Many people have a belief that they need a lot of money and need to purchase expensive equipment to start, run or expand a profitable business. Not true. The truth is for many businesses you don’t need a lot of money or purchase expensive equipment to run or expand a profitable business. What you do need is information on how a profitable business is leveraged. It’s one of the key areas I cover in my annual intensive boot camp for entrepreneurs and why many of my clients achieve such fast results. In a previous blog post, I outlined how leverage allows you to do more with less. It is also a mindset and one of the important elements that helped me to grow my business reaching 11 countries now.
One of the early mindsets I had to get over was, “If I want something done right, I have to do it myself.” You might have even said this to yourself. Yet, I quickly found that if I wanted my business to flourish and grow, I needed to allow others to take on tasks no longer served by my time. In fact, it is more expensive in the long run to hold on to tasks that you can delegate to someone else for a fraction of what you would be billing if you were working with a client.
Not only is delegating to another person key to leveraging your tasks, but I’ve found systems are the ultimate leverage. It’s easy to apply, too. For example, as you implement certain processes, get into the habit of documenting those processes while implementing them.
Two things happen when you do this:
1. You know if your system works and what can be improved; and
2. You can easily train someone to take over the process and repeat the standard over and over.
When I started out my business, I realized there would be a steep training curve to impart all of the processes and tasks to someone else. So I started an Operations Manual complete with the when, how, why of each process.
My assistants now have the task of updating the manual as a process changes and it serves as a reference guide when there are questions. It also ensures that when one of my assistants is away, the other person can review the guide and execute the tasks quickly and efficiently.
In the long-term, having an Operations Manual or guide has also saved me:
• Time in retraining,
• Effort in answering routine questions; and
• Money in training dollars.
Take a moment to assess what you can outsource to another and how you can leverage your time. Have your assistant document the processes or create an automated system for routine tasks. Before you know it, you’ll be leveraging your time, effort and money.
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