Working At Home—Setting Personal Limits Creates Opportunity for Staff

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A few days ago, I received a request to speak at a series of trade shows focused on small and home-based business. This is just the kind of opportunity I ordinarily like. I enjoy public speaking and learn a lot from interacting with the people in the audience who want my help. This time, I turned down the invitation because it involves travel.

Since having a baby several months ago, my priorities have changed significantly. I’m still committed to serving existing customers and expanding my business into new areas, but I have more limits on what I’m willing to do to accomplish my goals. A few years ago, I rarely said “no” and while my career flourished, it took a personal toll in terms of lack of time for family.

Overall, limiting my work has been positive for the business and customers because I’m giving more opportunity to people on my staff to step into my shoes. Since I’m doing fewer tasks, I can do a better job on each one. Clients also gain the benefit of input from more of my team.


Remaining devoted

The only challenge is to turn down opportunities in a way that makes clients realize I’m still devoted to what I do. In the case of the speaking engagements, I was honest about why I couldn’t make the events, but made it clear this was a timing issue rather than the wrong fit.

If you want to continue to expand your business but cut back on personal involvement for a little while, use the following tactics:

-Choose a focus. Rather than staying ankle deep in all company projects, pick a few responsibilities in which you want to immerse yourself. This will ensure that you’re still expert at certain elements of running your business. Oversight of other projects should continue.

-Give opportunities to others. No matter how small your company, try to shift some of your responsibilities to other people. In my case, speaking engagements have been delegated in some cases to senior staff who are well-equipped to speak on particular topics. Other opportunities: Delegate bookkeeping (with oversight from you) and complement sales efforts by having someone help you complete proposals and other background work.

-Prioritize. The reality of working less is that you can’t do as much, even with help. Given this, now may be a good time to streamline your offerings, cut back some non-profitable clients, or otherwise limit the responsibilities of your company. Good candidates for cutbacks are networking events (unless they have proven valuable) and marketing or advertising with a negligible return. Turn a critical eye on business travel to measure whether it really justifies the time required.

-Strengthen your team. Plans to cut back will only succeed if you have strong people supporting you. Evaluate your staff to identify weak links. Keep in mind that employees should save you time and make your life easier. If someone is not working out, you need to identify what training you can provide to improve performance, or consider replacing the person with a more solid candidate.

As you ease yourself out of business responsibilities, continue close management of your business. Meet regularly with staff to review project progress and provide guidance. Even the strongest members of your team will continue to benefit from your input, and ultimately you must maintain responsibility for the overall quality of your business product. Some people ease back too much initially as they begin to delegate, only to discover that quality suffers unless they stay involved at key junctures.

Alice Bredin is author of the “Virtual Office Survival Handbook” (John Wiley & Sons) and a nationally syndicated columnist.

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