Most business owners hate the thought of hiring a team member! To them it means additional costs and giving up control – yes, we have to give up the DOING if we are going to grow!
But there are ways to delegate without hiring a team member and these are great places to start your growth journey! Pick the ones that suit you and your business the best!
1. Delegate your email
It’s likely that you get a lot of the same questions coming from new readers and customers. Instead of typing out the same responses multiple times, try these strategies:
- create a pdf tip sheet to give away as an opt-in (lead magnet) gift
- write a FAQ page for your website
- use canned responses app in gmail to load a bunch of pre-planned answer to common questions or template responses that you can automatically copy & paste.
2. Delegate appointments
This has been one of the BIGGEST time savers for me and I highly recommend it early on in your business
Using an online schedule (youcanbook.me, calendly) so your clients can book themselves into your calendar to stop wasting time trying to set up appointments. These schedulers eliminate time consuming back and forth emails.
There are free versions but later in your business growth you can upgrade to the paid versions which send reminders (and reduce no-shows) and many also allow you to set up different types of appointments.
3. Delegate client communications
- Create a form for testimonials instead of asking your client via email to give you a testimonial. Create the form in SurveyMonkey or Google Forms with predetermined questions that will help you collective effective testimonials.
- Automate a series of emails to keep in touch by using your newsletter provide (Mailchimp, Convertkit, etc.). You can ask your audience questions about their progress, challenges; you can introduce them to offerings or share articles. It eliminates sending emails individually to each person.
- Simplify your contract process so that instead of email your clients a PDF of your coaching agreement, and then having them scan it back to you, use a system like HelloSign to upload your contracts. That way your clients can sign the agreement without ever leaving their computer screen.
4. Delegate Projects
Often you have projects or tasks that you repeat for several projects. Creating a SOP template (standard operating procedures) helps you save time and when you do hire a new team member, the process is outlined for their efficient use!
5. Delegate Social Media
Automation tools such as Buffer or Hootsuite can help send out social media updates thereby freeing up your time to focus on engagement with your audience.
6. Delegate tasks you are tired of doing!
The best way to know when you need to automate (delegate) is when you are tired of doing a tasks or when that task seems repetitive. Usually this means that there’s a creative way or an online tool to help you turn it into something automatic.
Remember – you don’t have to start implementing all of these delegation strategies at once. Take your time and experiment with one at a time!
Let me know what’s the first thing you are going to delegate without hiring a team member? I’m curious!!!
Did you miss these earlier articles on delegation?
- https://dianalidstone.com/blog/2019/07/02/oprah-doesnt-film-her-own-show/
- 3 Signs you NEED to delegate now in your business
Coming up next in this series:
Why you can’t afford NOT to delegate?
