As an entrepreneur, the journey from starting a business to seeing it grow can be exhilarating. However, with growth comes increased complexity and an overwhelming workload. In the early stages, you take on the responsibility of ensuring every aspect of your business is managed efficiently. Yet, as your startup expands, holding onto every task ultimately hinders progress. In this article, we explore the concept of delegating and elevating —a powerful strategy that will allow you to let go of tasks you don’t enjoy and aren’t good at and focus on what you love and are great at. We’ll dive into the Delegate & Elevate exercise, a framework designed to help entrepreneurs identify areas in their business that can be delegated for better efficiency and growth.
The Entrepreneurial Dilemma: Holding onto Everything
The Initial Responsibility
When you started on your entrepreneurial journey, you probably found yourself wearing multiple hats. The initial responsibility is all-encompassing, from managing operations and handling customer service to dealing with financial matters. In the early stages, this hands-on approach is necessary for survival and growth.
The Growth Conundrum
However, as the business evolves, so does its complexity. Entrepreneurs may find themselves trapped in a cycle of trying to manage everything, hindering the potential for expansion. The realization dawns: growth is stunted when control is clung to too tightly.
Delegate & Elevate: A Strategic Exercise
Step 1: Compile a Comprehensive List
To break free from this cycle, you must first be aware of everything that you are doing each day to support your business. To get started, spend seven days compiling a detailed list of everything you do in a typical week. Brutal honesty is essential—no task is too insignificant for the list.
Step 2: Categorize Your Activities
Once the list is compiled, categorize each item into four distinct categories:
Tasks you don’t like to do and aren’t good at.
Delegate these tasks as soon as possible. Freeing yourself from activities that drain your energy and hinder your efficiency is crucial.
Tasks you don’t like doing but are good at.
This is a common trap for entrepreneurs. Despite proficiency, these tasks still consume valuable time and can be delegated to enable a more strategic focus.
Tasks you like doing and are good at.
While enjoyable, spending too much time here can still limit your potential. These tasks, too, should be considered for delegation if they do not align with your true strengths.
Tasks you like doing and are GREAT at.
This is the sweet spot. Identify activities where your passion aligns with your proficiency. These are the tasks that deserve the majority of your time and attention.
Step 3: Delegate to Liberate
The crux of the exercise lies in the delegation process. Even though it can be a challenge in the early stages to let go of things, whether it’s because you want to maintain a sense of control or to preserve cash resources, starting with your “Don’t Like” categories will give you a sense of liberation and fuel your energy where it can make a more meaningful impact. The goal is to focus on activities you not only enjoy but excel at—the tasks that drive the most value for your business.
Accounting: A Common Challenge
For many entrepreneurs, accounting falls into the “Don’t Like” and “Not Good At” categories. Despite its critical role in business, it’s often one of the last tasks that entrepreneurs let go of. So often entrepreneurs find themselves pushing off accounting work until it becomes a critical need – you need a loan from the bank, you have investors asking for projections, or its tax time – and then you spend your nights, evenings, and weekends scrambling to get caught up. All the while probably hating your life and wishing you were doing anything but accounting.
And in the meantime, while you are pushing off your accounting week in and week out, you have no idea how your business is performing, or what financial levers you need to push and pull to get what you want from your business.
Resolve Works: Elevating Your Role
The good news is that there are solutions. By finding the right accounting partner, you can not only free yourself from accounting, but lean on it to give you valuable insight into your operations and provide peace of mind over your business’s financial health. With the right partner, accounting is something they love and are great at, and they are elevated to their true skill to support your success.
At Resolve Works, we specialize in working with Seed through Series A startups. This means we understand all the crazy obligations and moving targets you are trying to manage every day. We work with you to identify the right level of accounting support for your startup, taking things like payroll, bookkeeping, financial reporting, and investor forecasting off your plate. Our goal is to help entrepreneurs elevate their roles, let go of what they don’t like, and let them step into their true CEO selves.
Taking the Leap: Set Up a Call
For entrepreneurs ready to unlock their full potential, Resolve Works can be the pivotal step towards shedding the burden of accounting tasks and focusing on what truly matters for business growth.
Embrace Growth Through Delegation and Elevation
In the dynamic world of entrepreneurship, growth is not just about expansion—it’s about strategic evolution. The Delegate & Elevate exercise offers a roadmap for entrepreneurs to navigate the complexities of growth. By letting go of tasks they don’t like and aren’t proficient in, and focusing on what they love and excel at, entrepreneurs can propel their businesses to new heights.
Accounting, often a daunting challenge for many, is a prime example of how delegation to specialists like Resolve Works can lead to a transformative shift in focus. The path to true CEO leadership begins with recognizing the power of delegation and embracing the potential for elevation. It’s time to let go and grow.
