Can Messy Delegation Actually Pay Off?
By Melanie Benson Strick | July 16th, 2009Have you ever tried your best to get things off your plate…only to realize you had a made a HUGE mess? Or worse yet, the person you relied on had made a massive mistake and all your best efforts to hand things off went down the proverbial toilet?
Ah…the joys of team building. These kinds of break downs can make you want to just do it all yourself. But when you have a big dream and are building a business to run without you, it’s just impossible to do. What you really need is to unlock the secrets to tried & true delegation strategies that are PROVEN to work!
So….we’ve got something really fun for you. We’d like to make your messes actually pay off!
I’m running a contest with prizes worth over $4,000, including my live laser performance coaching and a seat in our next Virtual Team Building Telebootcamp starting September 17, 2009.
To enter the contest, here’s what you need to do. Simply post a comment below and answer these two questions:
| 1. “What is the BIGGEST mess you’ve experienced when trying to delegate, outsource or build a team?” Give us the juicy details….what happened? Did you lose a ton of money, time, or both? Did you lose some customers in the process? Did you give up and think this strategy just isn’t for you?
2. How will participating in this year’s Virtual Team Building Telebootcamp help you have your dream team? If you are not sure what Virtual Team Building Telebootcamp is you can find all the information at http://www.virtualteambuildingtelebootcamp.com Just post your story here by July 24th with your name, profession & email address. We’ll select our “Top Five Favorites” by July 27th. Then you’ll have a chance to get your community to VOTE FOR YOU to win the grand prize! We’ll announce final winners the week of August 3rd. And yes, the judges LOVE video so feel free to insert a link to a youtube posted video if you want. |
The Prizes!
We want everyone to win…so everyone who submits their story for consideration will get a free seat in our upcoming webinar series “How to Get Money-Making Tasks Done in ½ the Time While Exploding Your Profits & Results” starting August 13th. I’ll not only be teaching you my tricks but the top 3 winners will get a chance for some live coaching!
Grand Prize Winner (the person who gets the most votes)
Two seats in the Virtual Team Building Telebootcamp 6 week series starting September 17th (value $3997). You and a business partner, assistant or spouse will be able to attend live this 6 week program where I’ll personally show you how to delegate your highest payoff activities, pay for your team and discover the secrets to hiring the right people the first time!
Second Place Winner
A copy of the Virtual Team Building Secrets ($297 value) and three months in the ULTIMATE Wealth & Success Circle ($291) coaching program.
Third, Fourth & Fifth Place Winner
A copy of our award winning The Power of the Virtual Team e-book ($29.95)
So post your story now and be sure to check back for the announcement of finalists on July 27th so you can get your friends to vote for you!!
Ready – Set- Go!
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July 16th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
The biggest mess I created was delegating a mailing list project (had 4 lists, needed to have them integrated into one) to a friend who swore she had enough experience to do it. I needed it done asap since I had a major mailing I wanted to send out to get a teleseminar publicized. She was so overwhelmed by the way I needed it done (and it was just combining the 4 Excel sheets and deleting duplicates) she kept telling me she’d get it done, but didn’t. I finally had to take the project back and do it myself (took me 3 hours I didn’t have), missed my deadline and didn’t get to take advantage of a huge opportunity, costing me about $25,000!
I would love to participate in the Virtual Teambuilding bootcamp, I’ve heard so many of my peers tell me what an amazing experience it was for them and how it propelled them to the next level and the next. I currently cannot afford to do the bootcamp so if I could win access that would truly be a dream come true. I could take my products to the next level, do a true launch and know I don’t have to continue to do everything by myself! Solopreneurship doesn’t have to be solo entrepreneurship. I’d love to build a supportive team so I could concentrate on what is possible instead of what needs to be done.
July 17th, 2009 at 7:28 am
back in the early 90’s we were one of the first high end fashion for larger size stores that convinced designer labels to make clothes for our brand new store.
Because large size people had not previously been able to buy these products we had a marketing delimma how to teach them to pay more and reach those that could.
So we hired a marketing firm. they did a great slick newsletter type brochure on heavy gloss paper inviting them to a private opening and the firm head sent it out to her personal list of high end clientele in our city. What could go wrong with this?
Well the head of the firm actually got a brain tumor during our promotion and had some bad judgements and delays in with our work and then people started contacting the store – they were outraged our advertising reached their homes with postage due!
If they didn’t ignore it entirely – a better outcome than if they paid for it and found out it was advertising – then they let us know how awful they thought we were because of the “stunt” we pulled to get them to look at it.
We were not paying attention, sure that someone else could do this better, not seeing the big picture heavy paper and light postage, and lost many many potentional customers as well as the grand entrance of a new store on the elite scene.
Never did fully recover and despite winning awards for enterpreneurship, shut the business down as competitors with more savy, sensitive marketing accessed the sources we had developed for our products and easily invaded our unsecured nich of the market.
Arrrrrggggg!
July 17th, 2009 at 11:59 am
A few years ago I decided to redo the logo for my website. Being as I’m not a designer and didn’t have enough time to figure it out myself, I decided to outsource the project. After reviewing the work of various website designers, I ended up choosing a designer.
She quoted me an hourly fee for the logo and CSS file for the template, which seemed reasonable at the time. Her first version was not acceptable so it was back to the drawing board. The work on the drafts ended up costing hundreds of dollars before we settled on a design that would work.
Shortly thereafter, the designer had a family crisis, and she didn’t upload the template for almost two months, but I got charged for this as well. I wasn’t pleased with the CSS template, but wasn’t willing to spend any more money at this point.
Not only did I end up spending $1100 for a template and supporting files that I could have purchased for much less and customized myself, but she also screwed up some important pages on my website. To top it off, she didn’t understand why I wanted an invoice for the services rendered for my tax records. In retrospect, I should have had an estimate of the total costs along with a contract detailing the specs of the job right from the start.
Not long after that, I outsourced the logo for another one of my websites through Elance. The price was a fraction of what I paid for the first website, and there was no extra charges for revisions until I was happy. I had my logo within 2 weeks in the formats and sizes that I needed.
Thanks to my second experience with outsourcing, I know that it can be a positive experience if there’s a clear definition of the work to be performed, a time-frame for it to occur in, and clear pricing for the services rendered.
I’m still a newbie when it comes to delegating and outsourcing. Not only do I need help in figuring out what to outsource, but I still have to develop my systems (which seems like an overwhelming task in itself). I realize that building a team is the only way that my business can grow to it’s true potential. Being able to participating in the Virtual Team Building Telebootcamp can help me put all the pieces of the puzzle together.
July 17th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
@Nancy, Have you heard of the Plus-Size Business Tele-Summit? Check out http://www.plussizebiz.com to find out more
@Melanie, I would have to say that in one of my older businesses, I delegated the ebook creation to a virtual assistant. I provided all the content from past emails I sent out along with the outline. The deadline kept magically moving, I was getting excited, doing copy for the information page and all that was to come. She never completed the project. I had to fire her, she too was going through tough times with her aging parent, so I felt bad but I had to let her go.
July 19th, 2009 at 10:48 am
Mel -
Right now I am a soloproneur who has built a business from scratch over the last few years. Everyone has told me that I need to build a team in order to grow, and I got stuck thinking I could do everything myself. In fact, there are tasks I really should outsource that I actually enjoy doing – so I find myself caught up on where to start and whether or not I can expand.
So juicy details – I recently organized a 6 1/2 week virtual interview series where I managed the entire project, with the exception of outsourcing the minisite design.
While organizing this project, I had a lot of success – including an almost 5-figure sponsorship for my event. I also managed affiliate recruitment, sign up, communication, customer service, and everything else you can imagine.
I don’t look at this event as a failure, but I certainly see how it could be a BIGGEST mess for me. While I was able to generate sales, I know that I could have more than doubled sales if I wasn’t trying to be everything to everyone – including myself and to my business.
Not only did I undoubtedly lose sales, but I also missed out on additional affiliates to help promote, and even worse – some of my affiliates didn’t promote simply because something had to give. That’s a big mess. I took things for granted (like having no promotional schedule and just assuming that my affiliates knew when to promote – OUCH).
July 19th, 2009 at 10:52 am
Part II (from above)…
Not only that, but promotion on the event lost opportunities when I didn’t take full advantage of blogging, article writing, issuing press releases, and involving offline business strategies.
Bottom line – the biggest MESS was my own fault because I tried to take too much.
Getting a seat at this bootcamp will be the “kick” and more importantly the accountability I need to organize a team and learn how to delegate responsibly and effectively.
In addition to running my own business, I have had the unique chance to support a few other business owners during launches and promotions. I’ve had the unique perspective to see how a team can help, while also learning that a team is not enough. You need to learn how to communicate with that team and delegate properly.
That’s what I know a seat at your bootcamp can do for me. The timing couldn’t be better for me, as I have just brought on a new VA and am looking to systematize and structure my business for growth over the next 6 months.
Thank you for this chance.
Rory
July 22nd, 2009 at 11:20 am
A life of hard knocks has continued into, hard knocks in creating a web based business.
I did things a bit backwards, I wrote a book and then wrote articles and started to try to get a website. I started working with a web designer that was well recommended. I supplied drawings, mindwebs on how things would work, content and such. After 6 months of frustration and unmet deadlines and hiring a programmer too, I still didn’t have a working website. Mean while, I wrote 20 articles, two more books and got joint ventures but I had to keep everything on hold or rather damned up because I didn’t have a website. It also prevented any income. The web guys just wouldn’t admit they were over their head and couldn’t do what was needed. I fired them and they finally admintted, with relief that they wouldln’t have taken the job if they had really understood it because it was over their abilities. They took no responsibility for their actions.
Results: more of a billboard website that couldn’t do what was needed, loss of $3000, searching for a new web designer/programmer, no income, working with a VA and more importantly – frustration, loss of motivation, sometimes will just to give everything up, loss of self-esteem and more.
I went to another web designer/programmer who is very successful and highly recommened. I had learned from past experience and checked things out must more closely. Everything looked good, he said he could get a site up in a month and I thought – great. So I wrote, planned and was ready for launch and making money and success. Then came delay after delay, and then 3 mns later after missing deadlines, postponing marketing and everything while incurring more monthly bills and no income and with his bill going to be $2500 the END came.
My new VA (cheaper and better), accidently submitted my best traffic generating article to submission engines, so a deadline of having a working website had to happen. A date was set, press releases were set to go out based on that web launch date, my joint ventures to start and I was more than ready to open the damn holding my business back. Social media was a big part too.
Launch date came and website didn’t work……….I actually can’t describe all the emotions I have been feeling. The date was 7/17/2009. Complete devistation in all aspects. I know that a bad repurtation and unhappy visitors is worse than no reputation and no visitors. My mini book sales site was to launch that day too – it wasn’t working right either. The mini site was done by another designer because I knew the main website designer didn’t have the time and this site will cost $500. I almost gave up, no real motivatio left, no money left but debt, demoralized, extreme anger. No once else seemed to really care…again.
My VA came to my aid and tried to help but to no avail. So I fired the web designer – knew that he still couldn’t complete his probject for several weeks. I had no confidence left in him at all. I fired him and thus loss all the money and website (customer platform) and as soon as I fired him, he unhosted my website and wrote to me that everything had been my fault. Everything, he too, took no responsibility of his actions. I’ll take blame, if I feel I’ve contributed to things but there is no way I could be to blame for everything.
I asked the VA what any ideas or possible solutions could be. She found a way that we should be able to get a website up in 48 hrs for $1200 – that means by July 24th.
Results: I have press releases promoting books and website and have no webite as of today and not a working book webite as of today. I have a speaking engagement this week but no site for visitors to go to, I’ve started a social medial campagin and yet no website to come to, holding back articles still, holding back everything. I’m at everyone elses mercy. Debt: just on websites -$6,500+ and no income. I don’t sleep, eat or even function well. It’s like dieing inside.
I had been blessed with so many very successful people believing in me and saying I’ll be successful because of my mindset, offerings, plans and such which they reviewed….yet all I see after 9 mns is no website, debt and damning up success and dieing inside. My soul is not only not getting fed, it’s dieing.
I hope that by Friday, I’ll actually have a website, if my VA and pull it off with who she got for a webdesigner. You know, I’m in so much tourmoil inside that I don’t even have hope right now. We’ll see what happens.
Attending the telbootcamp would help me tremendously. I used to be very confident, organized, productive and thought I had managed my hired service providers well…..that’s been so lost. I really believe your bootcamp could help me on so many levels, get me back on track, moving forward faster and easier into a successful future.
I have to create a good ‘team’ so I can focus on what I’m good at and which makes money and feeds me. I have to know I can trust my team (VA, sub-contractors, web, etc.) and that they get things done but also can think on their own – doing not just what I assign for work but they come up with tasks that will support my goals and success. Bootcamp would be priceless for me.
Thank you for allowing me to apply for this free and fantastic opportunity. I will try to hope.
Tonia
July 23rd, 2009 at 10:54 am
It starts out so innocently.
A project idea is born. It seemed so simple, we calculated that as knowledgeable programmers the job would take approximately 30 hours to complete.
This was a project that we could do on our own; however, as we have grown in our business we decided that now was the time to try outsourcing.
We did our research and we looked at sites like Elance, we even put the project out for bids. We finally settled on a company that had been diligently calling us once a month for over a year simply to find out if we had any outsourcing projects coming up.
The price was right, and what really closed the sale for us was when the salesman said, “All we want is one project to gain your trust, we are confident that it will be enough to create a long lasting business relationship.”
Hook…line…and sinker. We fell into the feel good trap and even paid the company up front to commence work on the agreed upon project.
As the project started, we started to see signs of communication gone awry. These subtly signs turned into huge problems.
By the time we were at the end of the project, we went over schedule by three weeks (it took 5 weeks to do a 30 hour job), we had difficulty actually getting the files once the project was completed, and we were asked for more money to finish the job.
Only to find out that it was not even close to what we had requested, it had the pretty front end, mind you that is all we ever saw, but the back end, the important part, was an empty shell.
Needless to say we ended up trying to have the project done yet again, only to find significant flaws in the second program that left it unusable in the end.
In short, we paid two companies for the same product and we still don’t have a useable product.
It really doesn’t matter how much money we lost, or the number of clients that we lost. For some businesses a shocking number may be $1,000 for others it may be $100,000 and of course for the even more advanced $1M. In the end the numbers don’t matter as much as the fact that when any business experiences losses at the level of “Big Mess” it can often spell disaster for the business.
I remain hopeful, since there seems to be a pattern for failure I am absolutely certain that there is a pattern for success.
I think all business owners at one point or another try outsourcing, get burned, and never try it again. It leads to business models that can only go so far.
For our business, we realize that being burned is part of the learning process, and that outsourcing still needs to be a part of our business model. Yet, I must admit that I would value the knowledge of how to hire that team, delegate to them, and find success at the end of the tunnel instead of the train wrecks that I have been finding.
In business there are two ways to achieve the same goal.
The first is to plow through it, make all the mistakes, and struggle; this method of course has the highest rate of failure.
The second is to learn from those that have been through it, ask questions, make much smaller mistakes, and most likely achieve the goal at hand.
The Virtual Team Building Telebootcamp would help our company eliminate years of traveling the hard road.
Melanie, you always have such great information, so thank you for the opportunity. Even if our company does not win, we will continue our journey and we will continue to learn.
July 23rd, 2009 at 1:50 pm
WOW which mess do I write. One big one was I invented a product and took it to market. After 7 years it is now in 20 Contries however it should have been more and quicker.
We decided to do the IP protection ourselves … not a good move because it only took 6 months before a copycat was coming on to the market. Our legal advice then was we missed a couple of key points in our IP and it would cost us $100,00o to fight this and most likely lose.
We probably lost $50,000 worth of opportunities while spending time on this which should have and could have been avoided if we had have outsourced the IP protection in the first place.
I have 3 other programs and products (with proven demand) that I have sitting on the shelf because they are at a stage that need external input.
I havent really gone down the outsourcing route because I’ve seen that sometimes managing people takes more time than just doing it yourself.
What would the Virtual Team Building Telebootcamp mean to me? Well I would love to see how to get more done in less time as well as learn how to find experts in their field that can do things better than I can.
I need an external team to work with to expand my business…it is as simple as that.
July 23rd, 2009 at 2:25 pm
I probably shouldn’t be telling you this….
But if it helps other small business owners, then it was worth it. Last year I used a VA (who is also an extended family member) that lives in a foreign country to put together copy for an online Social Media class I was facilitating. I’m no stranger to working with foreign born professionals, so it felt natural for me to have an extended family member working overseas on my behalf. She asked me to give her examples of websites I liked, so that she could model my strategy off of theirs. I provided the websites, and received the copy and internet promotions within a short period of time. Well, a few weeks later I receive a VERY angry email from a sole-practitioner who is HIGHLY visible and honored in the Social Media industry. I quickly discovered that the copy that my VA created was blatantly plagiarized from this other entrepreneur.
I was angry, embarrassed, scared, and frustrated to say the least. I fired the VA for copyright violation, in tears I asked her not to speak to the family about this issue, and ended up apologizing up and down to this Social Media entrepreneur. I lost money, time and confidence to lead a virtual team.
The reason I’m choosing a seat at the http://www.virtualteambuildingtelebootcamp.com is because I believe that there are no self-made millionaires…only team made millionaires. I have at least 3 high-revenue activities that I need to delegate, and I feel the Boot Camp will get me over the fear that I might not manage my virtual team properly. I also feel that the Boot Camp will tell me what order I need to delegate tasks, so that I don’t drain my working capital.
No matter who the winners are, I wish everyone continued success. ~ Kim
July 24th, 2009 at 4:50 am
I lost $20,000+ two years ago (still paying off the loan to the bank) when I hired a firm to develop a CRM database system for me to use with my clients.
I received a referral from a business friend whose husband was a computer programmer and had said that this was a great company and that his company was considering working with this group.
I went through what I thought was the right process – hired an intellectual property attorney to review the contract, developed a flow chart and sat down for strategy sessions with this company. Everything was set in place (so I thought).
Within one month, they had billed me (& I had paid – dumb me) for 80% of the work – after they told me everything was going fine & they would be ready for the preview meeting.
When I went to the preview meeting, I brought along my business friend who had referred them. It was very obvious that they were no where NEAR what had been laid out in the plan PLUS, they tried to hire my friend as a project manager during the meeting!
They promised to fix all issues and have it up & running. Six months later, I still had no working pieces. In the meantime, another partner had come in & he insisted it was “work for hire” and I owed them MORE money for all the hours they spent.
Interestingly, one of the programmers quit working with this firm & later told me that they were in over their heads, they knew it & were trying to stall me, hoping that I would walk away.
I ended up hiring the law firm to assist with getting my money back – the money I received was less than the law firm’s bill (which I renegotiated). It was a NIGHTMARE!
I learned ALOT from this situation, but I have to admit, it’s caused me to be ultra-cautious which is hurting my business growth.
The reason I would like to enroll in the Virtual Training Bootcamp is so I can learn the RIGHT way to hire and delegate tasks so that it results in growth for my business and positive cash flow and frankly, so I can sleep at night!
July 24th, 2009 at 9:48 am
Well, I’ll keep this relatively short and simple because (said in my most guilt-laden voice), I’m working on 10 different projects and delegating nothing while doing my best to get my family up to the mountains for a weekend getaway.
My biggest mess is me. I am causing myself to lose money, waste time and spin my wheels. I have cost myself thousands of dollars and hours because of my resistance to delegating. I have attracted the right people, yet I never fully hand over the projects. The result? I devalue them and overwhelm me. And, all woo-woo talk aside, this sucks. For them. For me. For my clients.
Because of that, I’ve decided enough is enough. Just as a child is raised by a village, a business is grown with a team. This year’s Virtual Team Building Telebootcamp is the tool I want to do more than delegate to my dream team, I want to empower them.
Yep, I am committed (not just interested) in attracting and empowering my dream team. And with that, I gotta go write a press release, get my ezine together, get my kids lunch, return two calls, write copy for a sales page…. Forget Calgon! Melanie, take me away. (Or rather I should say take the me out of mess.)
In character, service & gratitude,
Julie
Thanks,
Julie
July 25th, 2009 at 4:56 am
My most messy delegation came from what I call my “blind” delegation phase! I left the corporate world in 2001 to set up my first business after being a corporate employee for 14 years! Like a lot of people making that transition, I had taken for granted having experts in other departments all around me for years but didn’t think about how that would work out as a solo-preneur. But I was a brilliant “blind delegator” – I delegated everything in two directions. Either to myself doing the things I was good at or to my assistant doing the things I wasn’t good at. Trouble was, my assistant was actually another part of me – my blind side! So the things I wasn’t an expert in or wasn’t good at just didn’t get moved forward because I turned a blind eye because I either didn’t know what to do with them as it wasn’t my expertise or just didn’t want to do them. I had a lot of fun doing the stuff I really enjoyed and was good at. The business grew to an OK level but not the level I really wanted. Because I had developed being blind to delegating some aspects of the business I had also blindly capped the potential of my business. An approach that became a messy cycle. I closed that business in 2004 when I had my son and have been an at home mum for the last 5 years. In Sept 2009 my little boy is starting school and I am re-launching my business and this time it is going to be very different. I am putting things in place from the START for two reasons: 1. So that my business can take off fast 2. So I can role model for my clients BEING a successful business owner.
That is why I would love to win a place on your programme. I have really big plans this time round and I know that having experts around me and putting strong foundations in place from the start will give me the launch pad to really take off as a business owner and be a great role model for my own clients of the possibilities.
Thanks for the opportunity of putting in my “shout” for a place.
Best wishes
Ali
July 26th, 2009 at 6:15 am
the biggest outsourcing disaster for me was hiring an answering service…i lost clients, respect and several commissions because they either did not relay messages to me in a timely fashion or they were rude to callers…it lasted about 10 days and cost me over $35,000…
lesson learned…never let someone answer your business phone if they don’t care as much about your business as you do!!!
July 27th, 2009 at 10:38 am
When I hired the first person on my team, I was still working in my pharmacist recruiting business part-time and working as a full-time pharmacist. With coaching support, I realized I needed to add someone to help me with administrative tasks in order to grow my business. I couldn’t afford a person (or at least I THOUGHT I couldn’t), so I was focused on the cheapest hourly rate.
I hired a person in India primarily with cheap in mind. I hadn’t screened her background, except for her being able to do 1 sample project for me.
I didn’t think to connect with her regularly by phone (and didn’t even think to arrange for a set time by phone because I thought it would take up too much of my time & I was already too busy). Somehow, I thought it would save me time-since I hired the person to save me time, right? I also thought that if I were to just hand off instructions to enter something in the computer & asked her to listen to the training videos within the database, she would be able to catch on how to enter information.
It hurt my business because it took me more time in the long run to be pointing out all the errors rather than have clear directions upfront. It cost me placements because I had limited time anyway to work on my business after I worked a full-time job. In addition, it cost me because I had to repeat certain things (more of my time taken away from being able to connect pharmacists with the right job) and it drained energy out of me. I ended up having to train & hire someone else. So it was a disaster. Primarily it was because of the worst delegation in the world I gave & secondarily in not establishing set times to communicate & train her. I am sure it could have worked out much better if I had not been so messy in my delegation.
First of all, this person who did the work did not have any industry background (that much I figured out). When I would get the results back, I would not be satisfied and wondered why someone could not do such a simple task correctly. Little did I realize I was such a big part of the equation to not getting the results I wanted.
I wish I had more training in delegation before I ventured into this. In fact, I wish I went thru Virtual Team Building Bootcamp before I created this mess and done it right the first time. It would have saved me a lot of money & headaches!!