Last month, we talked about how to start delegating. Your first step was to list all the tasks you do in a given week, to give you an idea of the specific tasks you could be delegating. That was just the beginning.
You’re about to take your delegation to the next level.
In this exercise, you’ll make a list of all the friction points in your business, and how you are currently trying to address them.
The idea here is to stay open to the possibility that there might be even more effective ways to handle your business challenges than the solutions you’re already considering. Below, we’ve provided some examples of common business challenges, along with actual solutions we ended up implementing for our own clients. These may or may not apply exactly to your specific situation, but you can see that there’s usually more than one way to solve a given problem.
Friction Points: Examples
| Common Problem | What I think I need | What I might need instead |
|---|---|---|
| My files and documents are a mess. I can’t find what I need, when I need it | A summer intern to come to my office and do all of my filing | A scanning service to digitize my files, and a secure online storage system so that I can access them from anywhere |
| I don’t have time to keep in touch with all of my clients, and risk losing their business | More hours in the day to make client calls | A monthly newsletter that keeps me on their radar, without a lot of work on my part |
| My clients’ contact info is all over the place - some are in my phone, some are in my email...I’ve got a stack of business cards in my desk drawer... | Someone to enter all my data into Outlook / Gmail / an Excel spreadsheet | A web-based CRM system that syncs all my client info with my devices and automatically reminds me who I need to connect with and when |
| My to-do list is too long and I’m worried about important things falling between the cracks | To put in some extra hours on the weekend so I can finally catch up and get on top of everything | A better process for tracking and prioritizing tasks, and a competent person to delegate to |
| Sales are too slow / I’m not hitting my revenue targets | More networking opportunities to find new leads and prospects | A system for providing better service to the customers I already have, so that they buy more and send me referrals |
| Revenues are unpredictable / seasonal / feast or famine | More sales to compensate for slow periods | Someone to manage client service so I can focus on business development and break the feast / famine cycle |
| I have a really great product / service, but nobody knows about it | A fancy PR firm to get the word out, and a big budget for advertising in the paper | A professional social media presence and a little bit of *measurable* online advertising |
| I’m feeling mentally stuck, unmotivated and overwhelmed. Running my business feels like a chore | To make this sale / close this deal / finish this project | More time off with my family so I can unplug, get some perspective and come back re-energized |
What's Next?
On Page 54 of The Art of Delegation, you’ll find a blank Worksheet: My Friction Points that you can fill out with your own specific challenges and the solutions you think you need. Then, show the list to your partner, your coach, or your friendly neighbourhood Admin Slayer, to get some insight into alternative solutions.