Owning a small business often begins as a one-person show. You must handle every task yourself, from finances to marketing, customer service to product development. However, there comes a point in every entrepreneur’s journey when they must consider the value of their time against the importance of the tasks in front of them.

Delegation can be a game-changer for small businesses. It allows owners to focus on the overall vision and direction of the venture, catering to their strengths while growing the company more efficiently. But knowing when to delegate is crucial.

To clarify, we’re not talking about highly skilled positions here. When and how to hire more employees to handle your company’s core services or products is a different conversation, but there are many urgent but not very important tasks in the grand scheme of a company. Outside contractors who specialize in those tasks could easily handle those jobs. So, when is the right time to hire out?

Simply put, if the time it takes you to do a task is more valuable than the task is, hire it out. A good example of this is yard work. If you had two more hours to work on your business, could you earn or accomplish more than what a lawn care service costs? Of course, you might enjoy it and use that time to de-stress. But otherwise, if the answer is yes, that’s not a great use of your time.

Another common job worth hiring out is one outside of your expertise. Designing a logo or laying out a website is challenging if you aren’t a graphic designer, which means it will take you a lot longer to complete this task than someone who can also likely do it better. It’s not worth your time. Services like Upwork and Fiverr make contracting these tasks very convenient and affordable.

The easy way to handle “busy work” is to automate it as much as possible. This is probably the cheapest and most convenient way to reduce your workload. TurnKey Coach is a great example of this. We specifically designed this platform to leverage an online coach’s time and attention to focus on the tasks that customers actually hire them for: expert feedback and guidance. Everything else—like video recording, client communication, and spreadsheet software for programming—is all integrated into TKC to streamline the coaching workflow. This increases your earning potential, and it’s very affordable.

Your time is valuable. Spending hours on administrative tasks or technical work can detract from focusing on core business activities such as strategy, innovation, and customer relationships. Delegating non-core tasks to contractors allows you to reclaim your time and concentrate on activities that drive the growth and success of your business.

Knowing when to delegate tasks to contractors is a critical skill for small business owners. Delegation not only frees up your time and resources but also brings specialized expertise and scalability to your business. By leveraging the skills of contractors, you can streamline operations, drive productivity, and position your business for long-term success.