13 Tasks Busy Entrepreneurs Should Delegate
Close your eyes and picture this: you’re on a beach somewhere far away from your phone, your computer, and your calendar. You’re completely relaxed, some tropically-flavored drink in your hand, and your only plan today is to follow your whims and maybe go on an adventure or two. You’re on vacation, and it’s exactly the break you need.
Now picture this, the best and potentially most surprising part of this fantasy: back home, your business hasn’t come to a grinding halt. In fact, everything is humming along smoothly without you. You won’t come home to 500 urgent emails, your voicemail is still being monitored, your clients aren’t in panic mode due to your absence. Tropical drink and ocean sounds aside, this is the reality that’s actually allowing you to relax. How did you accomplish this?
The Case for Delegation
Busy entrepreneurs and business founders are good at giving it their all. But sometimes this means they’re actually stunting their own growth because while they’re doing it all, they’re failing to delegate.
“If you really want to grow as an entrepreneur, you’ve got to learn to delegate.”
— Richard Branson
For many leaders, delegation isn’t a natural skill. It’s one that has to be developed over time and, like any skill, gets better with practice. You may not reach the worry-free beach vacation overnight, but you can start somewhere. We’ve put together this general list of 13 things you can (and should) delegate to get you started.
Related: Mastering the Art of Delegation (video)
Delegate Administrative and Marketing Tasks
When you break a task down into its components, you’ll find that around 80% of the work is administrative. You shouldn’t be doing the administrative work of keeping your business running. This work is much better handled by an assistant.
1. Social media management
- Posting to your social media platforms with optimized images and curated, on-brand content
- Replying to comments
- Engagement and follower-building
- Social listening and monitoring to keep track of your online reputation
2. Website management
- Website copy edits and changes to your bio
- Landing page publication and design
- Posting videos, webinars, and new content
- Project managing technical issues with web host
- Managing domain hosting, payments, and updates
3. Podcasts and YouTube
- Edit and finalize recordings
- Upload episodes
- Add show notes
- Transcribe for blog posts and SEO
4. Blogging and Writing
- Ghostwrite content with your direction from recordings, conversations, or notes
- Format and optimize content with best practices for SEO and web writing
5. Customer Relationship Management
- Send thank you notes and follow-ups to stay in contact with leads and customers
- Manage your CRM
- Set up strategic touch-points and meetings for important relationships
6. Workflow Management and Organization
- Develop and adhere to optimized workflows and organizational practices
- Clean up messy shared drives, project management software, and team inboxes
- Researching and implementing new software as needed to improve internal processes
Delegate Your Schedule
Managing your own schedule can lead to missed opportunities and wasted time. Delegate inbox management, scheduling, travel arrangements, and more to get the most out of your day.
7. Inbox Management
- Serve as gatekeeper for all incoming messages and prioritize for review
- Clean up flooded inboxes by unsubscribing and filing emails
- Quickly receive and communicate important messages for fast follow-up
- Send daily communication summaries
- Delegate incoming requests and tasks to other team members as necessary
8. Calendar Management
- Maintain daily schedule
- Manage meetings, tasks, and travel itineraries
- Send regular calendar summaries and daily schedules
9. Scheduling One-on-Ones
- Assist in team management and networking by scheduling lunches, dinners, meetings, and one-on-ones
10. Travel Arrangements
- Book accommodations, flights, and rental cars
- Manage expenses, receipts, and reimbursements
Delegate Project Management
As you’re well aware, project management is a time-consuming job—but someone has to do it. Have a virtual assistant keep your team on track.
11. Project Timelines and Follow-ups
- Project manage large-scale jobs such as website builds, book releases, and speaking tours
- Keep project on schedule
- Record meeting notes, set action items, and follow up to ensure completion
12. Communication
- Facilitate communication between team members
- Schedule and manage strategic meetings
13. Project Software Management
- Update and manage project management software such as BaseCamp, TeamWork, Trello, or Asana
- Organize tasks, notifications, and information in a logical manner
That Vacation is One Virtual Assistant Away
Delegation starts with identifying one repeatable task you can offload to a virtual assistant. From there, you can learn to be a master delegator! Are you ready to get things off your plate and improve your business?
We’re ready when you are.
