In previous posts, I’ve touched on the importance of involving others in your business wherever possible, especially in the early stages when you’re trying to turn your core skills into a profitable business.

Before working with me, my clients tend to try doing everything themselves, and that often presents them with challenges.

They find that they can’t do it all, and they can’t be everything to everyone, but struggle to remove themselves from that cycle.

Having been an entrepreneur for more than 20 years, and running businesses in seven different industries, I’ve found myself in similar situations.

In this article I’ll look at why delegation is so important for early-stage entrepreneurs, by highlighting a couple of the things I learned from one extension project.

Awareness is key to start with:

Before delegating anything in your business, you need to be aware of your strengths and weaknesses first.

Once you’ve worked out what you’re amazing at, and what you don’t enjoy doing or aren’t great at, you can look to plug those gaps. But you need to do that initial groundwork first.

If we think back to the loft conversion quote I mentioned in a previous piece, I was just trying to sell to the customer. I didn’t have the answers to a few of his questions.

Looking back, if I’d been honest and involved others, that would have been ok. But I wasn’t self-aware back then. If I’d done that groundwork, I would have had the option to either bring in the contact who did the loft conversions, or I could have brought someone into my team who could deal with the more technical questions.

A business built on delegation:

Ironically, my construction business was actually built on delegation. Which probably makes it even more frustrating that the loft conversion quote played out the way it did.

The business was originally built on the foundations I’d put in place when I’d project managed the construction work on my own flat.

The group I’d assembled and worked with on that project then asked me to manage future projects for them.

Fast forward a few months and we’d been asked to build an extension for a couple that were expecting a baby. We’d also agreed to a 6-week deadline for the project, for what should have been a 10-week build, because the couple needed it all ready before the baby arrived.

Operation delegation:

To add to the challenges we faced, I had an operation booked for the final phase of the project too.

I had worked with the team before though, so I trusted them to deliver for the customer, and that meant that I was able to take the time off that I needed for the operation.

Are you a ‘hands-off’ type of person?

Even though I was able to delegate the work on that specific project, I still ended up going on site while I was on the way home from the operation.

They were on a short deadline because we wanted to deliver for the customer, and I wanted to support them in any way I could. 

Popping to the site for half an hour also allowed me to feel certain that the project was under control and on time too.

I’m not a ‘hands-off’ type of person, so for me, delegating doesn’t mean I can focus on something totally different, but it might be different for you.

Either way, the ability to delegate in your business gives you that option, so you don’t have to be the one carrying out every task.

You can’t do everything:

A big lesson that I’d say I’ve learned over the years is that I can’t do everything myself. I’ve just had to accept that.

I want to master every part of the business, but I’ve learned that I only need a broad understanding of each thing, before I decide which parts to focus more of my time on.

It’s the same for the clients I work with. For example, with early-stage business owners in construction, they’ve usually got an understanding of each of the tasks within their projects.

One of the things I normally find, is that they need to identify what tasks they can do themselves, and what they can delegate to others. I often find myself helping them to take that step back.

I’ve learned a lot during my 20 years in business. A lot of the learnings hit me in my pocket financially, but more importantly, all the stress definitely combined together to cause my breakdown.

I often look back now and think “if only I’d had someone to support me. Someone to learn from.”

That’s why I now work with entrepreneurs who are, in many ways, similar to me in the early days. 

And that’s why I’m on a mission to help early-stage entrepreneurs, particularly in construction, avoid the mistakes I’ve made, and turn their trade into a business. 

If you’d like to find out how I could help you, please click here to book a discovery call.