As an entrepreneur, you wear many hats. If you’re like me, you handle sales, billing, accounts payable, marketing AND the product (in my case, writing). Why do we do this? Partially because we feel we can’t afford to delegate to pay someone to do these things for us (or rather, we’ll have more money if we don’t hire anyone else). We also do it because we think we are the most competent people in the world, and we can’t trust anyone else to do the job as well as we will.
I have a secret. You are NOT the best person to handle every aspect of your business. You’re not. And neither am I. You started your business because you had a specific skill set or experience in an area, not because you were a great accountant, salesperson, and manager.
Think of it this way: if you were forced to pick only one ‘job’ to do in your company, what would it be? That’s the one you’re good at and enjoy the most. So make that your job and delegate to find someone else to do the rest.
Entrepreneurs tend to get in their own way. If you’re working in your business and not on it, you miss a lot. You can get so bogged down handling all the different roles you’ve taken on that you end up doing none of them effectively. Do you really want complete control of all aspects of your business if the risk you take is the failure of your company?
It truly helps to have a third party look at the way you do things and assess whether that’s the best way to do it. For instance, I meet so many small business owners who have been ‘doing’ their own marketing for years. But they’re not growing. Marketing for them tends to consist of phone book ads or a poorly laid Google AdWord ad. It’s all they have time for, and they have put the effort forth in spurts. But I can come in and tell them that the phone book ad is a waste of money, and that I can give them a more well-rounded marketing campaign that will cost less than they’re spending now! Who wouldn’t want that?!
