You can’t build and expand a business alone. There are only so many hours in a day and the ever growing list will eventually need more than two hands and one brain, it will inevitably become a team effort. Embrace it and let go.
If you resist delegating, your business will not grow; it’s simply not possible. It will remain within the startup phase. Every business has a life cycle; growth and expansion is natural evolution on the road to success. We have to let go and welcome others into our inner circle.
Once you have accepted the need to let go and delegate, the next challenge is to do it well. Don’t micromanage, that’s not letting go and it’s not empowering to those working for you. Autonomy is.
When you delegate a task respectfully let them know that you believe that they will do a great job. Resist the urge to look over their shoulder and compare with how you would do it. Be realistic, they’re on a learning curve. Even if they don’t do it as well as you may have, give them the space to learn and grow.
It won’t take them very long to adapt and grow, before you know it they will be doing an awesome job and your business will be on its way to a new level.
You’ll be so pleased that you let go and led.
Time is precious, so I don’t accept every coffee meeting request received. If I don’t see any correlation between our businesses, then I may invite them to the monthly breakfast meeting instead – where they can meet other more aligned business owners.
If I am intending to meet up with them, I then follow up with an email invitation to meet for coffee. At that meeting, I will ask them about their business primarily with a small amount of time devoted to talking about my business. The conversation may stray into personal areas and that’s fine too, I’m building a relationship.
When I return to the office I record meeting notes with:
- The main points of discussion at the meeting;
- Where I think the relationship will go;
- What I would like to be the next step;
- The action plan to follow up.
Our admin team then run with that and the action item is added to our schedule.
It’s not difficult to systemise your networking, in fact it will make a huge difference to the positive results you are trying to achieve.
So in short, try the following with your future networking:
- Aim to meet just a few people at an event rather than a mass business card hand out – quality over quantity!
- Follow up on social media and mention how nice it was to meet them.
- Decide which business owners you would like to get to know further or you believe you will be able to do business with.
- Politely follow up and invite them to a coffee meeting.
- Spend the majority of the time talking about THEM and THEIR business
- Record the main points discussed at the meeting
- Decide on the next step and put a procedure in place to action it.
- Follow Up!