with not delegating are very common with one-man-band type of business. Freelancers who start out on their own often run into this because they have to market themselves, deal with clients and contracts, get paid and produce their actual products as well. My own businesses ran into problems with this, before I figured out this stuff about waste and then delegation.

To illustrate, I run my own design and consulting shop, plus I do freelance writing. So, and to keep it basic here, the things I do for money are design, consulting and writing. All the other stuff just “makes the business run.” Getting and keeping and communicating with clients, invoicing, contracts…all those things I mentioned before are the gears that make the business machine run.

But they are not what I do for money so I want that stuff to take up as little time as possible. It’s only logical that the more time I spend on money-making actions, the more money I’ll make. So, I’ve gotten my businesses to a point where I don’t really do much of those administrative actions. Just the bare minimum to ensure the gears keep on turning.

What should you use to delegate?

Other than hiring other office folk to help you out, the best way to delegate is to use your computer to it’s full potential.

Don’t manually check your email if you computer can do it for you.

Don’t rewrite the same code or emails if you can copy/paste or simply forward old emails.

Don’t, you designers out there, keep rewriting the same CSS/XHTML code over and over for every project. Copy/paste it or make a template. I use three templates for my web design work that automatically create out the 3 most popular site configurations: a left-sidebar, right-sidebar and left- and right-sidebar combo. I never rewrite that stuff. Not ever. And I always reuse the same header info with the DOCTYPE declaration, style-sheet links, meta tags, etc. And moreover, I always (unless it’s just impossible due to client needs) use the same DIV and CLASS names. That way I never have to cross-reference CSS sheets as I’m designing.

Sorry if you non-designers didn’t understand all of that, but you get the point. Save the things you always use on your computer and reuse them. If your emails to clients are almost always the same, save a draft and reuse it, modifying as necessary.

Reuse the same invoices over and over.

Reuse contracts over and over.

Use PayPal or some other quick and easy system for billing.

Bookmark your favorite sites and use the bookmarks. Use Firefox as its ability to remember usernames and passwords is top-notch and will save you about a million hours a year in retyping them.

If you do a lot of printing, get a faster office printer or send it out to a third party. Most of these print shops will take your documents via email and print them when you’re ready. Some will even send them out for you once printed.

Get a faster computer.

Read Tim Ferriss’s Four-Hour Workweek for great ideas on out-sourcing pretty much everything in your life except your feet.

But delegating costs money and I don’t want more expenses

My views on the costs of delegation are that:

Delegating doesn’t necessarily cost a thing
But even if it does, your profits will increase far beyond the costs

There’s a lot of free software out there. Use it.

There’s Google Docs. Use it too. You’ll have access to all of your documents wherever there’s an internet connection. You don’t need a thumb-drive, to burn CDs, print stuff out for the road…just use Google Docs and it’ll be there waiting for you.

Yes, this all sits in the “waste” category as discussed in Part 1. But it’s only waste because you’re not delegating. It’s waste because you’re continuing to spend time on things you’ve already done. Don’t. Reuse, recycle and be rewarded!

And if you do have to pay out the teeth for a good secretary or assistant, I’d imagine that would free up a good six or seven hours which you could be spending on creating more product, which equals more money. It’s well worth it.

If this all seems somewhat nebulous, I’m creating a checklist that will help you uncover these wicked little areas of waste and non-delegation. Check back soon for it. I guarantee you’ll find some ways to really streamline your life and business.

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