By Becky Regan
You & I both have witnessed firsthand “the good, the bad & the ugly” in the workplace. As a front-line HR professional, I learned that I did not ever want to hire my own employees due to what I saw in the workplace. A couple of valid reasons quickly come to mind for NOT being an employer:
- You’d have to pay your employees salary, taxes & benefits
- You’d have to generate enough work on a continual basis to keep them employed
- Paperwork, paperwork including new hire, payroll/timekeeping records, job description,
- etc.
- You will never have to fire another employee!
So what’s a small business owner to do?
Rule #1: Learn to let go of doing everything by yourself and how to delegate work to others. I know, it’s not easy to do; certainly I’m still working on it. But let’s evaluate the financial and logistical reasons to learn why delegating truly makes sense.
For example, say that in your first year’s business plan, you want to gross $100,000. Divide that amount by 2080 work hours per year (based upon a 40 hour workweek) which is approximately $50/hour. Then you have to almost double that amount to compensation for taxes and business expenses, so your hourly rate has escalated to $100/hour.
Do you think that entering business cards into your marketing database, doing bookkeeping and other similar job duties can be done by someone else for less than $100/hour? Sure, they can and certainly the work can be done for less than that hourly rate. As solopreneurs, we simply cannot be all things to all people at all times. It’s just not physically possible……
This mindset requires a HUGE mental shift that you have to make first in order to make this change in operating your business. The mental aspect of letting go and deciding to build your team to handle professional, administrative and/or technical work is probably more difficult for most small business owners than the actual hiring and training of your team.
Remember that in my last article I wrote that marketing is the most essential skill you’ll need to build your consulting practice? And that marketing (quite simply) is the act of building relationships with potential clients through different mediums over time? Your role as the business owner & CEO of your company is to use your intellectual capital to develop products and services to grow your business thereby increasing your revenue.
You can’t create new products and services if you’re spending your precious work hours learning how to switch your website and email to a new server. Focus on what you know best and leverage that knowledge into products and services that you can sell to your client list. That’s how you will increase your income and come to enjoy a better work/life balance in the long run!!
Rule #2: Assemble your team. As a HR professional, you already know how to hire good people. There are tons of professionals actively seeking contract work through websites like craigslist and elance.com every day. Don’t forget to ask other small business owners for referrals. I recently hired a copywriter on elance.com and she’s terrific! She lives in Ohio so we communicate via email and on the phone when necessary. And it works beautifully! Start slowly by identifying the job functions you don’t like to do, don’t want to do anymore, or aren’t allowing you to focus on product/service development. Make a list, prioritize what to delegate first, and then take action. Here’s my list of independent contractors who now work with my firm:
- HR & Compensation Consultants (for larger scales projects)
- Webmaster/Designer
- IT/Web Tools Tech Support (E-mail, website server, etc.)
- Virtual Assistant
- Accountant
- Copywriter
- Graphic Designer
As my firm grows, my list will surely grow. Becky’s Bottom Line: I guarantee that you’ll feel a weight lifted from your shoulders once you recruit & train your team!
Copyright 2010 Regan HR, Inc.
Becky Regan, M.A., CCP began her own consulting practice in 1995, Regan HR, Inc. to provide human resources consulting services to businesses in California. Her work as a consultant includes the full spectrum of HR technical expertise with an expertise in compensation studies. In addition to consulting with clients, in 2008 Becky expanded her practice to include online marketing of her custom HR products and established coaching programs for developing HR professionals. For more HR tips and to receive her FRE*E special report, visit http://www.ReganHR.com