Scaling a business is growing a company by increasing its sales, expanding its operations, adding new products or services, or foraying into new markets. Delegation means transferring authority and responsibility for performing a task to the right people, who can make it possible for the business to scale up. The two processes are tightly integrated.
Delegation is critical when it comes to scaling a business because as the organization grows, there will be more tasks and responsibilities that need to be handled efficiently. If business owners or senior managers try to do everything themselves, they will either burn out or become overwhelmed, and the business enterprise will suffer. On the other hand, a business venture can grow and thrive if crucial tasks and activities are delegated to colleagues, subordinates, or other team members.
There may be many reasons for your wanting to scale up your business. Perhaps there is an opportunity for rapid growth, or you need to increase your production capacity to meet surging demand. Or maybe you’re foraying into new markets and need to set up new facilities and hire more staff. Whatever the reason, scaling up can be a big challenge for any business owner. And the challenge becomes difficult to overcome if you don’t have a sound strategy or plan to delegate responsibilities and authority to the right people.
One of the most common mistakes made by new entrepreneurs is failing to plan for growth and expansion. As your business grows or expands, you will have to change your style of operation so that you can support the increasing demand or tap the emerging opportunities. Furthermore, you may have to invest in your workforce by recruiting much more talented and experienced employees or imparting intensive coaching or comprehensive training to existing ones in order to upgrade their skills so that you can delegate key tasks to them and they can help you reach your goals.
Here, something that is often quoted in business circles to drive home the importance of effective delegation comes to my mind. A rookie manager will think, “How am I going to do all these?” Meanwhile, a senior manager’s first thought would be to whom he should delegate those essential tasks that must be completed appropriately and proficiently. Thus, while a rookie manager doesn’t appreciate the importance of delegation, a senior manager’s or experienced business owner’s first thought is of delegation. For the latter, getting the work done efficiently is more important than personally doing it. Because when a business scales and grows, it is no longer possible even for the most talented solopreneur to run the show alone.
Thus, delegation lets you focus on the most important tasks and priorities. When you delegate, you don’t have to spread yourself too thin as you can fully concentrate on the tasks that only you can do or can do best. It frees your time and energy to focus on growing, diversifying, or expanding your business. And it helps avert burnouts, which affects many business owners and can lead to business failures.
The most significant benefit of delegation is that it enables you to tap into the skills, talents, and strengths of others on your team. By delegating tasks, you can make optimum use of your team members and create a more efficient, result-oriented, and well-rounded organization. Additionally, delegation helps to build trust within your team and opens up opportunities for team members to learn new skills and grow in their roles.
Generally, the goal of scaling is to increase revenue or boost profits or minimize costs while benefitting from economies of scale or other such concepts or business practices. To do this, entrepreneurs must carefully manage their growth to maintain profitability and avoid becoming overwhelmed by their growth or expansion. On this journey of taking your business to the next level, delegation helps reduce redundancies, improve communication, and streamline processes.
Hence, delegation can also help save time, money, and energy as you scale your business optimally. Ultimately, delegating work and specific tasks is about empowering employees and enabling them to cultivate a sense of ownership over their duties and responsibilities while freeing up entrepreneurs’ time so they can focus on devising the most appropriate strategies and other value-added approaches and policies. On the other hand, if an entrepreneur gets bogged down because of having to do too many things, scaling up the business may become difficult and remain a pipedream forever.
