There’s an age old conversation in those ye walls of a tradie business household, and it goes a little something like this:
‘Darling, you take on too much, work too hard, the kids never see you, your dinner is always cold when you get home, this is just no good for you my dear’
Let’s be honest here - that is a seriously watered down, PG rated version of what really goes on behind closed doors right??
What I want to be very clear about here legends is that delegating tasks to other people is NOT at all easy. This morning on Level Up Tradie, our blokes only leadership program, we chatted about this exact thing. How hard it is to delegate.
Here’s a list of reasons we don’t do it:
- Nobody does it as well as I can do it
- Everybody fucks it up when they do do it
- It takes so bloody long to teach anyone anything I might as well do it myself
- I can do it quicker
- I can’t rely on people because they just don’t care as much as I do
But, there is also a long list of reasons we NEED to delegate. Because:
- Nobody will ever get the chance to be as good as you or do it for you because you keep doing it yourself
- You will never live a full life whilst still making an income while you keep doing it yourself
- You can not possibly take on ALL of the tasks that need to be achieved in your tradie business if you ever want to be successful without working 24/7
- YOU WILL END UP CASTRATED at some stage if you don’t
In one way or another, because you are NOT delegating tasks in your business you are likely giving your left nut away. To the clients, to the suppliers, to your staff, to every Tom, Dick & Harry, then leaving yourself and your family last.
At Ladies with Tradies, we call you a prostitute. You are prostituting your time out for everyone, and often, for not enough money.
Thing is - you are RUBBISH at a high percentage of the tasks you are nominating yourself to do in your business, and it is killing not just you, but your business ever so slowly.
I would have to say that about 65% of the tradies we work with are rubbish at organisation or procrastinate when it comes to being organised. Yet they keep saying to themselves ‘when I get this job finished I will get in the office and get that done’
And that friggen day NEVER comes!
Mate - who cares if you are rubbish at organisation? Give it to someone who is amazing at it! I can vouch for this because I am the most haphazard gypsy business owner getting round - all you see is carefully orchestrated by people around me - I just show up and do as I am told 89% of the time - and it is the most freeing thing to know I just have to be myself and do what I am good at.
Imagine if you just delegated things you don’t enjoy and are not good at to others? What would you give away? Invoicing? Phone calls? Quoting? Scheduling? Client communication? Sales?
There are people in your business already, or who would be well suited to your business that you could easily delegate this type of work to. They are your foreman/woman, they are your office admin person - they are out there, but you are letting your precious ego get in the way of letting go of it and letting someone else take your place. Your Ego is your enemy - you think it is there keeping you safe by helping you make ‘good’ decisions. I promise you it is not.
Problem is, your EGO loves to be right.
Each time you delegate something to someone and it doesn't go to your standard of perfect - your ego whispers in your ear with an evil snide and says ‘see - I told ya, no one can do it as well as you can, take it back, everyone else is shit’.
So you go back to your old ways because you proved yourself right.
But. You are wrong. So, so wrong. And your ego needs to go away quick smart before it completely ruins you, your relationship, your family and your business.
Truth is - your ego is what has hold of your left nut more than anyone or anything. The voice in your head that tells you that your way is the only way. The voice that says you can’t find good people. The voice that says it costs too much to get help. The voice that says it is easier to just do it yourself.
Ego is powerful. And it is killing you. In more ways than you know.
So - what can you delegate, so that your ego stops castrating you?
Get to it and tell us all about it when you do.
Need help with working out what you need to let go of? Get in touch with us here or drop into our DM’s we’ll gladly point you in the right direction!
