Originally published July 9 as "Bootstrappers Delegation Checklist." where Pete Tormey and did a short podcast on a checklist to help bootstrapping entrepreneurs decide what tasks it made the most sense to delegate in an early stage startup.
Pete is a serial entrepreneur and patent attorney with Antero Tormey. He co-moderates the Bootstrapper Breakfast group that meets the first Wednesday of the month at Boudin Bakery in Embarcadero 4 in San Francisco. We covered a couple of key points:
- Make of list of the critical tasks that you need to accomplished: these cannot be delegated.
- Understand the skill level and relevant experience of the person you plan to delegate the task or function to. Even though the task may be an appropriate one to delegate you may spend as much time closely monitoring someone who is not experienced.
- Focus on the real business risks you are facing:
- Does a market exist for your product?
- Do you have a compelling value proposition?
- How can you find prospects, determine if they have a need for your product, and convince them to pay for it?
- Business structure questions and scaling issues should be deferred until key risks have been addressed.