If you don't have an assistant, you are the assistant

Do you do everything in your business yourself? Well, its time to stop and hire some help. (Cue the horrible feeling that comes over most people when they think about hiring, delegating, or sharing a username and password with a stranger)

Many entrepreneurs are very resourceful. We come up with shortcuts and ingenious ways of doing things to be as efficient as possible so that we can hold on and do those things ourselves as long as possible.

But let me tell you, that is not a recipe for long term success.

In the last year, we have worked with a few assistants. Whether it be organizing our documents and paperwork or driving for dollars and running errands, each individual has freed up our time to focus on higher value activities.

Based on experience, two common arguments against hiring help include: 1) What work can I actually delegate? 2) I can't afford it.?

Well, you can start by making a list of all the activities you perform which you don't like or don't make sense for you to continue doing. Add in tasks that you just never seem to get to. That will be a good starting list for an assistant to help with.

Secondly, give yourself a runway. "I will hire somebody for x number of months and then reassess". If you hire right and do a good job of overseeing their work, you will wonder why you didn't hire help earlier.

So get out there and find that amazing assistant!