Some lessons learned on how delegating enables growth, shared by a solo founder who is now scaling his business with contractors.
Delegating Enables Growth: A Solo Founder’s Experience
A founder in one of our Mastermind groups, I will call him Ted, had run his business as a solo enterprise for many years. Starting about two years ago, he started to take on part-time and later full-time contractors to expand his SaaS business. Here are some key lessons learned as he navigated the challenges of defining and delegating tasks to others. Ted’s experience transitioning from a solo founder to a team leader involves several surprising insights, particularly in learning how to delegate effectively.
- Delegating Routine Tasks: Ted has found that he can delegate mid-level and clerical tasks, such as responding to frequently asked questions. This involves creating scripts or guidelines that enable other team members to handle common customer issues independently. This step not only frees up his time but also helps build foundational trust in his team’s capabilities to manage day-to-day operations without his direct involvement.
- Consulting with Experts: For more complex issues, Ted has learned to engage outside experts. He is leveraging specialized knowledge beyond his expertise by consulting with attorneys on user policies and collaborating with developers on advanced features. This approach not only enhances the quality of his business offerings but also introduces him to new perspectives and solutions that he might not have considered on his own.
- Overcoming the Fear of Delegation: Initially, Ted’s reluctance to delegate stemmed from a fear that others might not treat the business with the same care and dedication as he does. This is a common concern among solo founders who are often deeply invested in their ventures. He took small steps and defined review points to gain confidence in the contractor’s abilities and reliability.
- Defining Tasks and Completion Criteria: Ted realized he had to get task descriptions out of his head or translate checklists that only he could understand so that someone else could take them on. This required iteration and two-way feedback on what was involved in handling and completing a task.
- Work Side by Side or on a Shared Screen: Ted complemented written descriptions of tasks and descriptions with sessions where he worked side by side or used a shared screen to review the details and answer questions. These synchronous sessions allowed him to debug his task definitions: a contractor would follow the written process exactly, and Ted would realize he had left a step out or described it incorrectly.
- Don’t Let your Familiarity with a Task Make You Impatient. He quickly realized that it was better to take things one step at a time. He was initially tempted to delegate too much at once when starting at half-speed was much more effective. This avoided overload situations where he had tried to transfer too much knowledge at once and caused confusion.
Building Trust Over Time: Ted started by delegating small, short-term tasks and gradually increasing the contractor’s scope of responsibility as they met his expectations. It’s been a cycle of assigning tasks, observing how they are handled, and adjusting his approach based on the outcomes. These iterations have helped him assess the strengths and reliability of his team members and set appropriate performance standards. He has sometimes realized that he needs to let someone go.- Realizing the Benefits of Delegation: One of the most surprising elements for Ted has been realizing how much leverage and efficiency he gains by effectively delegating. It allows him to focus on growth, strategic planning, and other high-value activities that can significantly enhance his business’s potential.
- Peace of Mind. Adding help for administrative tasks reduced his stress, especially on days he might have been significantly overloaded with both routine work and a sudden emergency. It increased his monthly spending, but on balance, he was happy to make the trade. It also allowed him to take blocks of time off during the day and even days off, which, over time, led to more creative insights.
- Don’t Wait Until The Situation Become Unworkable. Ted had contemplated delegating for a while, but the catalyst for the first outsourcing was breaking his shoulder. The injury limited him to typing with one hand for very short periods of time. He didn’t recommend waiting this long and, in hindsight, wished he had started delegating much sooner.
Ted’s journey highlights the importance of transitioning from a do-it-all mindset to one that strategically utilizes the strengths and expertise of others. This shift has enabled him to focus on crucial tasks that only he can perform and has allowed him to grow his business with a more scalable, sustainable operating model.
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Image Credits: Suntron Vic Viper Speeder and Happy Camper by Pascal public domain
This blog post was later published on LinkedIn as https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/delegating-enables-growth-solo-founders-experience-sean-murphy-iwlqc