Learning how to automate and delegate is crucial in achieving work-life balance
“Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.”
For some people, balancing work and personal life is really a challenge. But what is the reason why work/life balance seems elusive? Is it really possible to achieve? What is that one thing you can do now to achieve it? Watch our video and get the answers to these questions.
For Drew Deraney, looking for a strategic partner in a team and seeing which one could kick off the assistance to a business owner is a good way to start. Ideally, they would start out with a business coach who could try to align what specific activities they're doing. Chris Lipper of Get On The Bus would be the person to kick it off and ask open-ended questions as to what the goals are for that business.
One scenario of this example is when Chris's client needs help because he is busy and his revenue is booming but he can't get out of his own way because he's really involved in the business. He would ask Drew to hop on a call with this business owner and do a discovery call to find out how he can help and know what areas his company should be working on but shouldn't be the one to do it.
Questions that can help decide which tasks can be delegated to others:
- What kind of activities the owner is actually performing?
- Are those activities leading to the goal?
- What can he or she do to potentially outsource those activities that are not helping him in the business?
Drew would make that call and establish which ones he can help them on which are based on eight different cost categories depending on which ones they are. Once Drew learns about the process, he would actually take that role away from them and work behind the scenes. Whoever was allotted for that activity can now be alleviated from that and move over to whatever they do best. If the owner is the one who looks at the invoices, the line items and calls the vendors, Drew would do all that for them and take that off their plate.
This means the business owner can:
- Reduce the expenses
- Increase his/her profit more
- Have more time to work on other parts of his or her job/business
- Save money to put towards his business to improve some operations
- Have security and peace of mind
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Benefits of Outsourcing
According to Ivancho, the most difficult thing when outsourcing is for clients to develop trust in the company that they're outsourcing to. Their approach is to always start small to allow the other company to see in what way that this would really help them. It can reduce the stress on the boss and on everybody in their company. Especially in the past two years with Covid and everybody has to trust their employees even though they're not right in front of their eyes all the time. A lot of people are in those kinds of situations where they can hardly trust their own employees in their own office and it creates a stressful situation. As a result, they try to do everything themselves.
Building trust with somebody and finding the right people that can do the job for you is the best option and of course, it will allow you to save money and save your time and give you more free time which is even more precious than money.
From his perspective as an accountant, Dennis Harabin of Relax Tax is always looking at how business owners can optimize their income. What good is it that you're making money but you're killing yourself in the process? One tip from him is: to make things simpler and use automation. He recommends Paul to talk a little bit about not just taking a website or not just having it as a feed but to actually kick off automation.
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Business Process Automation
There are things that you can do to automate the process and for Paul Taubman of Digital Maestro you can set one thing off and then it continues down the line taking care of the things that would take up so much time if you do it yourself. Two things that can help people realize is actually looking at the individual and asking them, ”Why are you such a control freak? And why don't you trust the employees that you've hired?”
For Paul, people just don't want to let go because it's either a trust issue or maybe they don't know how to delegate. Maybe they've been burned in the past and they thought delegation means assigning something to somebody and think it's going to get done the right way. Delegation is something that really is a skill that people need to practice and work at and know how to follow up and then give feedback when it's not the way he or she wanted. One of the benefits of delegating to somebody is finding out that their way was actually a better way. If somebody in the team knows about automation, give them a test to do something that they can automate. Now, the boss is freed up, and then the employee is freed up because the task is now on autopilot.
The Pareto Principle
Lance Dunn talked about the Pareto Principle or the 80/20 rule. It's a rule that basically says that 80% of the output comes from 20 percent of the input. Usually, 80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your employees. 80% of your production comes from 20% of your employees. It even applies to sports like twenty percent of the sports figures produce eighty percent of the scoring. If you can figure out what is contributing to the eighty percent, then you can focus on the twenty percent of your clients or referrers. Like 20% of your clients may be referring to you 80% of your business. Focus on that 20% and you might find that the people who are in the 80% that aren't producing anything, you might be able to just cut them away and focus all of your efforts where your 20% needs to be.
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Mental Health and Wellness
According to Rachele DeCrescenzo, when all the business side of things are taken care of, it’s really important to get back to the individual to see if they've been stressed and overworked for a very long time or their health and wellness is very poor. When things start to get in line with their business and they have some more time freed up, that's when Rachele, Tracy, and Lisa could come into play and really work on getting their health and wellness back in order.
Tracy, as a Functional Nutrition and Lifestyle Coach, could probably even help in why they are afraid of delegating or why they think they have to do everything. Tracy could work with them on the mental health side of things. Lisa would come in with some of the wellness and health. It’s a combination of looking at the body and the mind and putting it all together. So when they're finally freed up and have some more time because the business is running better, looking at the individual and their health and wellness would be very important.
Rest and Relaxation
George Pizzo points out another facet of health and wellness that goes along with what Rachele just said. The person, whether they're a control freak or not, they don't understand the value of relaxation, they're just driven. It's that person who'll take a vacation sick next year. I can't do it this year and then all of a sudden life has passed you by and you missed out on the upbringing of your children and all that. That’s a whole aspect of it, which is health, and getting the person to realize that family and relaxation are just as important as controlling your employees is a big part of it in many cases. Get them to understand how to delegate and document the process and not be a control freak.
Work Burnout
Both rest and relaxation can't wait because it will result in burnout to the person who is running the business day-to-day and Lisa Dvorin of Vfinity suggests that people do need to have five to ten minutes a day at a minimum to pay attention to their health.
Free Your Mind
Freeing up that backspace in your mind when you're worrying about things can really take a stressor and distract you from everything else. Jake Meola would recommend LegalShield and IDShield that will do the work for you on the back end. You're protected so you don’t have to worry about if an employee opens a weird email or worry about if your client trips when they walk in the building and decides to sue you. It’s delegated to somebody else who is affordable so you can be comfortable and that you have this whole support system around them. Anyone can free some space in their brain to actually focus on the business itself and not the what-ifs of what could happen on a day-to-day basis.
Personal Time
While others think having time for yourself doesn’t mean much, Anthony Guzman believes having personal time is an important balance for personal development and for your business.
Accountability Group
Being an entrepreneur has some very unique blessings and challenges to it and for Tracy Spiaggia, it just serves a person really well if they could at least be part of a group like Relax Teams because being part of a group like this helps create a higher sense of awareness to your overall well-being and how that translates into your business can be a very helpful conversation.
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Recommended Readings:
- Retain MORE of What You Earn So You Can Pursue Your Passion
- Achieve Your Long-Term Goals with Candido Rodriguez
- Increase Your Profit By Reducing Your Expenses
- Build Your Website with Paul Taubman
- Showcase Your Business with Chris Lipper