People who dare to start a small business or creative project are by nature very independent. You want to do it all yourself. Maybe you file your own taxes, clean and organize your office/studio, created your own website, designed your logo, wrote your marketing materials and you somehow do everything else involved in your business or project.
Are you “saving money” by doing everything yourself? Actually, if you are doing everything yourself that is a clear indicator that your business and your income are not living up to their potential. If this is you, I have a name for you: “Task Hoarder.”
While you are an amazing circus act, you are actually hurting yourself by juggling all those random tasks in the air! Task hoarding keeps you from focusing on the work that only you should be doing.
YOU are only required for about 30% of the tasks necessary to run your business or project. The reason most small business owners are so depleted and are not making enough money is because they insist on doing everything themselves.
First, begin to sort out which tasks must be done by you. If you are a doctor, you must meet with your patients; a painter must actually move the brush over the canvas. Figure out which tasks have your name emblazoned on them and be brutally honest about this.
Then, ask yourself these questions about the tasks remaining:
Do you hoard tasks that you don’t even enjoy?
If you do not enjoy the task, it will take more energy and effort to get it accomplished. Why get good at something you don’t want to keep doing? Hand it off or hire it out to someone who likes this work and free yourself to do the work you love.
Do you hoard tasks that have a high learning curve and that you don’t necessarily need to learn?
The classic cases of this are tasks that involve technology. You may think you are saving money but if the learning curve for a task takes you twice as long as it would someone else, you are easily losing money, time and your mind! You will profit more by spending that time doing the work you are in this business to do, increasing your output and income and hiring someone to do the work they are already proficient at doing.
Do you hoard tasks that could be done as well (or almost as well) by someone else?
We are all a little hung up on the idea that we are the only one who can do things as well as they need to be done. This is a trap. This thinking keeps your business from growing.
If you think you cannot afford help, get resourceful: find a high school student to clean your office and file papers, do a trade for web services, make a posting on craigslist.org. When you are babying every mini-aspect of your project or business, you are neglecting the tasks that have your name on them and you inhibit your project or business from truly flourishing.
Endeavors that are successful are run by people who know their strengths, their limits, and then hand tasks off to others to accomplish faster, better and more happily so that the creative source of the endeavor is free to do what he or she does best.
© 2007 – 2010, Karrie Kohlhaas. All rights reserved.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Good points Karrie. You remind us of WHY there is a division of labor. As we talked about tonite, it’s easy to find yourself working IN your business when instead it’s actually more important to be working ON your business.
Rick
Karrie has all the right points and I want to add a subtext. Women and mothers especially are the worst at delegating. We get used to doing things for helpless little people then fail to notice how soon and how much they can do. We yell and foam at the mouth yet haven’t taken the time to teach and delegate. Even pre-schoolers can pitch in.
List all the tasks you’re still doing for each child that they can do instead. Sit down with each of them (separately) and work out an agreement on how and when they’ll complete those tasks. Don’t rush in and take over or nag, just let it go unfinished (it will at first), until they take responsibility. Remind them of the agreement you made.
Then get back to work- your work.
Right Rick, in larger companies there are departments to handle all of the various projects and topics and tasks in the business. But solo-preneurs and many small business owners try to take it all on themselves and forget that they need to be the visionary–to set aside time to think about and develop the business–not the guy inside getting the details done.
There are lots of people who can handle the details but no one else knows the vision, the intent and where you want to take the business, as well as you do. This is one of the biggest things small biz owners neglect when they are running around task hording.
Thanks for the note!
Lee, great subtext. Yes, and similarly, if you hand something off to an assistant or employee or service provider, then make it worth your while and go do your own thing–let them handle their part instead of standing over them! People tend to step up and own their part if you get out of their way. In psychology there is a conversation about “over-functioning” and “under-functioning” which states that if you are over-functioning (in this case task hording) in some area, it will cause the other person involved to under-function in that area, and vice versa. And let’s face it, don’t we all work better and happier when people trust us to do our part?