What tasks should you delegate as a writer? Jana Buchmann has 4 tips that will help you be more effective and productive in your writing business.
How many hats are you wearing?
It’s inevitable. As a small business owner (and you ARE a business owner as an author who wants to sell books), you will wear many, many hats.
Writer.
Marketing manager.
Bookkeeper.
Content developer.
Coach.
Technical support staff.
But while this type of task juggling is to be expected, you have to be aware that not all of your hats are created equal.
Marketing outweighs bookkeeping, for example, because without marketing, there will be no cash to manage.
Not only that, but you have to consider how much time you’re spending in each area as well. If you spend all day tweaking the design on your website and put off sending an email to your list, what have you gained?
Sure, you might have a prettier website, but you lost an opportunity to drive traffic to your offer.
Delegate more tasks as a writer
There comes a time in every entrepreneurial venture where you realize you simply cannot do it all yourself.
Sure, when you’re just getting started you really are the “chief, cook and bottle washer.”
But as your business grows, it becomes painfully obvious that trying to do everything is only going to lead to:
- Frustration (when critical tasks don’t get done and deadlines are missed)
- Burn out (when you’re working yet another 12-hour day)
- Overwhelm (when your to-do list is longer at the end of the day than it was at the beginning)
There are many ways to combat this business-growth hurdle, but one of the best tools is automation.
Imagine a completely hands-off system that works for you even when you’re hiking on a remote mountain or lounging at a spa.
But here’s an even better reason to automate: it lets you scale your writing business.
Think about it, the less manual work you have to do, the more time you have to do the money-making tasks such as networking, marketing, and most important: WRITING.
What should you automate?
You can automate almost everything, but start with:
Email Funnels
What happens when a new subscriber joins your mailing list? Do they just sit in waiting on your list until you have time to send an email?
While broadcast emails have their place—especially in time-sensitive promotions—be sure to also set up an autoresponder series. You will want to set up this series to tell the reader more about you and give them that freebie they signed up for.
Chances are if they signed up, they already read something of yours they enjoyed and would like to learn more about you.
You can tell them more about the progress on your next book for a few days or share some illustrations to entice them. You can give away the first book in your series.
No matter what you use the autoresponder for, just make sure you’re starting that relationship.
And the best thing?
Once your autoresponder is set up, it will continue to work even when you’re not. MailChimp or Mailerlite are great options with free plans.
Email is a great task delegate as a writer so you can focus on creating more content.
Social Media Management
Yes, it’s important to be personable and engaging on social media, but that doesn’t mean you have to log in to Facebook just to post a link to your latest blog or be on Instagram all the time.
Automate that kind of update and save yourself hours of time each and every month. Not only that, but you won’t have to worry about missing an update, either! Check out the free plans of Buffer or Hootsuite.
There are dozens of options for automating every aspect of your small business. As you grow, you’ll find new and better tools to make everything run more smoothly.
But there is one thing you need to think about: You really can’t do it all alone.
No small business becomes a big business with a single person at the wheel.
It takes a team of experts to scale your efforts.
How to build a team
The problem is, building that team brings its own stress.
How can you know who to trust? Where will you find the time to explain your needs? What if you can’t afford to outsource?
These and other questions are what can prevent you from growing your sales and leveraging successful marketing. Here’s what to do about it.
Know Your Personal Work Style & Preferences
Not everyone works in a similar style. Some people love to touch base by phone, while others prefer email.
Some people require a couple of coordination meetings, others work better when you leave them alone until they have some results.
No way is right or wrong, but if you’re a phone person and you hire an email lover, there’s going to be conflict.
Look for team members who are a fit with your preferred work style, and you’ll be much happier with the end result.
Start small
Start by hiring one person to take on the tasks you most dislike, then slowly grow your team and their responsibilities.
Eventually, you’ll be left with only the work you truly want to do and that you enjoy: WRITING! (and your author’s business will run even more smoothly).
When you delegate as a writer, you avoid Shiny Object Syndrome, prevent writer’s burnout, and get more readers subscribing to your emails.
Bio
Jana Buchmann is a children’s book author assistant who takes on the tasks you don’t want to do so you can focus on writing.
Jana is a specialized author assistant who understands the importance of engaging regularly with readers and helps authors maintain their newsletters, social media, and ads.
Learn more about Jana’s author services here: https://www.jbauthorservices.com/
