This might come as a surprise, but it’s not possible for a person to be everywhere at once. Shocking, I know. This might seem like the most obvious thing in the world. “Of course they can’t! That’s just ridiculous!” Yes, it is. Which is what makes it all the more shocking that so many business owners seem to act like that can. Your business is your baby. It’s very easy to become overprotective. The problem is all that does is put you in a position of trying to micromanage everything single bit of it. In case that wasn’t obvious, that’s not really the optimum way to run a business. In fact, that’s a pretty good way to burn yourself out as quickly as possible. Here are some of the potential risks of attempting to do everything yourself
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You can make yourself sick
This might seem dramatic, but it’s true. Overworking yourself can eventually reach the point where it has a genuinely adverse effect on your health. Trying to do everything yourself will create far more stress than your body can handle and eventually, something’s got to give. Not only is this dangerous for you personally, but the knock on effect on your business when you inevitably have to take time off with be severe.
It can harm your personal life
Here’s a funny thing about a business. It takes up a lot of time. In fact the only the that takes more time that running a business is trying to run a business entirely by yourself. You can end up losing all your free time to your business simply because you refuse to step away for a moment. If everything rests on your shoulders, it can make putting work aside from that much more difficult. This can wreak havoc on your personal relationships and affect your life and happiness in some seriously negative ways.
It will hurt your business
Not only will taking on too much do you some really damage but it’s a good way to send your business spinning out of control. The work you do suffers terribly when you attempt to take on everything yourself. You just can’t put the right amount of effort into any one thing if you’re also trying to concentrate on everything else at the same time. A business should run like an old watch. Open up an old watch or a clock, and you’ll see all the gears turning together, each connected to another, all working perfectly in tandem. The problem is that a lot of business owners treat their businesses more like spinning plates. Running around desperately trying to keep them all balanced and spinning. Where the clockwork business will keep running smoothly, only occasionally need to be wound up. The spinning plates method will end very differently. (Here’s a hint, it involves a lot of broken plates.)
Letting go can be tough but here are ways that business owners can hand over some responsibility. Allowing them to focus their efforts more productively.
Outsource
If your business is relatively small, then there’s a decent chance you’re not going to be able to set out jobs and tasks to various employees. Not only that but you probably won’t have the money to hire in dedicated, full-time staff members for every single job. One of the absolute best solutions to this problem is outsourcing. Outsourcing particular tasks to professionals can be an invaluable way to avoid stretching yourself too thin. Whether it’s bookkeeping, marketing or risk analytics, there are plenty of services available. Not only will they take some of the responsibilities off your shoulders. But you can also rest assured that job will get done a professional standard. If you attempt to do it yourself, you could end up combining the need for you to focus elsewhere as well with a potential lack of knowledge or experience. This can leave a job half finished or only finished to the lowest possible quality. By bringing in a professional, you can be sure that the job will get done and it’ll be done well. This obviously will involve a cost, but a lot of the time it ends up being a small price to pay for high quality. And can even end up paying for itself over time.
6 Most Commonly Outsourced Tasks and Why They Work
Consolidate
Not everything has to be an individual task. You’d be honestly amazed at just how many jobs you can combine to save both time and energy. Let’s say you have a dedicated marketing team. Have you considered including any content creation within that team? That way you can monitor specific areas of your business more easily by combining them into a single place. If your office has a receptionist that takes incoming calls, try to see if there are any outgoing calls that they could be doing instead of someone else. By combining, teams, tasks and skill sets, you not only make things easier to manage but make better use of your time and money.
Get organized
This might seem a bit obvious. Of course, you should be organized! Every business owner needs to be organized! But it’s a little more complicated than that. No matter what you do, there will always be things that you, the business owner, will have to deal with. Not only that but it will be impossible to let go altogether. It is your business after all. You need to put yourself in as strong a position as possible when you come up against things you’ll need to deal with. And the only real way to do that is to be prepared. Make sure that your days are scheduled carefully and that you follow that schedule as much as you can. Don’t flit from task to task, make sure that whatever you’re doing has your complete and total attention. If you plan what you’ll be doing across the week, then you’ll be able to prioritize much more carefully than if you were just playing things by ear. This way, even if you can’t resist trying to keep those plates spinning, you’ll be in a much better position to do so.
8 Things Really Efficient People Do
