Have you ever looked at how you divide up the work in your business?

Last November, I wrote about looking at tasks rather than entire jobs when deciding on who is needed in a team (or who does what in an existing team).

Look at tasks not roles

Tasks interconnect like branches

As a sole trader it can be overwhelming how many things you have to do.

It can also be overwhelming to think about what you could outsource or employ someone for to gain more control.

I know if I look at what I’d like to get someone else to do (and already do so for some tasks), it seems like a mix of tasks that wouldn’t be easy to give to one role. Or would require a lot of training if I did give it to one person.

However, by taking it one task at a time I was able to see what could be done by others.

So I outsourced the data entry of my accounts to a bookkeeper. Later, I also got her to compile some quarterly stats reports for me.

I got someone else to manage sending out email messages – I write the content but someone else gets it into the email system, manages the email list and sends them for me.

Hiring one person or handing out many tasks at once would obviously free up more time instantly (excluding training time anyway). But if it is too hard to set that up, it won’t happen so a series of small improvements was much more effective for me.

Would you find it easier to look at tasks than jobs, too?