4 Sure-Fire Signs You Need Additional Personnel

“Most people are so busy knocking themselves out trying to do everything they think they should do, they never get around to what they want to do.” – Kathleen Winsor

Most business owners and team leaders hold off on hiring additional staff for their businesses until they end up totally exhausted and overwhelmed. And do you know why they do this? Three reasons: 1) because they think they can do it all themselves, 2) they don’t want to spend the money, and 3) they don’t want to give up control.

There comes a point where you have to learn to let go of the little things, bring in some qualified people, so you can focus on the big things that build your business. Here are 4 sure-fire signs that it’s time you need to start looking (and asking) for assistance.

1. Your inbox looks like 2 million ‘spammers’ have sent you mail… but they haven’t. How many important letters of interest emails (and sales) have you missed responding to simply because it was buried at the bottom of your inbox? If you’re the main contact person for your business, you can’t afford to let requests pile up unanswered and unread for days in your email accounts. Today’s consumer wants instant gratification and if you haven’t responded to their letter of inquiry within 48 hours, they’ll take their business elsewhere.

2. You’re double booking appointments and missing deadlines left and right. Dropping the ball with clients or prospective clients isn’t going instill confidence in your ability to meet deadlines. Lots of my clients have unintentionally double booked appointments and then found out after the fact that they indeed missed one of them. If your schedule is getting so full of client or other meetings that you need a GPS just to navigate through your work week, it might be high time to hire an assistant.

3. You haven’t spent more than 5 waking hours in the last 5 days with your spouse or children, and your dog tried to bite you because he thought you were an intruder. I know this sounds funny, but trust me, this scenario does happen! If you find that you’re putting in over 60+ hours a week at your place of business, you definitely need to hire additional personnel. It’s time to make a detailed list of all the tasks you perform in one day and decide which ones you can delegate to another person. Freeing up some of your precious time will allow you to concentrate on what you do best, namely growing your own business.

4. The IRS called and they’re looking for tax receipts from 2000 and you haven’t a clue where they’re stored. This is when sheer panic will set in. Busy business owners tend to procrastinate on doing the ‘small’ things that may be tedious and time consuming, like simple filing and the organization of office paperwork. Yet these tasks have to be taken care of or else you can find yourself in a real bind when you need to find a contract or document and it’s buried in a three foot high pile of loose papers. It may take you 2 hours to find what you’re looking for and you’re still left with that mountain of paper. On the other hand, if you hired a part-time assistant and it took her 2 hours to set up your initial filing system, from then on it may only take 10 minutes to find a specific document.

In closing, another sure sign that you need to hire additional assistance is when you realize you haven’t had a real vacation in over a year, and you can’t see yourself taking time off for another 6 months. Whoa! Time to back the truck up and revisit the real reason you went into business for in the first place. I don’t think it was to work yourself into an early grave, was it?