Delegation 101: When and How to Start Building Your Dream Team

As women entrepreneurs, we often feel like we have to do it all — but wearing every hat in your business can lead to burnout and stalled growth. In this episode of the Empower Her Entrepreneur Podcast, we dive into the power of smart delegation. Learn how to identify tasks you can hand off, make confident decisions about what to outsource, and create more space for balance, freedom, and growth. It’s time to stop spreading yourself too thin and start leading your business like the CEO you were meant to be.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:36

Hey there and welcome back to the Empowered Her Entrepreneur Podcast, the place where passion meets purpose and women in health and wellness learn to lead, grow, and thrive in their business. I'm your host, Janice Boudreaux, and today we're diving into a topic that every growing footcare business owner will need to face eventually. And what's that topic? Delegation 101. When and how to start building your dream team. Whether you're mobile footcare nurse, a clinic owner, or balancing multiple streams like education or mentorship, you can't do it all, at least not forever. And I've learned this over and over, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly, sometimes happily, and sometimes painfully. So how do you know it's time to start building your team? And what should that look like? Let's unpack it all today. So grab your coffee or lace up those nursing shoes, go for a walk, grab some wine, and let's get into it. So the first part I'm going to talk about is kind of the cost of doing it all. Let me start by asking you something. Have you ever ended your workday thinking, I don't even get to the important stuff today? Maybe you've been running from client to client, answering texts, filing forms, ordering supplies, trying to squeeze in the social media, and suddenly you're burned out. And the business isn't even really moving forward. Does it sound familiar? It's what happened to me. But the difference between me and what has led me to my success is that pause, that feeling, only lasted a small time. It's all about action. So recognize what I just mentioned. This is what I call the foot care bottleneck. You are the nurse, the admin, the cleaner, the marketer, the CEO, and the everything else in between. You know what? In the early days, wearing all the hats, it kind of made sense. You're scrappy, you're saving money, and you're learning every piece of your business. This is absolutely what I did. But what I do is the minute I learn it, I know it, I feel good with it, it is going into someone else's hands. And the only reason I bring it back is because it needs tweaking. So I do step in back into the role because sometimes from an assessment perspective, so you're not totally out of it, but you are delegating it away. If you stay in that role too long of doing everything, you're gonna cap your growth and possibly your sanity. I see it all the time. The what-ifs, the oh-nos, the I'll just do it a little bit longer. And they actually don't grow their business. They're not moving to the next level. And often the next level is more profitable. More things are coming your way. Here's the truth: delegation isn't a luxury, it's a leadership skill. It's what allows you to scale and serve better. And the good news, delegation doesn't mean giving up control. It means building a system that lets your vision come to life with the right help. These are the things you need to be thinking of. These are the things that you need to put in place. So, what are some of the signs you're ready to delegate? Let's break that down. When do you know you're ready to delegate? Here are gonna, I'm gonna give you some five things that I happen to jot down that you're hitting that point. One, you're working in your business and not on it. If your days are filled with tasks that anyone could do, like appointment scheduling or client reminders, you're not focusing on growth, strategy, or even rest. Two, you're turning down opportunities. Maybe you had to say no to a workshop invite or a clinical partnership because you just didn't have the time. That's a huge red flag. That's one of the things I've never done. I have never turned down. I am in a growth mode. I am in a search and recover mode for anything that I can find. And I know how to delegate. And sometimes who you delegate it to, I just kind of want to get off topic here, but sometimes I delegate it to somebody and then we grow bigger and bigger, and even that person needs to be split in two. Always be cognizant of that. Anyway, number three, your client's experience is slipping. Things are falling through the cracks, follow-ups are late, emails go unanswered, or you forgot to reorder tools. That's just not stressful. It's damaging to your brand. Four, your income is flatlining. If you're fully booked and still not hitting your goals, it may be time to hire someone who can take admin or non-billiable tasks off your plate. Or maybe you're finally adding another nurse to your team. You don't need to bring them on full time. Get someone on for two to three days a week. That works well. Think outside the box. Number five, the big one. You're exhausted. Burnout is real. If you're resenting the business you once loved, delegation might just be your first step in falling in love with it again. And I have had to learn this over and over just this last week. When my business continues to grow, we are huge in the Toronto area. We continue to get more contracts, more clinical partners. And with every little bit of growth, whether it be a new location or some type of expansion, um, I'm not always ready for it. And I mean that's okay. Um, it's how I pick myself up very quickly and recalibrate. And you can do this too. So don't worry. Even if money is tight, your first hires don't need to be full-time or expensive. It could be a part-time admin, a virtual assistant, or even a student intern. So what should you delegate first? All right, now let's talk strategy. What should you actually delegate first? Here's a quick way to assess: grab a piece of paper and draw two columns. On the left, list all the tasks you do daily or weekly. And on the right, mark whether each task is low skill, low cost, medium skill, slash replaceable, high skill, you need to do it. This is the first assessment that you should give yourself. Don't say you're gonna do it. Go get the pen and paper as soon as the podcast is done and write down the things you do. It will be very interesting to break them into these columns. So here are some examples from foot care. Task, answering phones, booking clients, low skill, delegate. Social media posting, medium skill, delegate with training. Filing your client forms, low skill, delegate, reprocessing tools, low skill, but it does have to be trained. They can take, say, a public health reprocessing course, but it can be trained and easily passed on. Performing foot care, high skill, unless hiring another nurse. Networking with facilities, high skill, CEO role. That's where the build comes in. You'll start by delegating the low-skill repetitive tasks. These are often the first to outsource. This is where a clinic receptionist, admin assistant, or even a VA, a virtual assistant becomes invaluable. Then when you're ready, you can expand into revenue generating delegation, like hiring another nurse or clinical educator to increase your client load or geographic coverage. These are all things I'd love to see if anyone has a chance when I post this podcast. I'd really love to see what some of your lists look like. So we've got all that down. Now, how to start building your dream team from that list. Now, this is where the magic happens. How do you actually start building your dream team? Well, here's my empower her, and this is a four-step framework. Step one, define the role before the person. Before you ever hire your best friend's niece or someone who's just looking for part-time work, write out the actual role you need filled. What are the top five to ten tasks? How many hours per week? What values or qualities must they have? Will they be remote or in person? Clarity now saves chaos later. I'm gonna repeat that. Clarity now saves chaos later. Step two, start small and tests. Don't feel like you need to go all in. Start with a five-hour week amen or contract a nurse for one clinic a week, or maybe she's gonna do home visits for you. This gives you space to train gradually, work out the kinks, and definitely evaluate that fit. And if it's not working, release. Step three, use systems to support them. Don't throw someone into your business without tools, creating standard operating procedures, templates, and onboarding documents. You want your new hire to succeed. This is something in my business that we work really, really hard to develop. And those were getting those operating procedures. We have contractor procedures, policies and procedures, reprocessing procedures. We have absolutely anything. If this is something too hard for you to do, head on over to our AFCNlearning Institute.com where we have many of our processing or sorry, um, manuals available for operating, for hiring. We have contracts, we have a we take kind of the you know, make it easy for you. Anyway, some of the great tools we've used are Google Drive for sharing all of our docs for our company. Uh, we will use uh Clinico for scheduling, people use uh Jane app, there's Callinly. We love ours because it does all of our charting, um, and also has a great dashboard. If you can have a dashboard, it's somewhere all communication can happen for your team. That is really well. Step four, lead with vision. You're not just hiring a helper, you're inviting someone into your mission. Be clear about your why with your values and the experience you want clients to have. When your team believes in the vision, they act like owners. That's how you build loyalty and excellence from day one. These are really important things. I always try to lead with vision. I want to mention when building a team, you will have some that come and you will have some that go. And there will be a right fit. I now have a team of 19 individuals. Many have come and gone over the year, and there are many who've been there the whole time. It is the right fit, and you need to remember if something doesn't work out, it just wasn't generally right for that person in their life or a great fit. You shouldn't be hurt by it. They're just a different space in their life, and you move on and you hire. So let's get some real talk. What I have learned the hard way. Can I be real with you for a second? In my early years, I waited too long to delegate at times. I thought it's faster if I just do it myself. No one will care as much as I do. I can't afford help. And all of those thoughts were absolutely total mess. Delegation actually saved my business from burnout. When I brought on my first admin, I felt like I had room to breathe again. When I partnered with clinical educators, or impact grew tenfold. And when I built our team, I realized that leadership isn't about doing it all. It's about creating a space where all of us can do their best work alongside each other. If you're scared, that's okay. Do it scared, do it with clarity, but just start. This is something I revisit often. We're talking about honesty. I would say about every two years, I get into the delegation trap where we've grown exponentially and I need to um the, you know, move on from it and hire, or sometimes it's about taking a different role and position. It was really, really hard for me to move on from hands-on foot care. So the best way to do it was to do a retirement announcement. And then I took on just an office and CEO role. I managed the managers, and I have never felt so much relief. A lot of you out there, you're not, I know you're not at that level. But imagine when you're doing all you can and now your clinics are building up, but you've got home visits. It may be first to delegate the home visits away, or maybe um a little bit of both. So a quick recap and takeaway. Let's wrap this up. You can't grow if you're doing it all. Delegation is a leadership tool, not a failure. And watch for signs, burnout, flat income, missed opportunities. That says it's time. Start by offloading low-skill, time-consuming tasks. Use systems, clarity, and values to build your dream team. Start small, test, and go from there. Your dream team starts with you leading boldly. And even if it's not a team of nurses, this might be just admin staff. You love foot care and you just want to work foot care. But you know what? That part-time assistant, even just 10 hours a week, may make you feel a lot better. And you know what? Work-life balance is everything. So thanks for spending this time with me, my Empower Her community. If today's episode sparks something in you, maybe a reminder that you don't have to do it all, I'd love to hear from you. You can always comment on when the post and the podcast comes out. And don't forget, if you found value in today's episode, please share it with another incredible footcare nurse who's ready to lead her business with purpose. Until next time, keep serving, keep leading, and keep rising. You all have this.