Spring has arrived and you know what that means. Clean out the shed, trim the bushes and repair the sprinklers. Yes, I woke up to the beautiful sound of birds chirping and the site of blue skies and oh yeah, the “honey do list.” If you are a home owner you know all too well about “the list.” It’s everything your wife wants done in the first week of spring and everything you promised to do in the depths of winter when it seemed agreeable with spring soooo far away. Well, spring is here and it’s come all too soon. The way I tackle the list (in order to keep the peace in my home) is simple. Do the things I enjoy, and hire out the things I don’t want to do or are incapable of doing myself. It’s no different than managing my task lists at the office and considering hiring a consultant at my business.

Consultants can cost a great deal but they also can save your hide. Think about it. You can’t do everything, right? If you are excelling at management then you are delegating the necessities and taking on what’s important, right? Well, sometimes, there are too many “important” things to be done. In addition, you may be the owner, but you are not “great” at everything. Knowing this is one of the keys to success.

I like to break tasks into 3 key areas; what I have to do, what my staff needs to do and what we hire out. Try to choose things that you and your staff excel at. This means you need to know you and your staff’s strengths. In some cases, even when we excel at something it doesn’t always mean we need to do it. Good task management is critical. We use Office Tools Professionals‘ project and staff activity list features to gauge whether we have the time to take on certain projects.

Some common areas small practices hire consultants for are: IT support, web sites, software implementation and training. Most firms are not experts in technology or software training. This is usually due to the fact that these things are not a normal part of our business. Even when we are capable, training our staff on software that we have little exposure to, is risky business. An entire investment can become wasted if purchased software is not fully operational due to poor training. When purchasing software, always allow for extra resources for correct implementation and training. This can be done with on-site or over-the-web training and is best when left to the professionals.

One of the tasks we hire out is our marketing and our phone systems. Marketing takes a skill set that not only do we not have, but would take a great deal of time from our key staff. Phone systems are ever changing and an area that takes a lot of time. We manage our systems but would never install one on our own.

So when considering whether to put in the new sprinkler system, consider your costs, lost time and expertise. Sometimes the landscaper is the expert!