3 Tips for Delegating When You're a Mom Boss
Kudos to the working mom! We balance it all between our careers, education, and taking care of a family. Whether you’re doing it alone or not, juggling everything can be challenging. As a mom boss myself, delegation is my secret weapon for getting things done.
Easier said than done when you’re a perfectionist like me. It’s been a learning curve, but one I’m glad I took the time to master. I truly can’t do it all without leaning on the help of others. Here are my top three tips for delegating when you’re a mom boss:
Choose Teachable Tasks to Delegate
I love control. I need control. This is my business, after all, and I like having things done a certain way. That’s one reason why I was so terrible at delegating at first.
When delegating tasks, I had to start thinking about the outcome, not just the process. Ultimately, what mattered to me was getting a certain result. So I started choosing tasks that were easy to train others to do (or didn’t require any training at all!).
For example, keyword research is an important part of my business. So I leaned on one of my team members to do that for me. That freed up my time, especially since I usually fall down a few rabbit holes when doing keyword research.
Some other tasks I now delegate include:
Topic ideation
Proofreading
Research
It’s all about choosing the right tasks to delegate. I don’t want to babysit the tasks I outsource. That just creates more work for me. And at that point, delegation isn’t worth it.
The easier delegation is for me, the more valuable it becomes.
Organize with Processes (But Not Too Many Processes)
If I don’t plan out my schedule in advance, I feel overwhelmed with too many different tasks at once. I live by my daily planner, which includes time slots for each activity.
The only downside is that my daily planner is all manual work. Yes, I still use paper and pen. It’s faster than trying to type entries into a digital calendar and easier to make changes to my schedule.
But I’m not completely old-fashioned, either. My small tech stack helps me create processes that keep me and my team focused, but without feeling overwhelmed by too many tools.
I use the following tools to help me delegate and do more in less time:
Asana for assigning tasks to my team and moving each task through a simple pipeline
Bitrix24 CRM for adding new clients, details, conversations, and other information
Google Docs for easy collaboration with my team
That’s about it, besides email. Processes ensure that everything is done a certain way, regardless of who is doing it. I don’t have to spend time chasing docs or following up via endless email threads.
But the real key in making processes work for you is to not have too many of them. When you have too many tools and processes, they become just as burdensome as the chores you wanted them to solve.
Invest in Training
As a perfectionist, I know the feeling of needing to do everything yourself. But delegation is so freeing – especially if you have a good team that gives you peace of mind when sharing tasks.
One way I built a team I trust is by investing in training. It’s a small, one-time investment that pays off in spades.
For example, I created a video that shows how I use Asana. I share this video with all my new team members. It takes 1-2 minutes to watch, and then they’re good to go.
It took me a couple of minutes to create the video, but it saves me time with every person I collaborate with. I don’t have to spend time trying to nail down a time to train them one-on-one. I don’t have an onslaught of questions because the video is pretty self-explanatory.
I also create templates for certain tasks or processes. These templates give structure to those tasks, and also help to remove most of the questions and guesswork.
Plus, the better you can make your training materials, the more your team will appreciate it. They’ll stick around longer when they feel set up for success.
Put These Delegation Tips to Work, Mama!
I love being a mom and a solopreneur. Delegating has allowed me to better at both of those roles. I love having more time in my day to grow my business, or just spend time with my family.
Learning how to delegate effectively takes some practice. But I promise it gets easier. Don’t ever feel like you have to do it all; the way toward the top is through delegation.
Check out the Fleurish Freelance blog for more business inspiration!