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Wise delegation turbocharges productivity

About eight months ago, I wrote about delegation and the price paid in dollars, energy, business and personal health for failure to delegate. Since then, I’ve had discussions with owners who have difficulty passing tasks on. I also talked with a businessman dealing with the difficulty.

It began when he was planning and realized he must generate at least $300 per hour every hour of a 40-hour week. That totals $12,000 per week or $624,000 annually. Bring in less, and he would not make a profit. Bring in substantially less, and he could not cover expenses. Because he is the rainmaker in his firm, the responsibility falls on him to see that $300 comes in every hour. He admitted it was stressful and required long hours.

At that point it hit him: He spends several hours each week proofing copy for his newsletter and blog, work that he could get done for $20 per hour. He was saving roughly $100 weekly by doing his own editing. But editing took five hours from prospecting for new customers and selling to those he already had. Worse, however, was that he regularly received criticism. His writing contained grammatical and punctuation errors, and it looked amateurish. Total it up – he saved $100 a week but created an unprofessional image.

He was referred to a retired English teacher who was known for her editing ability. He hired her and has been pleased with her work and the increased professionalism of his material. He now uses the time to make money rather than save it.

With that successful action under his belt, he began to think more about work he should be doing and work he should be handing off. He quickly learned he was not constrained to talent available locally when he could not find the needed skills. He now has a virtual assistant, a VA, who is an assistant located hundreds of miles away and helps as needed. Technology links them. He had to learn to use tools such as Google Drive and Skype and to become more specific about his needs, but that took only a short time. His VA charges $50 per hour. She schedules appointments, follows up on tasks, gathers documents needed for a meeting, drafts memos and handles many niggling things that come up.

Our business friend now thinks in terms of leverage. He knows he must bring in $12,000 per week regardless of how long he must work. He averages about $400 per hour for every hour of actual production work. If he can free up 25 hours a week by delegating, he has 25 hours of work time that does not have to take away from family time in the evening or on weekends. He has found he now works between 40 and 45 hours per week compared with the 55 to 60 hours he used to put in.

What kind of leverage can you put to work in your business? Can you reduce your work load and increase your income by delegating wisely and effectively?

Bowser@BusinessValueInsights.com. Dan Bowser is president of Value Insights, Inc. of Durango, Chandler, Arizona, and Summerville, Pennsylvania.



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