Over the past two days week I’ve been in a seemingly endless number of meetings as I’m preparing a few new exciting opportunities for my business. It’s been fun riding the Vespa all over town but I haven’t been in the office very much.

The good news is that I have help. In January I hired two new people to compliment my existing team and with their help and my business *almost* runs itself.

All the admin tasks get done, all my customers get quick replies to their emails, we’re developing new content, and we’re creating new features for our customers – all without me being there.

If you feel like the guy in the picture above then you need to begin delegating! Here are some steps to help you get started:

1) Make a list of all the tasks that you are doing that you shouldn’t be doing.

What are the tasks that take up a lot of your time, that have to get done, but that are low value work. For example, doing data entry or doing your own bookkeeping are tasks that others should be doing for you. If you’re not good at developing websites then have someone create your site for you. If you’re not the best salesperson in the world, have someone else sell for you. The key is to focus in on what you’re good at and what you enjoy doing. One of the biggest things that helped my business was to delegate the article writing. We now have over 60,000 articles on the system which never would have been possible it I were the only writer. Start making that list of the tasks that are the most annoying to you and take up the most time.

2) Clearly write out what needs to be done

Most entrepreneurs never write out how to do the things that need to be done to keep their businesses going. They just keep it all up in their heads. If you want to build a business beyond yourself then you clearly need to write out the various tasks that you want to delegate and give easy to understand instructions on how to accomplish those tasks. This is especially true if you’re going to hire someone who will not be working alongside you (ie a contractor from elance). The clearer the instructions are, the easier it will be for someone to step into your role and your business won’t skip a beat.

3) Hire a part time worker

Everyone who I’ve hired full time I started working with on a part time basis. It’s a great way to make sure that you work well together and you can learn more about what their skills are and where they want to grow. Hiring part time also helps you save money. The first person I ever hired was for one hour per day. I took some of the tasks I hated doing and gave it to him for one hour a day to handle for me. It was a great experience just to have that workload taken off of my plate and it wasn’t costing me too much. It was definitely a worthwhile investment at an entrepreneur-friendly price. From that one hour I was later able to hire him full time and later expand my employee base.

Most entrepreneurs just buy themselves a job instead of really building a business. You have arrived when your company can operate and thrive without you being there. At that point you choose to be there instead of you having to be there. Get started today by following these three simple steps.

I would love to hear your stories about how you have delegated tasks and built your business beyond yourself!

Evan Carmichael