Being a contractor can be extraordinarily rewarding. You’ve worked hard to hone a craft and build a reputation and things are good. But there are times where the business is going to get to you, which usually stems from being too busy or wearing too many hats.
The way to growth is delegation
That’s when you need to learn that you just can’t do it all on your own. Delegation is the best way to grow your company from the inside out. It’s the way to grow organically and it gives you back the time to do the things inside the business that you do best, whatever that may be.
Here are some great tips on delegation to keep in mind as you get started!
Work with other professional services: It doesn’t matter what service sector you are in, you can probably find subs to work with. Subbing out work gives you the ability to grow by adding more jobs to the calendar. Let’s face it, you can’t be in two places at once, but have a strong team of subs and the sky is the limit!
Focus on priorities: Figure out what tasks are important for you. In my business, I handle all the money and all the sales, and of course the marketing. I do writing for the blog and work with the team on other things such as design, content marketing, and graphics. Maybe you like financial or scheduling of work tasks? Maybe the most important thing for you is to spend more time in the field. See what tasks are crucial for you and then delegate the others. You will feel better during the day because you are doing what you want to do, not what you have to do.
Delegate to people you can trust: This one is huge! Delegating to people you can trust is an absolute must because you don’t want to have to be standing over people’s shoulder or else you might as well do the work yourself. Know the strengths and weaknesses of each person or company you bring in to assist you, and make sure they understand your approach to business. It will definitely be a challenging thing at first but try to create a circle of trustworthy people that you can count on.
Always add instructions: Another big one! Just because you delegate a certain aspect of your business doesn’t mean that the person will automatically know what to do. Create instructions (see my post on putting systems in place by clicking here) and make sure that the person who will handle those tasks know what they have to do. Proper instructions will always help make delegating easier for lots of reasons, so make sure it is part of your program.
Always listen to feedback: Just like you should add instructions to your delegated tasks, be open to doing things a different way. Just because you’ve always done, say, lead qualification this one way doesn’t mean you can’t learn something new. Try to listen to feedback and learn from it, it might help you improve your internal processes and overall business.
Delegation really is the main driver for growth for young construction companies. There are so many hours in a day and only so many hats you can wear. It may be time to sit down and have a meeting with yourself and figure out what you are best at, and what you should delegate. It all comes down to understanding what your strengths are, and more importantly, what your weaknesses are.
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