So business is good! You’re busy, and you need some help. Well, what kind of help? Ohh, all kinds of help... Front office, back office or factory or what-have-you, marketing, sales, record keeping and etc. You just can’t do all of the above anymore. You need an assistant; someone who can who can pick up the slack and give you some breathing room. You want a “mini me.” Just one person, maybe not even full time. It’s not like you’ll really have to manage a whole staff of people or anything. It won’t be that expensive and with a mini me you’ll be able to concentrate on the important things.
Please do yourself a favor and DO NOT DO THIS! Instead, take the time to sort out what is overwhelming you and where exactly you need help. Here’s how:
- Make a list of everything that must get done in a day, or a week, and then put all of those activities into a few functional buckets. Don’t over-complicate it, just group like things together.
- Cross out all the things that only you can do. Be honest here, this isn’t about your ego.
- Underline the things that someone else could do but that you enjoy doing or are trained to do and do well. Don’t restrict yourself to items that a low-level administrative support person can do, include everything that does not require YOUR talents.
- Put a check mark next to the things that someone else can do and that you do not like to do or aren’t good at.
- Revisit the things you underlined in step 3. Do any of those go hand in hand with things you checked in step 4? If so, consider checking them as well.
- Divide the check-marked activities into functional buckets.
Now you can see where exactly you need some help, and you can begin to see who you need to hire. Maybe a book keeper 5 hours a week, a social media consultant whom you pay a flat fee per month, and a sales person who works on commission would be the best combination. Or maybe a part-time office manager and a part-time order fulfillment person would be the dream combo for you.
Most likely, what you do not need is a MINI ME! If you are struggling with too many things to do, then simply handing the overflow over to an underling who is not you, with your experience, passion and skills, is just setting that poor slob up to fail. Why would you do that?