The other day I found myself researching a security threat that impacted most business websites across the country. I was trying to find out if my business’ website was impacted and an appropriate course of action. After spending too long, I realized this was not how I should spend my morning. Instead, I reached out to my website team and asked them about the situation, and they responded within the hour with the specifics and the plan.
Am I fully capable of researching cyber threats and identifying the necessary steps to protect my business and website? Yes, I am. And so are you. That is how we have all built our business. You handled the client’s work, the billing, the hiring, and the technology, and you did it well. But being capable of doing something and being the right person to do it are two very different questions.
Payroll is another good example. You are capable of running payroll for your company. However, in unique situations like a leave or a needed correction, your capabilities do not justify you doing the work. When the nuances need to be explored and understood, you spend two hours reading multiple articles and then get an answer. In hindsight, your bookkeeper could have likely resolved the question in two minutes.
Was it worth your time to dig and research and become super knowledgeable about how to administer a leave in your payroll system? Is this knowledge that is going to advance your business? Probably not (unless you are a payroll company). So why not ask the experts to take on payroll and free up your brain space and time to focus on something that will advance your business.
When you leverage outside help (even if it is internal to your team), it is not you failing or being incapable. It is you recognizing that you have limited time and brain space, and you need to focus on the list of activities that will truly move your business forward.
As the owner of a growing business, your capacity to take on all the operational tasks is increasingly limited. You need to find resources, either in-house or external, that can support your operational functions. This is not about not being capable of doing the work. It is recognizing that your time, energy, and brain space are finite and every hour spent on tasks someone else can do faster or better is an hour taken from the work only you can do.
The next time you are two hours into a task and wondering why it is taking so long, pause and ask if you are the right person for the task. Often the most valuable thing you can do for your business is hand it to someone who can finish it in two minutes.