One of the things I have learned so far running a small business is that you need to learn to use your staff.  For a couple of days after I took over the law practice, I tried doing all of “my” work myself.  What I found is that I need to be more efficient, and that includes delegating some of the work to my staff.  One of the things that really saved me a lot of time was to begin dictating all of my letters and notes to files.  I don’t know what the exact research numbers would show, but I know you can talk a lot faster than you can type or write, and it doesn’t take too long to proof the final product.  Rather than spending 15-30 minutes thinking of what to say and typing in, then proofing it, I just speak into the recorder in a matter of seconds or minutes and my assistant can type it up.  Now, this is just one simple example of things that I’m sure most business owners do every day that they could save time and money on by delegating the work to someone else.  There are literally hundreds of other things such as packing and shipping, getting the mail ready to go out each morning, opening mail, checking messages on the voice mail, and so much more. 

 I know as a small business owner you take on many roles including: president, designer, book keeper, shipping clerk, receptionist and much more.  When you can delegate things to other people to do it makes you more efficient because you are able to focus on the work that really needs your attention.  Take some of the stress off of yourself and spread the work around a little.  You will be more profitable, and your mind will be more focused on doing the work you are meant to do.