When to Eliminate, Automate, or Delegate
One of the most misunderstood curses of solopreneurship is the notion that you have to do literally everything in your business forever.
The problem is that, unless you want to be stressed out, overworked, face burnout, make less money, have less time with your loved ones, and take longer to hit your goals…
You need help.
There are 3 ways you can get help:
Eliminate
Automate
Delegate
But when is it the right time for you to apply these to your business?
spoiler: right now, most likely.
For me, I’ve been so glued to the content creation hamster wheel that I hardly have any energy to improve the products and services that I sell.
Sounds like a pretty ass-backward business right? Tell me about it…
And now that you, me, and my wallet are all on the same page…
I'm going to share how I'm actively applying these three elements to a specific part of my business in hopes that you’ll gain some insight into how you can do the same.
It’s time you give yourself the opportunity to earn more and get more done.
…All while working less.
I'm Way In Over My Head (are you?) 😣
Over the past year, I've been making an extremely heavy push towards creating and posting more content across the internet in hopes of building my personal brand and my business by providing valuable ideas and insights to new and aspiring one-person businesses.
I have all the pieces in place to produce and distribute my weekly video podcast and the repurposed short-form content that comes from it.
But there are some major issues…
Lack of time to do it all myself
Lack of skill to make the content the best it can be
For context, Here’s a quick look at my 21-step weekly video creation process (get ready…):
Determine Topic
Write the pillar entry
Proof, edit, finalize entry
Setup home office for video recording
Record Video
Import and arrange files on desktop
Import and setup project in Video Editing Software
Edit video (sooo many additional steps/skills required here…)
Export Video
Upload to YouTube as a private video
Determine Title/Thumbnail
Create Thumbnail
Optimize YT Video Title, Description, Tags, Timestamps, End Cards, etc…
Upload to final edit to video podcast hosting platform
Schedule podcast for publishing
Upload full edit to Repurposing software
Download clips/shorts that I want to produce
Transfer all raw clips/shorts to video editing software
edit, trim, and enhance, export each clip/short 1 by 1 (again… lots of steps/skill required for this one)
Organize final files on computer and upload to Google Drive
Optimize titles/descriptions Schedule all content to distribute across social media
and this is just the video side of the content equation.
I also have the blog, email newsletter, tweets, tweetshots (text images), and threads that get created from my weekly pillar entry as well.
Bruh..
So with this, you can see that a lot of my working hours are spent on this content machine every single week.
But that’s not exactly the problem…
My major hangup is that by doing almost all of this manually, I have literally no time or energy to build, promote, and sell my current and future products and services.
No cash + No time + No sales = No Business.
It’s time to fix this mess before I’m forced to pack it in never to return again…
1: Eliminate
The thing that continues to ring over and over in my head is Pareto’s Principle, aka the 80/20 rule.
The 80/20 rule suggests that in almost all circumstances,
nearly 80% of your results are coming from 20% of your efforts.
If this is the case, then clearly there are some things on my plate that I ought to eliminate. But for the sake of brevity and attention spans, let’s look at one element that I think CLEARLY needs to go.
I’m active on 5 social media platforms: YouTube, X(Twitter), Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn
But I’ve only truly been enjoying 2 of them and ironically they’re the only platforms showing any signs of growth at this time.
Youtube and X. (Let's Connect!)
So starting immediately I will be pouring all my content creation efforts into maximizing my impact on these platforms.
I’m not deleting my other accounts by any means but for now…
I won’t be going above and beyond to grow the other accounts.
I will still post on FB, IG, and LI when a piece of content I make for X or YT fits, but I will not be checking the DM’s, actively seeking new connections, or commenting on others’ posts on a daily or even weekly basis.
My focus has been too split and it’s led to subpar results and overall exhaustion/frustration.
I’ll come back around to these one by one and re-ignite the flame as it makes sense to do so.
To determine what to eliminate, ask yourself:
What areas of my business just seem like wasted efforts right now?
Are they critical to your short-term goals?
If it wasn’t a burden, would it dramatically improve your business or life? (if it’s not a huge YES… then it should be pretty obvious what to do next)
It may seem obvious but…
The fewer ‘things’ you have to do in order to succeed,
the faster you’ll get there.
Whew! I already am starting to feel better.
Let’s keep it going, shall we?
2: Automate
We live in a really cool time where technology can be the best business wingman if we give ourselves the chance to play around with it and find where it’s best to be used.
Whether it be sales, marketing, content creation, payment processing, bookkeeping, email replies, customer support, etc…
It’s becoming more and more silly to NOT automate certain elements of your business (or life for that matter).
In the example of my recurring content creation requirements, there are a lot of tasks that can be automated to take back a lot of my time and mental energy.
Using Amazon’s ‘Alexa’ commands to turn on my recording setup
Using Descript video editor to easily pull transcripts from my recordings
Using AI repurposing tools like Opus Clip to pull out the best clips to use for shorts
Using Scheduler tools like Metricool to batch schedule my content and send me analytics reports
I’m sure there’s a bunch more I could add, but these are the first four to pop into my head.
If it’s not worth eliminating, then the next logical question to ask is, “Can this be automated”?
Consider automating elements of your business that:
are extremely repetitive in nature
don’t require a ‘human touch’ to be done well (AI is gaining traction on this)
can be done through the integration of multiple digital tools
Just from the four examples above, I’m easily saving 20-30+ hours each week.
which means if I wasn’t using automation in my business, I’d literally have to work more hours than there are in a day…
Which is insane and impossible.
Automation is your friend and is not hard to use.
Start automating one simple task in your business this week.
It’ll take you 2-3 hours to set up (at most) and will continue to save you time to infinity and beyond.
Now that I’m actively eliminating, and automating, there’s one major hurdle between my current state of chaos and the green green grass on the other side.
3: Delegate
Delegation can often be a point of contention for solopreneurs because we feel that we have to do everything ourselves in order to be a solopreneur.
How about this? Loosen up.
News flash...
There are no rules you have to adhere to!
Just do what’s best for you, your customers, and your business.
Period!
Stop doing things that somebody else can do for you.
Usually, solo business owners shy away from delegating tasks to someone else because they either:
Don’t want to or don’t know how to manage someone
Don’t want to pay for it
Don’t have a system in place
Hate the idea of having to find, train, and manage talent
I know this because I am this.
But last year I finally hired a virtual assistant from the Phillipines and it’s been an absolute game changer. She’s smart, dependable, flexible, teachable, and affordable. She’s happy about the work, and I’m happy to have her doing it.
Now...
I need a video editor.
In fact, by the time you’re reading this, I’ll have interviewed 5 candidates across the globe to come on board as my video editor / content creation assistant.
I know how to edit a B-/B+ grade video, but again…
I won’t grow by putting out more B-grade content.
I need an A+ editor to take my content to the next level.
And then there’s the ever-present time element…
I’m spending so much time cranking out ‘just good enough’ edits, that I have no time to improve and release new offers that actually build my business and feed my family of 4 plus our golden-doodle dog.
I’m SOOO excited!! It’s almost concerning… haha
My next ‘big offer’ will require 1, likely several, A-grade editors to get the wheels turning. So I’m looking forward to getting the ball rolling.
I’ll start with some part-time help and build from there.
With this, hiring an editor is going to save me about 20 hrs every week - immediately.
AND the quality of my content will go up.
AND it’ll help me with launching this new offer (can you guess what it’ll be? I’ll spill the beans very soon)
You know you need to delegate parts of your business if:
it requires a human touch to be done correctly
it requires a skill you just don’t have (or lack the right amount of)
it can be done way cheaper by someone else
it’s something you absolutely hate doing
Delegating is equal parts scary and liberating.
The sooner you give it a shot (start small if you’d like)…
The sooner you’ll realize what you’ve been missing out on.
Easy as 1, 2, 3
Now that we’ve gone over what I’m doing to level up my business and take back more time for the other things I love… Let’s lay out the order in which to go about it all.
Ask yourself these questions in this order:
What can/should I eliminate today? After eliminating…
What tedious/repetitive tasks could I automate this week?
After automating and eliminating…
What tasks can be done cheaper or better by someone else?
If you carry this out in this order your life and business will begin to blossom like never before.
Action Item: What are the 1-2 things in your business that kept coming to mind as you read this? What’s holding you back from eliminating it, automating it, or delegating it?
TL;DR
Eliminate if the task/effort isn’t critically necessary right now. Separate the ‘must haves’ from the ‘nice to haves’. (ex: recording multiple camera angles)
Automate if the task/effort is highly repetitive, requires little to no logical reasoning, or takes too much time to do (ex: Content Scheduling - not fully hands-off, but saves lots of time in the end)
Delegate if the remaining tasks/efforts that you either want to improve the quality of, don’t have ample skill in, don’t want to do at all, or don’t need your direct input in order to work. (ex: a video editor has way more skill and time to devote to producing high-quality content from my original writing and recording)
Til Next Time ✌️🙂
Ev
TL;DR
Problem: Audience Building Takes a Long Time
Solution: Build Connections Instead - Much Quicker and More Valuable
Result: More Attention, More Support, More Opportunities, and More Audience
