Delegating Work Out

The main four areas in running a successful business are financial/accounting, sales/marketing, personnel skill development, and customer service. Most small businesses are on a tight budget and therefore have difficulty contracting work out. You can overcome this difficulty with effective planning and decision making on where and how to spend your money. Use your talents, skills, and abilities to their fullest and delegate out those areas in which you are not as efficient or have the time or desire to do.

You want to be cautious on how much to spend, yet not to penny pinch by selecting those who are the cheapest. Sometimes selecting the cheapest can be the most expensive if you end up paying for their costly mistakes and limited amount of expertise spent in that area. Prioritize the parts of your business you can cut costs on and negotiate the other parts with the various parties you have chosen to do business with. By doing this, you are able to use your time wisely and are able to focus your time on your talents, skills, and abilities as you make your business more profitable. Listed below is important information on the steps to take when delegating work out.

Credibility Background Check:
When you are planning to assign work out, it is important to do a background credibility check on those people you plan to contract work to. One way to do this is with their customers from various industries and size of businesses. If possible, select at least 3 long term and short term customers, so that you are able to get a more accurate account on the business's credibility. Make sure the people you are researching to contract work out to have a reputation for honesty, efficiency, and valued services/products. A credibility background check can be time consuming yet in the long run you will avoid frustrations and costly misjudgments. When you call these customers, let them know who you are and the purpose of your call.

The first thing you want to check on is the potential contractor's character.
Does this person have integrity and honesty? Does he/she walk their talk or do they say one thing and do another? Does this person lie using ‘sweet talk' to cover up the way they'll actually handle toe job at hand? Does this individual do their job effectively, or does he/she make lots of mistakes?

If the answers to these questions are swaying towards dishonestly and/or inefficiency, you don't want to do business with him/her. You don't have to play the victim game allowing these people to take advantage of you and your business. You will avoid the possibilities of you being misled by con artists who use techniques, such as flattery, over promising, and enticing with premiums, discounts, or cost reductions. You will also have peace of mind when it comes to hiring them. Dishonesty and little integrity are red flags on doing business with this person.

The next area to check on is the business's stability.
Stability and longevity is important in your selection process. Is this business registered to do business in the state where the work will be performed? How long has the business been around? Is the business run by the original owner, or have there been numerous owners? If the business had many owners or a high turnaround of employees, it can be a red flag on the stability of the company.

The last area is the owner's work ethics.
How efficient is he/she in getting the work done? Does he/she meet their deadlines or come up with excuses on why they have not been met? These excuses again can be extremely costly when you have to turn around and reschedule things. I schedule things a week after the anticipated deadline to avoid unexpected occurrences that cause delays. Does this person listen to your decisions on what you want? Is he/she listening to your products/services needs, or selling you unnecessary items?

As you collect your information and weigh it to make your final decision, it is important to trust your intuition. I believe your intuition is your best guidance. At times I may not have understood why I chose to do something, yet later on I find out and I am relieved that I didn't talk myself out of my decision.

Type an Agreement:
I believe it is important to know what is expected from both parties when negotiating a business decision. A written agreement can also be used to resolve legal disagreements. I have seen business owners get involved with other businesses using word of mouth alone. Some were fortunate enough to get what they asked for, while others got work they were not satisfied with and some have even gotten ripped off. The ones who were badly burned have no hard factual proof to compensate for the damage. Some end up becoming very bitter and mistrusting in their decision making, resulting in them doing more of the work on their own. Some get so misled, that they end up going out of business.

Before you type up the agreement, you both want to list the specifics of what is required. For example, you want to list the actual work that is going to be done, and how it will be done. When you do this you are able to get clarity on what you as the customer wants and give the person doing the work clarity as to how you want it. The clearer you are on what you want from the person doing the work, the more satisfied you will be with the results. If you rely too heavily on their choices and decisions, you may end up dissatisfied and blame them and the efficiency of their work. Discuss the length of time it will take for the work to be done. Allow for set backs: human errors, bad weather, machine breakdowns, etc. Talk about putting together a log of some sort discussing how the cost of their work is calculated. Finally, what type of follow up is necessary for you to know that the work is being done effectively and timely? Don't turn all your the faith and trust to this person without doing some follow-up to see how things are going. You may end up regretting it, if the work was completed and it didn't turn out the way you wanted it. You could have avoided wasting time as you waited for it to be corrected if you checked the work out during interim periods.

When you follow up with the person, it is important to have a balanced approach. You don't want to be too rigid or too lenient with them. Either will not get effective results, rather possible purposeful delays and errors. I use the humanitarian approach; sincere complimenting and asserting myself with compassion on areas that seem unjust or out of whack works best for me. People are human and they will make mistakes, yet if the mistakes are costing you money, you want to let the contractor know that you want to be compensated. I have seen businesses allow the people they delegate their work to take advantage of them when they make mistakes and condone them. They end up paying for these mistakes both financially and personally.