There's a job you've been meaning to hand over since about March.
You know the one. It isn't difficult, it isn't interesting, and it takes you forty minutes every week that you'd rather spend on almost anything else. You've thought about giving it to somebody. Then you've thought about how long it would take to explain, and you've done it yourself again.
So here's how to delegate, short version. Pick something small and repeatable. Write down how you do it. Give it to someone whose work you've actually seen. Agree when you'll check in. Then leave them alone to get on with it.
The handing over is the easy bit. It's the leaving alone that people struggle with, and that's what most of this is about.
What does delegating actually mean?
Delegating means giving someone else the responsibility for a task, along with enough information and permissions to get it done without having to come back all the time and mithering you.
That last part is where a lot of people struggle because handing someone a job and then hovering around them, questioning their actions, isn't delegating, it's just adding a person to a task asa task themselves.
Proper and effective delegation means the task and that is involved leaves your head and disappears off your to-do list.
Now, don’t misunnderstand me because you're still accountable for the outcome. You're just not the one doing it.
Why is delegation important?
Because you only have so many hours in a day, and some of your hours are worth more than others.
American Express and Small Business Saturday asked a thousand UK small business owners how their weeks actually go. They're spending around 11 hours a week on admin and finance, which works out at roughly six working days a month, and a bit over half that on selling and growing the business. More than half said paperwork gets in the way of running the place at all.
The bit that got my attention was the question about what’s holding their growth back. A third said it was simply that there’s only one of them.
Not the economy. Not competitors. Just not having enough of themselves to go round.
There are two reasons most of us don't, and I hear both of them constantly:
"I haven't got time to teach someone." True, for about a fortnight. After that you've got the time back permanently. It's a cost that stops, which makes it an investment rather than an expense.
"Nobody will do it as well as I do." Sometimes right, and usually irrelevant. Does the job need doing as you'd do it, or does it just need doing properly? For your actual craft, keep it. For organising a spreadsheet, somebody else's version being 90% of yours is absolutely fine, and there's a decent chance they'll do it better because it's the sort of thing they enjoy.
6 steps to effective task delegation
Choose what you're willing to delegate
Start small and low stakes. Not that client pitch that you are preparing for.
The best ones are the jobs that happen regularly, they will follow the same process every time, and won't cause a disaster if they come back with a small mistake. If the job has been shuffling from Monday to Monday on your to-do list for a month, it's usually a very good sign it belongs to someone else.
I always advise people to write a list of everything you did last week.
Then place each one in a column with one of the following headings. I LOVE doing these, only I can do this and anyone could do this (if I let go)
The ones in third column are the jobs you can delegate.Find the right person
Price is the worst way to choose someone to work with but the most common.
I know budget has to be taken into account, of course it does, we are not all Rockafella but don’t start with that mindset first. Instead look at testimonials, ask for a referral from someone whose judgement you trust, and try to look at work they've actually done, though this might not always be the case when NDAs are involved.
Ask if they have experience or if they are aware of programmes or processes you are already using, this will help the training going forward.
And be honest about the skill you need. "Someone to help out" isn't a brief. "Someone who can schedule my social media and knows their way round Canva" is.
Hand over the context, not just the task
This is the part that most people don’t realise is needed, and it's why those mistakes happen.
The person doing the job needs to know what it's for, not just what to click. For example: if you're asking someone to tidy your inbox, tell them which clients matter, what counts as urgent, and what you'd rather never see again. Otherwise they're guessing, and they'll guess differently to you. They cannot read your mind.
it is unreasonable of you to expect to be able to just hand someone your passwords and say “do this”
So the easiest (and best) way to do this is to record yourself doing the task once and talking through it as you go. Five minutes of waffle on a screen recording beats an hour of writing instructions, and it means they can rewatch it instead of asking you. It also allows you to have the recording for future help should you need it.
Check in, but don't take over
Agree with who you hire, when you'll check in BEFORE they start the work, then wait for that point, don’t change the goal posts. That’s not fair.
A check-in is a planned conversation at an agreed moment. Popping up mid-job to see how they're getting on isn't a check-in, it's a hover, and it quietly tells the person you don't trust them. They'll start checking everything with you, and you'll end up with all the work back plus the admin of managing it.
Set the review point, say what good looks like maybe even give them an example, then go and do something else.
Don't just delegate the easy stuff
Once the simple jobs are ticking along nicely, hand over something you genuinely can't do and be honest about it!
This is where delegating stops being about saving time and starts being about getting you better results. There are things in your business being done badly because you're the one doing them, yes harsh but very true and you're the one doing them because you've never considered handing them over before.
Your email automations. Your website fixes. The podcast clips you keep meaning to edit or that take too long to do.Somebody out there does that for a living and enjoys it.
Why not give them a chance?
Keep going once it works
Delegation is a habit, not always a one off event.
People hand over one thing, feel that relief, and then stop because now it is all sorted. Yes? WRONG!
A month later the list has filled back up and everything is back to being overwhelming.The ones who get real value out of delegating are the ones who are consistent and feel they are able to add something new every few months, usually because they've spotted another job they've been quietly resenting.
And don't get stuck waiting for the perfect moment to start. There isn't one, there never is.
There's just a quieter week, and you should take it when it comes.
What should you delegate first?
The repeatable, time-consuming jobs that don't need your judgement.or input Below are some of the usual suspects, and most of them are things I'm handed in someone's first month of working with me:
Do you notice what they have in common? None of them need to be done by you and each one eats a chunk of a day you'd rather have back.
What should you never delegate?
Some things have to stay with you, and knowing which is as useful as knowing what to hand over.
The decisions. What you charge, who you work with, where the business is going. Someone can gather the information and lay the options out, but the choice is has to be yours.
The relationships that are the business. If people buy because of you, the bit they're buying stays yours. Your photography, your coaching, your designs.
Anything where you don't yet know what good looks like. If you couldn't tell whether the finished job was right, you're not ready to hand it over. Learn it first, or hire someone you trust enough to set the standard for you.
Anything you genuinely can't describe. If you can't explain it, nobody can do it. That's not a reason to keep it forever, it's a reason to write it down properly first.
Can a virtual assistant take on delegated tasks?
Yes. That's what we are here for.
A virtual assistant is self-employed and works remotely, so you're not hiring an employee or taking on the responsibility of paying a salary.
You agree what needs doing, you agree the hours, and then that work leaves your plate. Most of us cover a fair range: admin and business support, inbox management, content creation and scheduling, technical bits, email marketing setup, and accountability if what you actually need is someone keeping you honest.
I'd start you on five hours a month and one or two jobs, because that's enough to see whether we work well together without you committing to anything large. Most people add hours later once they spot the next thing they've been putting off.
The part nobody mentions
Delegating won't fix a business where the decisions haven't been made, so if you're not sure who you're selling to or what you're charging, start there instead.
And handing something over badly is worse than keeping it, which is why the mistakes people make when they delegate are worth a read before you start.
So where to begin
Pick one thing. Just one..
Write down how you do it, or record yourself doing it once. Find someone whose work you've seen. Agree when you'll look at it. Then go and spend that forty minutes on the part of your business you actually want to spend it on.
If you are tipping towards overworking and feeling overwhelmed, why not consider support from a virtual assistant like ME?
Why not get in touch and tell me what you've been putting off since March.
