📍 You don't know your expectations until they aren't actually met. And that is something I've said to quite a few founders over the years
and the ones who have really sat with that feedback, have usually realized that they are trying to delegate a problem that they haven't actually defined yet. And that's what we're gonna dive into on today's episode.
Somewhere along the way in your entrepreneurial journey, running a business got way more complicated than it needed to be. Between the advice that's built for eight figure companies, systems that felt unnecessarily heavy, and strategies that sounded smart, but didn't actually fit the way you work, you probably ended up putting in a whole lot of effort without getting better results.
Listen, business is hard enough. Can we not make it harder? So welcome to the Can We Not Business podcast. I'm Sam and I'm all about uncomplicating the strategies and work of running a business so it can not only be profitable, but also enjoyable At Oxo Business Services. I work with visionary doers who like to be busy.
But want that effort to create momentum instead of more noise. We're a back office agency that helps founders build support systems that actually work through US-based virtual assistants, recruiting for key roles and tough love strategies that turn ideas into execution. Now, this show is. Founder led businesses with small teams, or even no team at all.
Yet we're gonna talk about the behind the scenes decisions and real day-to-day work that shape your business so you can stop chasing the shiny objects, get out of second guessing spirals, and simply be more profitable. So let's get into it.
📍 So confession time, I have had clients cancel on us, so I run a virtual assistant agency.
My whole bread and butter all day long is thinking about how to set assistance up for success and how to set founders up for success, and how can they collaborate and delegate effectively, and sometimes that has not worked out. I have reflected on what we've done wrong. There have definitely been times that I, I totally own that it was on us, like the fit wasn't right or.
We overestimated an assistant skillset, and they weren't as strong as we thought they were, and I totally own those, those failures. But in the moments where it's like, oh, this VA was strong and this founder seemed quite competent, like they're a good communicator. Like, what is still going wrong here? I was pulling my hair out on what exactly that issue was, where the breakdown was happening.
And what I realized was it was on the founder, which I don't love to say I passed zero judgment on the founders who, it was your fault that this assistant did not work out, and I passed no judgment because there's something that I have come to understand about those situations and the dynamics that were actually happening there.
And they were, they were trying to put the cart ahead of the horse.
They were trying to hand things off and kind of build out their team without having some clarity on, uh, on a few very crucial answers that actually make building out your team work.
So I'm gonna dive into three crucial areas of clarity that you need to have in place before you go about bringing on an assistant to help you in your business. Okay? And before you drone out, don't click out of this episode yet.
Before you could just roll your eyes and assume that I'm gonna tell you to go build SOPs. Know that I'm not, I'm not gonna tell you to build out SOPs, and I'm a process person. I do love a clean, efficient, documented process. But I still don't think that you need to have those in order to start with delegation.
And I know the fractional COOs and the integrators and all the people are gonna come at me for saying that, but you don't need to have them. They are wonderful to have. SOPs are, this is like a totally different episode, but the one comment I'll make on this is that SOPs are wonderful to have, when you've started to figure things out in your business.
But your SOP is gonna change as soon as you bring on a new team member. So why would you build that out before you've hired them? And also you, I, if likely, if you're in my audience, if you've stumbled across my stuff, I'm assuming that you're like a visionary doer. You've got ideas and then you like to go act on those ideas.
You like to go do things. You don't wanna sit down and write out. How you're going to make that thing happen, right? So if you are stuck in the, well, I need to have processes in place first, then you're just gonna end up procrastinating. 'cause you never wanna sit down and create those SOPs. You're gonna procrastinate on making the SOPs to get the help you need, and then you never get the help you need.
So it's, don't start there. Okay. There's three things that you need to start with.
What you're actually building.
How you want to show up and play in your business,
and how the outcomes of delegation tie to the bigger picture of the business.
All right, so let's get into all three of those. The first one, what you're actually building, I have found that there are founders who have convinced themselves that they are not growing because they are simply at capacity. They cannot do anything else in order to grow. That is only true if you have a fairly strong lead generation and sales pipeline.
If you are in the middle of switching to like totally new service, uh, totally new service offerings, or you are like, ah, once I delegate, I'll have more time to do business development, but your definition of business development is networking more. Then the statement of I cannot grow because I'm at capacity is likely not true for you.
What is likely true is that you do not have great clarity on your service offering, your ideal client profile and your vision for the business, where exactly you want to go, and how your business and personal goals connect. So I would take a lot of time in reflection, especially like at the time of recording this, it's the end of Q1 of 2026.
And so it's a great time for reflection anyway. Like, do we have clarity on where I want to go? The horizon I'm building toward. And then am I clear on then who I'm trying to sell to on my ideal client profile and the best marketing funnel that works for my personality and working style and for the ideal client profile.
And then what exactly am I funneling them toward what are the service offerings that I want them to buy and get clarity on the marketing and sales funnel there? And with that, you wanna then connect that to your, your operation. So if I'm funneling them towards this service and here is what this service looks like, here's how my marketing and my operations.
All connect for the grand picture of my business model. And when we, when I do delegation strategy sessions with clients, we call that the map it stage. And so we map all of that out, how sales and marketing connects to service delivery and how that connects to your cash management and how you actually get paid.
But we want clarity on all of that, what the kind of business you're building and what you're building toward, that's your first step in clarity. The second step in clarity is knowing how you wanna show up in your business. And I always call this how you wanna play in your business.
So my big philosophies is that business can be simple and fun and still profitable. Those things are not mutually exclusive. And so what does having a successful business look like for you, but also. What does a fun business look like for you? If you were to be super proud that you were an entrepreneur and you no longer, you didn't want just your, your statement of why you're building a business, you want it to be more than just, well, I can't go back to corporate life.
Right. You, you want there to be more there. Yeah. You might have your why. For instance, one of my big why's is like I wanna have flexibility in, in my personal life, 'cause I'm a mom to young kids. That's an awesome reason to keep going when business gets tough.
But I also have to have clarity on like, well, what would make my business less tough if I focused on just these things? Like where are my strengths? What do I enjoy? So. What I've seen with some clients who they do have the best intentions with bringing on an assistant, but they go about delegating to this assistant and then they aren't totally clear what they're gonna do with their time, once certain things are not on their plate anymore, and then they end up coming back and dipping their toe back into those tasks that they were supposed to delegate.
And then they end up becoming like a micromanager and they get very into like, I wouldn't do this that way. I wouldn't do this that way.
And now they've put all those tasks back on their plate and they're back to square one and frustrated. In our delegation strategy sessions, we call this the keep it phase. So we've mapped things out and once we've mapped things out, we've started to circle or highlight or star or whatever we need to do to say, this is what your job description as the founder looks like.
This is what would make you super happy in the business and make this feel amazing for you. And so get clear on how you wanna show up in the business and where you want to play in the business.
And then the third area of clarity that you need here is how the outcomes of delegation connect to the bigger picture.
So let's go back to the example of you. You're assuming that you are, you can't grow because you're at capacity, but you don't have a strong lead generation system or a kind of sales pipeline.
So if you were to start to delegate your most, most likely the value statement you're going to make for your assistant is gonna sound something like, well, once I don't have these tasks on my plate and someone else is managing them for me, then I'll have more time for business development. And most likely what that business development means is networking.
And then you're gonna end up getting burnt out on networking. 'cause that just sucks all around. And so you've created a value statement where there's no actual connection in bridge, right? Let's assume that your assistant, even if they are doing some CRM stuff, they're likely doing more administrative focused tasks and so then their outcome.
Business development and growth is not directly related to the tasks that they are responsible for. We wanna change that. We wanna understand every part of the business, and this is why it's really helpful to map things out and understand what does it take for your business to function. We wanna understand
each part of the business task process, whatever it is, this is how it connects back to the larger picture. And so you want your value statement to sound a little bit more like this framework of if this assistant or if this person does these set of tasks really well, then that means this cool thing for the business, not for you, but for the business. For example, when I brought on my ops assistant, the value statement I had for her was if she handles these set of tasks well in the assistant management and client management, then that means a more white glove experience for our clients, which would likely lead to better retention and more referrals.
So there's a direct connection between her performing well in a certain set of tasks and the outcome for the business. And I, in other pieces of content, I've talked about how you need to delegate outcomes, not just tasks. So to her, I've delegated part of our client experience to her, which is more than just saying, I need you to handle.
This minute set of onboarding tasks, right? It allows for the processes and the SOPs to change however it's best for the business because I've delegated this set of outcomes to her.
All right, so if you have hired an assistant before and just struggled to keep them on long term, you're not sure why that's falling apart, or you are just like totally not sure what it's. Start with an assistant. Are you gonna be able to trust them? Are they gonna be able to do things the way you want?
And is there gonna be an actual ROI to their tasks where you can see the direct impact on the business because of hiring this person? And it's not just a. Eye roll of a expense line item on your p and l If, if that's the situation you're in, then I would highly encourage you to go through this, kind of map it, keep it, and then
delegate it framework. You can DIY, this, or if you love to think out loud and you just finally want. A confidant space where you can brain dump and have someone unravel the spaghetti of ideas that you've got in your brain. Then book a delegation strategy session with me.
This is a one-on-one deep dive. It's almost like business therapy and we're gonna get clear on all of that and help you figure out, here's exactly where an assistant would fit in your business. Here is the list of recommendations on the tweaks and strategic shifts that we wanna make in your business so you can have more fun as a founder and to really make a long-term fit with your assistant workout.
So go to our website, book a delegation strategy session, and let's dive into getting clear on your business.