How To Delegate Guide Deciding What Tasks To Delegate To Your 123Employee Agent This guide is NOT written exclusively for outsourcing to 123Employee. You can use this guide to help you create a delegation blueprint for your business(es), projects, income streams, etc. Note: 123Employee Agents can help you with a variety of tasks; however, they are NOT consultants or specialists. We say this because some people hire a $6 overseas agent and what they really need is a consultant or specialist. Your 123Employee CAN NOT create your marketing plan for you. Give them your marketing plan and they will be happy to implement it for you. To see what your 123Employee Agents can do, please refer to the: 123Employee Service Guide 123Employee Outsourcing ROI Guide Other Guides you can refer to: o Infusionsoft, Real Estate Guide Note: The terms Agent, VA, Remote Employee, and Outsourced Virtual Assistant are used interchangeably in this document. 123Employee Agents also referred to as VAs (Virtual Assistants) can help you with many day- to- day or week- to- week tasks that might ordinarily be wasting your time, or the time of other key employees or service providers. Knowing what to outsource, how to outsource, and creating a schedule for your agent increases your chance for success. 6 STEPS TO SUCCESSFUL OUTSOURCING The following information and process will help you create a delegation and outsourcing blueprint, a plan for successful outsourcing. Step 1: What to Delegate Step 2: What to Delegate first Step 3: Who to Delegate to Step 4: How you want the task done Step 5: When you want the task done Step 6: Know Your Role! Page 1 of 5
REASONS TO OUTSOURCE 1. EXPERTISE: Outsource tasks you DON T KNOW how to do. 2. INCOME GENERATING: Outsource lead generation, marketing, and social media activities. 3. TIME SAVING: Outsource your time consuming tasks such as business process and customer support tasks (so that you have more time to generate more business). THE RIGHT PERSON FOR THE RIGHT JOB Often new prospects will want to hire a $6 per hour VA, and what they are really looking for is a consultant, specialist, or business/project manager. Knowing whom to hire for the right job is crucial for your success. Consultant (CO): Someone who ll advise you, create a strategy or plan of action. They typically don t do the work themselves. Specialist (SP): Someone with specialized skills (graphics, web, technology, consultant, accountant, etc) Business/Project Manager (BM): Manages key aspects of your business In- house Employee (IE): Someone who comes into your place of business, full or part time Remote Employee (RE): Someone who works remotely* *In the case that an employee is someone who takes care of day- to- day, week- to- week tasks. >STEP 1: WHAT TO DELEGATE Start by prioritizing your projects: The first step in creating a Delegation & Outsourcing Plan is to prioritize your projects or income streams. Make a list of all your projects and income streams, and prioritize them in order of which ones you need help with: 1) 2) 3) Deciding What To Delegate: Once you have prioritized your projects, create a separate delegation table for EACH project/income stream as follows: 1) Take a sheet of paper (landscape), create 2 columns on the paper, and label as follows: Column 1 : List the Tasks YOU HAVE TO DO Column 2 : List the Tasks you HAVE TO outsource to others 2) Divide the columns into 3 rows and label them as Set Up, Marketing Related Tasks & All Other Tasks 3) Enter all the tasks related to a project/income stream into the table. Page 2 of 5
Business/Project/Income Stream Name: Details: Monthly Marketing Budget: Monthly Delegation Budget: Hours Per Week You Want to Invest In This Business: Income Goal: $ Tasks I Personality NEED TO Do Setting Up (one time task) Tasks I Would LIKE TO Delegate (task I can do, but should be delegating) Setting Up (one time task) On- Going Marketing On- Going Marketing On- Going Business / General (non- marketing) On- Going Business / General (non- marketing) Page 3 of 5
>STEP 2: WHICH TASKS TO DELEGATE FIRST? Make Outsourcing An Asset Not A Liability As Quickly As Possible Overwhelmed entrepreneurs tend to overwhelm their new agent! They ll hire an agent for 2 hours per week in the hope that their $6 per hour agent will take over the management of their business, handle dozens of tasks, and a few even hope their new agent will make them rich! You think we re joking? In an ideal world it would be great to outsource EVERYTHING you don t have to do or want to do for the rest of us, here are suggestions you can adapt to help you decide what to outsource first: 1) MUST OUTSOURCE NEXT There are tasks or projects you MUST outsource next in order for your business to proceed. It could be the creation of a website, lead capture page, sales page, or copywriting. In most cases the MUST do list are things you aren t able to do, or don t have time for and have to hire someone to do them for you. In many cases these tasks may be project based. Create a Sequential Outsourcing Task List. 2) MARKETING TO INCREASE REVENUE The next set of tasks I would outsource should lead to a generation of more sales. This would mean Option A) hiring someone to generate more leads for you Option B) delegating the busy tasks you are doing so that YOU can generate more sales. We often advise our clients to implement an outsourcing strategy to hire someone to generate more leads via Internet marketing, social media or telemarketing. While this might apply for many businesses, there are some instances our client is a great sales person himself or herself and simply needs more time to make calls, attend networking events, talk at events, etc. In this scenario we would look to identify tasks you are doing that can be outsourced so that you have more time to do what you are BEST at! Questions to ask yourself: What can I outsource to others so that I can BETTER USE my time? (Business Card Follow Up, Appointment setting, Blog Commenting, etc.) What can I outsource to generate more leads? (Telemarketing, Social Media, Article Writing, Article & Video Posting) How can I grow my business capacity? (more sales staff, etc) 3) OUTSOURCE YOUR DISLIKE LIST, NOT GOOD AT, & BORING TASK LIST Once you have outsourced must do & marketing tasks, you can outsource your dislike, not good at, and boring and mundane tasks that you really don t want to do. Select your top 10 things you want to delegate: 1 6 2 7 3 8 4 9 5 10 Page 4 of 5
>STEP 3: WHO TO DELEGATE TO Once you have completed the table assign the tasks to one of the following: Consultant: CO Specialist: SP Business/Project Manager: BM Local Employee: LE Remote Employee: RE >STEP 4: HOW DO YOU WANT THE TASKS DONE? Be a GREAT B.O.S.S. The next step is to create Basic Organized Sequential Steps The instructions should be simple, step- by- step, and easy to follow. If you don t know how to do certain tasks, ask your agent to research or review any applicable training material. Instructions can be as simple as writing the steps in a word document, making audio recordings of phone calls, script trees, creating training videos using screen capture software, creating wiki Q&A tools, setting up and using online software such as Basecamp, Central Desktop, etc. >STEP 5: WHEN YOU WANT TASKS DONE In addition to providing instructions we recommend you create a schedule and allocate time for different tasks throughout the week in Google Calendar or similar program. > STEP 6: KNOW YOUR ROLE Once you have made the decision to outsource, use the delegation process to decide what to outsource first to get through the first 30-90 days. We do our best to assist our clients with this process. The reality is that they re YOUR employees working in our facility under our care and management. It is important you know your role in the process; they re your employees and will look to you for advice and guidance. Provide information and resources to allow their tasks to be done. In closing here are 6 reasons why outsourcing may not work: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) The strategy, marketing funnel, websites, copy, aren t great The client doesn t know how to communicate, manage the VA/overwhelms the VA The tasks aren t appropriate for that level employee The instructions are not clear The employee/agent isn t up to the task The employer has unrealistic expectations from their agent Address the above 6 six issues to enjoy a successful outsourcing experience. Remember, Outsourcing is as EASY as 123Employee! Page 5 of 5