Delegate or Die – How to Hire Locally to Grow Your Business

This is a guest post from Jason Katzenback, otherwise known as the current incarnation of John Cow (just like Dr Who, a new Cow is born each time the previous one quits the show)…

Have you heard the expression “No man is an island“… well perhaps to be more politically correct “no one person is an island”?

One of the hardest decisions any entrepreneur faces when starting a new business is the concept of delegating. At first we are more often then not responsible for all activities of our business including; research, planning, bookkeeping, webdesign and the list goes on and on. For most people this is not a problem for the first few months because you are in a start up mode where you are still getting your feet wet. As your business starts to grow momentum however, this quickly starts to become a burden.

Too Much To Do in Too Little Time

Suddenly it happens, you start looking at the clock and realize the day is done. Your spouse is calling for supper and you impatiently yell back “Give me a Minute”. You are frantically trying to get as much done as possible because of the complete and utter frustration of having too much to do in too little time.

Life continues like this for awhile and then suddenly tax time comes and you become exasperated because for the next week you will not be able to do anything but focus on getting your bookkeeping done and all your projects are on hold…. never mind the 150 emails you are getting every day.

STOP THE INSANITY!!!

If your business is at a point where there is revenue coming in and you just have too much to do in too little time, then perhaps it is time to consider hiring local employees to help. With today’s virtual world, there are many options available from outsourcing to hiring virtual assistants and depending on your situation these may be better options. If however you are ready and wanting to start an office with local employees then my hope is this post series will offer you some guidance.

Why Should I listen to YOU?

Over the past two years I have transitioned from running an office out of my home to now having a 1500 square foot office with fulltime staff including hiring an office manager. I have hit many bumps in the road, made many mistakes and had learned some very powerful lessons, that I hope to be able to spare you from making.

Step 1: What Needs Doing?

Before you even consider placing a “Help Wanted” ad, you need to clearly understand what it is you need help with. Do not for one minute think that it will be easier to hire someone and then see what they are good at and then give them tasks. You will only accomplish frustrating both yourself and your new employee(s).

What you need to do is make a list of every task and responsibility that you are currently doing and/or need done. Next you need to figure out what it is that you are good at and should continue to focus on. I recommend you focus on the responsibilities of growing your business, such as marketing and coming up with new ideas.

You may need to part with tasks that you enjoy, such as design, but you need to look at this as a return on investment. You will be hard pressed to hire someone that will be as dedicated as you are with growing your business, but you can easily hire someone that could probably write better then you, do bookkeeping better then you or design a logo better then you. You need to accept that you will have to delegate responsibility because you can not continue to do it all yourself.

Step 2: Prioritize

Now you need to take that list and create a job outline of what your new employee would be responsible for. Focus on the most pressing and time consuming tasks that currently are bogging you down. You also want to focus on only one new employee at a time (I highly recommend you grow one person at a time).

Step 3: Be Realistic

You will never hire someone that is as dedicated to the success of your company as you are, so get that hope out of your mind right now. This does not mean that your employee(s) will not be dedicated but it does mean you can not expect them to be willing to work more then 8 hours a day (unless you pay overtime) and so make sure you take into account that there will be a learning curve and only give them what you think is realistic for them to be able to get done in a 40 hour work week. Also expect the first 4 weeks to be a complete training period but I assure you the initial time is worth it if you do this right.

Step 4: Make a Plan

Now you need to make a plan as to what you want to accomplish and what resources you have available. This was a huge mistake I made initially as I was just so excited to get into an office, due to all the distractions at home, that I just reacted instead of carefully planning out what I was going to do.

This plan needs to include how many employees you are going to need to have within the next year (most office leases are for a year minimum), what your are going to pay them (this was a huge advantage I had in my area) and you also need to make sure you budget for all expenses. You will need to clearly understand how much money you will be able to budget initially for office furniture and equipment plus legal fees (you will want to be incorporated), insurance, payroll, utilities and so on.

Perhaps the biggest eye opener to me was the extra costs running an external office had. When I was working out of my home I simply used my home internet, phone, cell, insurance and so on. Well the fees associated with home accounts versus business accounts are HUGE. You will want to ensure you have enough revenue being generated that you can easily absorb these extra costs upfront.

Ouch –> Does not sound like it is worth it!

If you are at a point in your business that you need to hire help, move into a different location and can afford the costs, then yes, in my honest opinion it is extremely worth it. The long term benefit, once the initial training period is over is amazing.

I no longer focus on tasks like bookkeeping, keyword research site building, customer support or any of these tasks that distracted me from growing my business. One of the other benefits that I immediately noticed about moving into an office was that I was much more focused on my job. I did not realize the huge amount of distractions that my home office had.

Step 5: Make up a Formal Business Plan

This is when you take the general plan details that you have put together into a “formal” document that lays out your exact plan and steps. This includes the type of office space needed, your estimated time frame for hiring employees (at first hire only one at a time), what your goals are with time frames for your new employee(s) and draw out the plan for at least a one year period. You want to be a perfectionist with this, as you want to make sure you clearly understand exactly what you want to accomplish and how you are going to accomplish it.

Business Plans are associated with getting financing for your business but do not hold your breath for being able to get financing for your online business. I am not saying it can not happen but banks are very weary of internet businesses.

What you need to understand however, is there is good reasons banks want business plans because the chances of a businesses success is greatly improved when they have a detailed understanding and plan in place. They do not do this just to make it hard to get financing, they do it because they want to ensure they are going to get a return on their investment and this is the EXACT same reason you want to do one.

In the next post on this series, I am going to cover what to look for in office space, how to find employees, how to hold interviews and in the final post of this series I will cover how to effectively manage your employees (do not be their friend, be their leader).

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Jason Katzenback is the new voice of Johncow.com and is co owner of a successful 7 figure a year online business. Check out http://www.johncow.com to learn more powerful tips and strategies for running a successful business online.