Episode Twenty-One | Lighten the Load: What Business Owners Should Delegate Before Year-End
Hosted by Ruth Ann Janson special guest: Blair Ryan
Introduction
Ruth Ann Janson
Hi, everyone. I'm Ruth Ann Janson. I am the president of The Dove Agency, and today we have our senior director of financial services, Blair Ryan, with us. So glad to have you, Blair. I think you're a repeat-
Blair Ryan
Happy to be here.
Ruth Ann Janson
I think you're a repeat guest. [laughing]
Blair Ryan
I think maybe, yeah, second time.
Delegation in Q4 and Beyond
Ruth Ann Janson
We are going to talk today about a couple things, like pushing into the end of the year, that we think are topical. Basically, this idea of delegation. Like, as a business owner, our designers that own their firms, what are some things that they can be thinking about delegating in Q4? It's a very busy time, holidays, kind of people ramping up, wanting maybe projects installed before Thanksgiving, or, and also dealing with, you know, vacations and holidays of your team members, et cetera. The other thing around delegation is more of a bigger idea, which is having kind of thoughtful time in Q4 about what are some of the tasks that are on your plate as an owner that you can possibly think about delegating in 2027? So that's a little of a bigger idea, but we're going to dive into both of them. So, let's talk about just kind of the low-hanging fruit, Blair. What are some things that our clients can be thinking about, and just small business owners, that they need to be delegating ASAP in Q4?
Year-End Bookkeeping and Accounting
Blair Ryan
I would not be senior director of financial services if I didn't remind everyone that going into the end of the year is a heavy bookkeeping and accounting time.
Ruth Ann Janson
Yes.
Blair Ryan
So, delegating to your third-party providers to get your books closed out, in preparation for 1099s due in January, or financial returns. If you have information that they're looking for, making sure that you're getting that over to them-
Ruth Ann Janson
Correct.
Blair Ryan
... To close out and have kind of a clean start heading into the holidays to set you up for success in 2027.
Tax Planning with Your CPA
Ruth Ann Janson
In 2027. What about CPAs? What... Is there anything special there that they should be either getting connected or getting information to in, specifically in Q4?
Blair Ryan
It can be helpful to send over financial statements or getting a quick touchpoint with your CPA, and they can give estimates, some-
Ruth Ann Janson
Yeah.
Blair Ryan
... tax planning that a bookkeeping team wouldn't be able to provide in the same way, so reaching out to them to glean some of that information, to get it handled before December 31st-
Ruth Ann Janson
Yes.
Blair Ryan
... for the cutoff is a good strategic move for a business owner.
Administrative and Holiday Tasks
Ruth Ann Janson
Yes. Agreed, agreed. Well, those are sort of the nitty, like, financial things that people probably don't enjoy talking about-
Blair Ryan
Mm-hmm.
Ruth Ann Janson
... but they are really looming. Year-end is going to be here before you know it. There's a few other things that we were kind of thinking of that are more, like, in the administrative kind of realm-
Blair Ryan
Mm-hmm.
Ruth Ann Janson
... that sometimes owners may kind of think, "Oh, I need to complete these tasks," but they really are probably taking up too much brain power, too much time, and probably getting pushed and not being done in a timely manner because the owner's plate gets so filled up. So what are a couple of those other ideas that, that you might have, Blair?
Blair Ryan
Those holiday-related items. So, if you're sending out holiday cards to clients, getting those drafted and ready to be sent out, addressing envelopes. In the same way, if you send gifts to your vendors or to your clients, getting those executed takes time.
Ruth Ann Janson
Yes.
Blair Ryan
And so, if you are the business owner who wants the hands-on approach, you can absolutely pick the gifts; you can stylize anything, but giving it to someone else to handle the administrative piece of it-
Ruth Ann Janson
Right.
Blair Ryan
... can take it off of your plate so you can get everything else done that needs to be handled before the end of the year.
Ruth Ann Janson
Yeah, because that's 90% of that task, right?
Blair Ryan
Yes.
Partial Installations and Vendor Payments
Ruth Ann Janson
You don't need to be owning all the different aspects of that. And then also, like, from, like, digging into your business perspective, what about taking a look at your projects? Like, what are some good ideas of things to kind of delegate and push to other team members, with regard to your projects that are in the works in Q4?
Blair Ryan
I think there's two key pieces to it. One is reviewing your items to see what you have on hand, either in your office or at-
Ruth Ann Janson
Mm-hmm.
Blair Ryan
... a receiving warehouse, if you can push that out to your client to install in a partial installation. And I know clients love to get those things before the end of the year. They're probably-
Ruth Ann Janson
Yeah.
Blair Ryan
... hosting for the holidays and would love to have as much as they can. You also avoid the extra storage over the holiday season.
Ruth Ann Janson
Yeah.
Blair Ryan
So, pushing those out. And then, in the same way, looking at what your upcoming vendor payments are-
Ruth Ann Janson
Yes, that's right.
Blair Ryan
... and seeing if you can expedite any of those. If you have a payment that's going to be due on the 29th and your office is closed, sending it out right before you close so that nothing is held up or delayed in your ordering process.
Ruth Ann Janson
And what's a good way to kind of get a handle on those? Is it mostly, like, digging into Studio, looking at their reports and kind of highlighting things, and then pushing that to the team, to somebody on your team? That's probably the most efficient way, if you're in Studio or some of these other, Houzz Pro, IDnest, if that may be the case.
Blair Ryan
Yeah.
Ruth Ann Janson
And taking a look at those items that are lingering for December, November, and December timeline.
Blair Ryan
Mm-hmm. Whatever your project management system is, you should be able to generate a list of-
Ruth Ann Janson
Yes.
Blair Ryan
... these are the balances that I still owe out to vendors. Giving those to your team members to make sure they're valid balances, and it's not something that we're waiting on a bookkeeper to post.
Ruth Ann Janson
Right.
Blair Ryan
Or I got free freight, and I don't owe this $100 anymore.
Ruth Ann Janson
Right.
Blair Ryan
So, checking those balances, and then once whoever is responsible for those payments on your team and has the knowledge to dig in and clean them up-
Ruth Ann Janson
Yeah.
Blair Ryan
... pushing any additional items out to your vendors, paying them from there.
Client Invoicing Before Year-End
Ruth Ann Janson
Perfect. This is something we didn't prep for, so I'm throwing you a curveball. What about on the invoicing side, like, trying to get client invoices out the door or, also equally importantly, is trying to get client invoices paid up prior to year-end?
Blair Ryan
Mm-hmm.
Ruth Ann Janson
What's some kind of words of wisdom around delegating that, or maybe just, this is possibly just the owner, him or herself?
Blair Ryan
Could be, could be the owner. Sometimes, a client is going to be more responsive to a designer that they're working with and having to make selections.
Ruth Ann Janson
Mm-hmm.
Blair Ryan
So, if there's a soft way for a team member to follow up on the invoice instead of it coming from a QuickBooks email or an automated email, making sure that they're paying attention and responding-
Ruth Ann Janson
Right.
Blair Ryan
... to that email while you have their attention. And then in the same way, getting your invoicing done timely. For most people, that happens either towards the end or the beginning of the month.
Ruth Ann Janson
Yes.
Blair Ryan
So, if it's going to be during a closure, either making sure that you have all the information that you need ahead of time to be able to send those invoices at the beginning of the month, or maybe sending them a little earlier and communicating with your clients-
Ruth Ann Janson
Yes.
Blair Ryan
... that the timing is going to be different for this month to get them out.
Ruth Ann Janson
Yeah, and I think that's just a great tip right now, is kind of adjusting your invoicing schedule for both Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Blair Ryan
Yes.
Bigger Picture: Delegating in 2027
Ruth Ann Janson
I mean, that's something that you... We like to give takeaways. There's one easy one right now. Go and adjust that normal schedule. Okay, kind of pivoting to this other idea of bigger picture, things that owners can be considering delegating just in 2027 possibly, things they've been maybe hoarding up on their plate that are sucking up too much time, sucking up too much joy, whatever the case may be. I think that is actually the first thing we wanted to talk about, is things on your plate as an owner that are taking... sapping your joy. Like, that's an easy way to, like, start vetting these things-
Blair Ryan
Yes.
Ruth Ann Janson
... to push off your plate, right?
Blair Ryan
Yep. The most common one that I hear from designers is invoicing or time tracking.
Ruth Ann Janson
[laughs]
Blair Ryan
I have heard it, not joyful, and as far as to say that it's soul-sucking.
Ruth Ann Janson
Yes.
Blair Ryan
So, if you have something that's soul-sucking on your plate that you go to your team, and you might have someone who loves to do those kinds of things, you know, checking boxes is what brings them joy, then push that task to them.
Building Trust with Your Team and Providers
Ruth Ann Janson
Or a third-party provider, if that's-
Blair Ryan
Yes.
Ruth Ann Janson
... maybe something that you're already... like, you already have somebody that is in place. Is it an option to possibly put more things on their plate than they're currently doing? Because you have built up a situation where you trust them, which kind of leads to a bigger part of the delegation in general when you're thinking about this, which is this trust factor, right? So, it's, it's easy to identify things that don't bring you joy that you might want to push off your plate. I think what's a little bit harder to do is to try to find the individual, like, either in-house or whether it's a third-party provider, that you trust enough. I mean, this is your baby. Like, your business is your baby, right?
Blair Ryan
Mm-hmm.
Ruth Ann Janson
That you trust enough to actually try to get those tasks on their plate. And I think that does lie with you as the owner in terms of vetting out the individual or the other firms that you can trust, but you have to lay the groundwork for that, and you have to mentor, and you have to kind of lean into that to establish how you're doing things, how you want things done. You can't just, like, plop things on somebody's plate.
Blair Ryan
Yes.
Ruth Ann Janson
There has to be kind of the back and forth and that trust that's generated over time.
Blair Ryan
Mm-hmm. And I think the added bonus that comes with getting these things off of your plate, it's not bringing you joy, and it opens up more time. Usually, what is bringing joy is doing design work.
Ruth Ann Janson
Yes.
Blair Ryan
And freeing up more time for that is also freeing up for more billable time that benefits your bottom line at the same time.
Automate or Eliminate Before You Delegate
Ruth Ann Janson
Yes. That's a, that's a great way to tie a bow on that. And I think the third thing that, that we wanted to talk about in light with all these other things that we're discussing on the 2027 front, which is things that don't bring you joy, setting up a foundation of trust, but here's the sticking point, is that you shouldn't just be carte blanche saying, "I don't like doing this. I trust somebody else. I'm going to give them this task." Let's take that a step further, or maybe a step prior, which is, don't delegate something that could possibly be automated or eliminated. So, we want to kind of dig into that a little bit and even share some ways that we do that here at The Dove Agency.
Blair Ryan
Yeah, so for us at Dubb, we have automatic reminders, and for us, they come through in our specific softwares, but a calendar invite is another-
Ruth Ann Janson
Yes.
Blair Ryan
... great way to do that. So, if you have a weekly deliverable, just getting an invite that's going to pop up on your screen and say, "Reminder that you needed to send this to the client," and you can dismiss it if you've done it. If not, you can have it remind you in another 30 minutes. But that's a good way to make sure things are going out the door as expected. And then if they're not, it lets you preemptively communicate that something might be coming delayed.
Ruth Ann Janson
That something might be coming. Yes.
Blair Ryan
It’s always better to say that ahead of time than to wait and push it out after the fact.
Ruth Ann Janson
And the good thing about getting that automation set up, like, it... whether it's in the software product or a simple calendar invite, is that it’s something that you can give a window into. Somebody on your team can still see those reminders coming through, and you can push that to them and say, "If you see any reminders that we haven't sent out invoices or we haven't sent the, you know, client proposal by a certain date," this is something that can easily be monitored by somebody besides you.
Blair Ryan
Yes. Yeah.
Ruth Ann Janson
And that takes a little bit of the pressure off kind of having to have everything in your head and remembering everything. The more automations that you can get in place, there's more visibility to those, to-dos within your team or even with, third-party providers. Everything doesn't have to live in your head. Once it's kind of-
Blair Ryan
Yeah.
Ruth Ann Janson
... documented in the system, that's an easy way to bring others into it and have more visibility.
Reducing the Mental Load
Blair Ryan
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I talk a lot about the mental load that people have, whether-
Ruth Ann Janson
Yes.
Blair Ryan
... it's in their work life or their personal life. Anything that you can take off of just a mental list in your head and put on paper where someone else can see it, or you get a second set of eyes or a reminder, is important.
Ruth Ann Janson
Yes. And I think just as a business owner, you do, I can speak to this, sometimes feel like that you have such a weight on your shoulders, and getting some of these things in black and white in front of other eyes and just knowing whether it's, you know, a business manager, whether it's senior, you know, person on your, team, knowing that they have eyes on things as well, it does give you a little bit of breathing room and lets you sleep a little bit better at night knowing that you, your brain is not responsible for remembering every single thing in the universe with regard to your company.
Blair Ryan
Yes.
Ruth Ann Janson
And that's, that's for superhumans. Like, I don't know if people can really accomplish that. [laughs] So that was a great way, I think, to kind of end on the superhuman note, right?
Blair Ryan
Yeah. Yep.
Closing Quote
Ruth Ann Janson
We love to have a little bit of a quote at the end of this that kind of ties the whole idea up in a bow, and today's quote is from Laura Stack. She is a productivity expert, and she has this great quote, which is, "Delegation is not about getting rid of tasks. It is about empowering others to help achieve your goals." So go out, delegate those Q4 tasks, think about the 2027 tasks that you can delegate, and let's achieve those goals.
Blair Ryan
Absolutely.
Ruth Ann Janson
See you next time on TopBranch.
Blair Ryan
Bye, everyone.
Ruth Ann Janson
Thank you.