Performing Your Essential Function: Action Required!

“The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.”

-Theodore Roosevelt

Many us are awesome at our crafts but not so great about delegating and hiring. The cash flow may not be right for full time employees but you don’t have to be a huge Fortune 500 to have interns or virtual assistants. NOTHING should be distracting you from performing the essential function of your company. If you’re a consultant, consult; a designer, then design; a photographer…photograph your heart out. It makes no sense to spend all your time mailing orders, maintaining your website, and updating your calendar.  

Really take a look at what (besides the primary function of your business) takes a less than desirable chunk of your time. After that, find ways to eliminate it! For those of you who require a lot of shipping, look at hiring a distributor. You send your inventory to them in bulk and they handle the shipping to individuals. For those of you who are receiving a lot of e-mails and meeting requests, consider a virtual assistant (very cheap if hired from India). If you need a larger social media presence or updates to your website, find a graphic design or PR student to intern for you (unpaid). For those of you who are farther along in the process, refer to this article I found in Time Business about things to consider when hiring your first employee (http://business.time.com/2012/10/02/hiring-your-first-employee).

Take a leap of faith folks, I mean, what’s the point of being self-employed if you still have to handle all the grunt work you hate? If you still have a full time job like I do, you don’t even time to do it and it can really be a hindrance to how well you respond to clients/customers. That said, I challenge you now, outsource it! If you implement any of these tips or find other ways to drop some distracting work email me how it helped you so we can all help each other get great! Carlyn@BlackListAffiliates.com  

Carlyn D.