Smart Do-It-Yourself Entrepreneurs Know When to Delegate – Guest Blogger @KimDeYoung

Most entrepreneurs seem to have a do-it-yourself mentality especially when money is tight. For some reason, we feel as if we have to do it all ourselves. The reality is that to be really successful in business, you can’t do it all. You have to delegate.

I personally believe our goal in business is to do the activities we love to do. Only then will your energy will be its best and you’ll be the most attractive. That’s actually when you’re going to command the most money.

Starting out, entrepreneurs often think there isn’t the money to delegate. However, quite often the real underlying reason is that you don’t want to let go of controlling everything because you think nobody can do it better than you can. I know, because I’ve struggled with that same issue.

Why not keep track of all the tasks you do in a week from the administrative to the creative and all the different things in between. Then ask yourself, “Of those tasks I’ve just done, which ones were fun for me to do versus which ones were complete drudgery?” In addition to that, “Which ones are revenue generating?”

Ideally you want to focus on activities that are fun for you and generate revenue. Everything else you should delegate. That frees up time for you to do the things that serve your personal and professional growth. That’s really key.

Imagine if could find a virtual assistant to delegate just five hours a month. It could be a mom who wants to work from home or even a college student. Someone who could take over five hours a month of some extra activities that doesn’t serve you and are adding to your stress load.

Ideally, you’ll find if you’re being smart and doing something productive with that time (not using the five hours for getting a manicure), your business will grow much more rapidly. Then you may discover you can ramp up to 10 hours or more. Now you’re clearly focusing your efforts on things that generate money and feed your energy.

Maybe the kind of assistant you need is someone to run errands. You might ask your babysitter or housekeeper, “Could I hire you for two or three extra hours a week to run to the dry cleaner, Costco, the post office, etc?” That would free up a lot of your time.

Delegating, if it’s done correctly, is one of the best ways to handle entrepreneur’s stress and give yourself more time, energy and money. Check out my free report – Outsourcing Effectively So You Can Get More Done for some more great tips that will help entrepreneurs optimize time and money.

Kim DeYoung is the original Metromom—a motivated mom entrepreneur committed to her family, her career and achieving success on her own terms. Also known as the “Get It Done Girl”, Kim is the dynamic and creative force behind Metromom.com, the “get it done” resource for the busy mom entrepreneur, providing solutions on marketing, money, mindset and motherhood.