224: Delegating to Free Your Time

Michele  00:00

Hello, my name is Michele, and you're listening to Profit is a Choice. Joining me today on the podcast is Dominique Deraiche, with Designer Elite. She is a co-founder of Designer Elite, which provides Operations and Support for interior designers. Dom and I are going to have an awesome conversation on how to get help, how to determine when we're in overwhelm, and how to ask for support and delegate without dumping, which is another podcast that we've done. And I think you're going to learn a lot and enjoy it.

Michele  00:40

Every day, empowered entrepreneurs are taking ownership of their company financial health, and enjoying the rewards of reduced stress and more creativity. With my background, as a financial software developer, owner of multiple businesses in the interior design, industry, educator, and speaker, I coach women in the interior design industry to increase their profits, regain ownership of their bottom line, and to have fun again, in their business. Welcome to Profit is a Choice.

Michele  01:15

Hey, Dom, how are you? Welcome to the podcast.

Dominique Deraiche  01:18

I'm great. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited.

Michele  01:21

You're welcome. Glad to have you here. So Dom, you and I have worked together and are currently working together. And I know that you also work with a large number of my clients. And I wanted to bring you on today and just have some conversations about you, about your company, what you do, how you support, but also to give those that are listening, just an insight on how to work with operations managers, and virtual assistants and other people that they may need to whether hire or 1099 bring in to support their business. As we all know, our businesses are growing, and they're so big, it's hard to do everything by ourselves.

Dominique Deraiche  02:01

It really is. And I think we've spoken about COVID, kind of at nauseam in the past couple of years, but it's really opened up the opportunity for virtual workers to insert themselves in a variety of businesses. And there really is a huge need in the interior design industry for virtual support and specialists that can insert themselves into whichever aspect of our business.

Michele  02:27

So you are a co founder at Designer Elite, an agency that's focused on helping with designers to be able to do all this operations and VA and just all those additional things. Tell us a little bit about your business journey. What brought you to the point developing and starting this company?

Dominique Deraiche  02:49

Yes. So I used to work for the federal government. And I've always had the intention and the desire of moving my way into entrepreneurship and working from home. And so that was always my goal. So when I was pregnant with my daughter, I really, you know, started researching and trying to determine how I could make that happen also, because I wanted to be home with her and be present with her. So through some mutual connections, I got connected with my business partner, Kelcee. And so I started working with her and her agency, so kind of our parent agency, which is called a lead off support. And the very first client that she assigned to me was an interior designer. And so the niche or the niche, however you say, it just kind of found me, but I quickly discovered that I really love it. I really love and enjoy inserting myself into businesses, while interior design businesses.

Michele  03:55

You know, what's interesting is when I used to work in software development, we did a lot of work with government agencies. And one of the things that is interesting, at least from my experience, and I'm gonna guess for years, you can say if it's not, you can relate. Yeah, not my experience. But one of the things is they're very process driven, right? Things are very process driven. And that is what is super important in interior design firms is being very process driven. Understanding a process working through it, as I was sharing with a client earlier this morning. Sometimes it can feel like, for example, it's very hard to say that we're process driven because everything's so custom, and it is custom. But having a process to work within then allows us the freedom to be so creative. And so you know, like knowing how we're handling email knowing how we're reaching out to our clients, knowing how we're going to process and give them deliverables, that creates a boundary and it creates ease for us to use all that mental energy to then be creative. With a design. So I think that you've probably seen the same thing.

Dominique Deraiche  05:04

Yes, absolutely. Yes, it is. When we have good established processes, right with, it takes out the guesswork of how to move forward and allows us to be creative. And to focus on that, which is, you know, for interior designers, what you want to be focused on, you don't want to be stressed and bogged down with all the other, you know, minutiae of running a business, right. So having clear processes definitely helps with that.

Michele  05:32

So I know that creating operating procedures is something that you guys do all the time, you and your team is certainly helping people do that. What do you see, though, Don, when they come to you? Let's say that it's the first time they've ever asked for help delegated offloaded some work, however, we want to say it, thrown up the flag and said, I need some assistance is the first time so everybody's a little nervous. I know what I always hear, and I bet you hear this is, I know, I need help, but I don't even know what to give you or I don't know where to start. I don't know, how do you usually guide somebody if somebody's listening right now? And they're like, Yeah, that's me, I need to dip my toe in that water. I know, I need help. I know, I can't do this all by myself. What's one of the easiest things or maybe the first things to offload to create margin and bandwidth to think, before you create the other list?

Dominique Deraiche  06:25

You know, I always like to start off by asking what your pain points are, or what, what processes are kind of slipping through the cracks in your business, because it is different for every interior design business, right? Everyone struggles with different things. And some of the most common ones are definitely email management, right? Interior designers get so many emails, and it gets overwhelming, right, your email gets bogged down. So that would be you know, a really easy place to start and an easy place to delegate that task to, you know, that says, As easy as we can maybe start but we can also go to more complicated like ordering and expediting. There are so many things that we can delegate in, in a business.

Michele  07:09

I think some of the things that I'm seeing a lot of help, or assistance around from the designers that I serve are things like email management, for sure. And, you know, at first, I would hear them say, Well, I can't hand off my email, because there's no structure, but that's exactly why they're handing it off is for somebody to help create the structure. Right, they're going to sit down have a conversation of here's how folders might work best. And then the beautiful thing is, the team that is supporting is going to jump in and actually helped create the folders and then help organize it. The other thing that I see is a lot of challenges around helping us set up like a time management like Harvest? Or can you help us create SOPs or document something that we're doing? Or can we get help with creating welcome packets or some type of you know, visual deliverable? I also see the question of I need project management or I need to implement or I need to expand my project management, click up Asana, Basecamp, Trello, some of those types of things. Is that the type of thing that you're seeing coming in on your side as well?

Dominique Deraiche  08:20

Yes, absolutely. So definitely all the things that you have mentioned, also a lot of automating processes. So my onboarding, Client Onboarding, a system that is really super popular right now with interior designers is Dubsado, in order to be able to automate those two, you know, Client Onboarding, Client Onboarding.

Michele  08:44

So let me ask you, this Dom, as we as we move on. So we have all those types of systems that people need help with. And some of it is one time creation of a project or doing something for the first time. But some of the work is very ongoing, like email management, that would be one that would be consistent, maybe ordering and project tracking or product tracking, that could be an ongoing, how do you know when it's the right time to reach out for help? So if somebody's listening today, and they're thinking, How do I know that I need to reach out for help? What are some of the ways that they can look at their business or look at what's happening and make that determination?

Dominique Deraiche  09:24

Yes. So some of the ways you could determine that you really need to reach out for help is if you know, you have a huge To Do List, things are just not getting done. There are pieces of your business that are just, you know, like I mentioned earlier, slipping through the cracks, potentially you're pushing out projects, because you're just so overwhelmed at this point that you just can't, you know, take on any extra work at the moment. Maybe you're completely turning away projects. So those are all key indications that you really should be reaching out for help and, and delegating some.

Michele  10:04

I love that. You know, one of the things I work with Kelcee as well, and one of the things that she would always have me do as well as to your point, where are my sticking points. And I think that's an interesting concept because our sticking points can move as our business grows. So now that I've delegated, I always think I've delegated everything I can delegate, and then something else comes up, and it becomes the next sticking point. And I can delegate it again, it really is a way of thinking, a way of thinking, and I think the big question is, am I the one who needs to do this? Could someone else do this so that I could do what I'm great at? Or could somebody else do this that is better than I am at this or faster, or who loves this, when maybe I don't enjoy it as much, or it's slowing me down from the work that I really feel like I shouldn't be doing or that is the bigger moneymaker Right? Or the meeting of people in doing the sales process, like whatever that thing might be. And so it does vary. Let me ask this to then, what is how should that how do you have any suggestions for people that are thinking so should I hire internally? Or should I get virtual help? I know, we've done quite a few podcast on virtual help going through an agency not using an agency direct hires, like there's so many ways that we can get help. What makes hiring a virtual team member a good fit?

Dominique Deraiche  11:34

Well, so definitely pros and cons, like you said, right? Pros of hiring virtually, maybe you don't need someone for 40 hours a week, maybe you just need them for five or 10. Right? So customization, when it comes to how many hours you need. Also, you know, maybe in your specific area, you haven't been able to find anyone that has that key specialty, but you know, the virtual space, you can reach out to someone who lives, you know, across the country, and does have that specialty.

Michele  12:04

Yeah, those are really two important things to consider. I think that five and 10 hours a week is something that's really key. And here's why I say that. I have tried to hire people local to me for five and 10 hours, this was back in the day. And, you know, for five or 10 hours, if that was their only part time gig, it wasn't enough for them to sink their teeth into like it almost cost them too much to do five hours worth of work a week. Whereas if they were trying to I'm going to put in air quotes fill 40 hours worth of work, they could take my five hours a week, somebody else's five, somebody else's 20 and another 10. And they could build out their workload for the week. So it gave them the ability to jump in solve a problem for five hours, I had somebody one time that I heard. And after a while, she said to me, I'd rather do the dishes and get my kitchen clean than to spend those five hours because those five hours weren't making enough money in and of themselves. She felt worse, waking up with a dirty kitchen. Like that was hard for me at the time to hear. But now I understand. And so anytime that I would say the timing of what we need is less than full time, virtual can be considered. I've also loved it your other point of being able to find talent, I can find talent across the country, I've worked with people all over the country. I'm even outside of the country that provided expertise for me that I could not find locally, to come in. And so that has that has been great. Sometimes it's also faster. Like if I'm certainly waiting on somebody to come into or out of my office, that's going to slow things down. So being able to just immediately hop online and do it has been really, really, really great. So how do we create a plan? How should people create a plan before they get overwhelmed? So we've talked about reaching out when you're at a breaking point or when too much is going on? But how can they start? For those that are listening thinking? Number one, how can I be aware of when it's coming? If it hasn't yet? And how do I start planning in advance for that?

Dominique Deraiche  14:25

I think a good starting point. And I actually talked about this with a lot of the interior designers that I work with is pipelining. I call it pipelining project like you know looking ahead and determining what projects are going to be in what phase of the process at the same time or just looking in the future. So if you can determine that, you know, I'm going to have five projects, all in the Project Management phase at the same time. I know that I'm going to be overwhelmed in May right. So if you know if you can look ahead and determine that, you know, you're going to be overwhelmed at a certain point in time with your projects, then now would be a good start time to start delegating tasks, so that you can protect yourself in the future.

Michele  15:15

So, Dom If somebody is looking to bring on someone new, right, so as a VA operations, whatever, what are some of the considerations that they should take into account before they do that?

Dominique Deraiche  15:29

Definitely what their specialty needs to be right, because not everyone has the same skill set, and not everyone is going to be able to accomplish the same task that you want to delegate. So that would be my first, you know, the first consideration that you need to make is determining what the skill needs to be. And then, if we move in even further than that, right, once we find someone that we want to delegate to, do, we have the resources in place for them to be able to successfully do that task, right? So that can be so PS, that can be training videos, any of those types of resources to support that team member. And then if we again, just keep going, do you personally have the time to delegate and assist that person and support that person? So when we're delegating tasks on the front end, it's very, you know, labor intensive, kind of heavy, a team member initially is going to have a lot of questions, right, and are going to need a lot of support. But the payoff is long term, once they know what the process is, and they learn the task, then you can step back, and you know that the task is getting done and get that off of your plate.

Michele  16:55

That brings up a good point. And that I think, sometimes people will say, Well, I've tried delegating, and it didn't work, or I tried hiring somebody for VA operations, and it didn't work. And I've said that myself in the past, right. And from my experience, the reason that it doesn't work is because we weren't prepared to make it work, right. And so right, which I think is what you're alluding to, as well. So some of the ways that I see us preparing to make it work. And you can throw in some as well, if I miss any, but I think it's trying to have an idea of what it is we think we need, I love how you made a comment about really thinking about the level of person, you know, the more junior person we bring in the longer it's probably going to take them to figure it out and learn it that the more skilled they are, the faster but we also are going to pay more for that skill, right? So really trying to stay on top of the fact that if you want a super skilled person, you're going to pay a super skilled level, you don't get a senior designer at a junior designer rate, well, you're not going to get a Senior Project Manager, Operations Manager for, you know, $15 an hour. That's an entry level, rightly, it's just not even going to be saying. So being very clear on what that need is. But I also think the reason that we sometimes say that it didn't work is because we didn't have those training videos, we didn't have operating procedures. We didn't give somebody time to actually learn the job, for whatever reason. I have seen people hire virtually and expect them to pick it up faster than somebody who was standing in their office space. And that's an unfair expectation on that role. Right. And so I'm see you shaking your head like Yeah, so a lot of it really comes down to, are we giving it time to succeed? Another one I heard is, well, I could do it faster. Yeah, you probably could. But you don't have time to do it faster. And the goal is by spending significant time training and teaching and truly delegating, not dumping. I have a podcast on delegate don't doubt well, we'll add that into the show notes. But truly delegating teaching them educating them, equipping them, making sure they have everything they need to get that job done. Then what happens is, that's where you said it's for the future, right? That is significant. And that multiplies the time going forward for the business owner, because somebody else has picked that up. I look back now at the things that I have delegated. And the fact that if I even think back to when I was doing every single bit of that on top of everything I'm doing right now, it shuts me down. So by delegating, yes, I could do any of those tasks. There's not one task that I could not figure out how to do. But I wouldn't do it probably as well. I would do it slower now. It doesn't feed my heart and feed my soul doesn't show serve my clients well for that to be how I spend my time. And this has actually given me a chance to create new things and to do new things and to show up in a different way. And so we really have to be willing to take the time to be able to train Well, I think it goes back to, to what you said, do it before you get overwhelmed. So as we are looking to consider bringing somebody on and our firm to shore up some of these, is there anything else that you can think of done, that we haven't touched on covered that that could make this a successful process? Are there any expectations that we need to have as business owners? I'll throw out one more, just as you're thinking about that. And I think that is sometimes the first person's not always the right fit. So don't think that or I tried it one time, therefore it didn't work. I do think that sometimes we have to find the right fit, just like if we were hiring in our business. But what are some other expectations?

Dominique Deraiche  21:04

No, definitely what you just mentioned, they're super important. And sometimes it's not that the person that you're delegating to doesn't have the skills, the knowledge, sometimes it's purely just a personality conflict that has happened to us, if you don't know love working with that person or love their personality, it might end up being even more stressful than just doing the task yourself. Right? So the subject of delegation is really, you know, there are multiple levels of levels and multiple pieces to it. It's not easy, and it's not easy. Because of all of these things that we need to take into consideration at the very same time. And often we're trying to do it when we're overwhelmed with just adds another level to it.

Michele  21:52

But when we do it, and we get it, right, it's truly amazing. It's amazing for us as the business owners to kind of take our hands off that piece, in part to trust somebody else with it, the right somebody who's going to get the work done and do it as well, if not better than we could do it. I mean, I've hired some things out. It is such a higher level product than I could do on my own. It's just amazing, right? I worked with so many different contractors and 1090 nines, and just oh my gosh, this, the group is large. And each person is hiring is working in their area of expertise that is so important to me. I mentioned that even when we built Metrique, I have about 11 people on that team. And every one of them does what they do, because they love it. Right? I don't have somebody doing the quality assurance testing, who would rather be coding, I have a quality assurance tester doing all the quality assurance testing. So just work people working in the pieces and parts that they love supporting the business owner to do the piece and parts they love when you get it right. It's magical, right?

Dominique Deraiche  23:07

And I think some interior designers come to us or come to me with the expectation that they can just hire one person. But I always set the expectation, like you just mentioned, we need to hire the right amount of people who are going to be specialists in these various areas, right? It's really rare to find one person who can mold themselves into all aspects of your business.

Michele  23:33

Yeah, that's true. And let's talk about that for one more second before we wrap up, down because that is what stopped me from reaching out when I needed help. Right? Because what I did was I looked at making that list of all the things that I hope I never have to do again, so I made the list. But in the making of the list, I looked at it and I thought I can't find I went out and tried to hire one person who could do all those things. But some of it was marketing. Some of it was client management. Some of it was internal management. Some of it was marked, I mean, just all the things that email, and I will think there's no one person. But that was my problem, too, was that's why I couldn't be great at all of it because it was too varied. And so being able to narrow that down and realize I can hire one person who does this, and another person who does that. Here's what I love about the agency that you have to right that you and Kelsey have is we can come in to the agency and you guys can help monitor the three or four people that work together for us. Because what was difficult for me was I didn't want to have to manage for more people to get something done. I wanted to work with one person and let them help me manage to get the other things done with the other resources. And so just knowing like if you were to hire somebody internally for that one role, you'd have to hire For people to really get that done, that's the beautiful thing about the model that you have that serves the interior design industry is, you know, we can come here and, and hire you work with your firm. And then know that as an agency, you've got people that specialize in social media, people that specialize in, you know, copywriting, people that specialize and operations in email management and all the things and so we're able to get a more holistic support system than just the one person.

Dominique Deraiche  25:33

Yeah. And our goal as an agency is really to prevent the overwhelm with business owners with interior designers. So what we love to do is giving you like, again, like you just mentioned, a point, person point contact, and they are the ones that are going to take charge and relay that information to the appropriate team members that are taking care of, you know, XYZ process in your business.

Michele  25:56

Yeah, I love the team approach. I've been using that for years. And it definitely is one that supports scarlet thread, and retreat really, really well. So, Don, thank you so much for sharing today about delegation, and hiring and all the things and then also just explaining a little bit about how your agency works. Where are you hanging out on social media? Where can people find out more if they want to connect with you.

Dominique Deraiche  26:22

So we are on Instagram and our handle is @designer.elite.co. We're also on LinkedIn, we are trying to improve our social media, this, this new branch of the agency Designer Elite is still fairly new. So we don't have a whole lot of content, but it's definitely there. There's definitely ways to contact us on those platforms.

Michele  26:47

Awesome. Well, I'll make sure I have all that in the show notes as well. Thank you so much for your time today. And I look forward to continuing the work with you. Thank you so much. Thank you, Dom for joining us on the podcast today.

Michele  27:01

You know, we all need help. None of us can do this by ourselves. We need help. Sometimes with the organization and the running of the business and comes with the financials. Sometimes with process. Whatever it is ask for help. There's nothing wrong with doing that. And we here at scarlet thread consulting, we'd be more than happy to help you to support you as you grow your business. We have a multitude of ways of doing that. So you can go to scarletthreadconsulting.com and sign up for a discovery call. And let's jump on and talk about what your business needs and how you want to grow or change and see how we can support you. Moving forward asking for help will make you profitable and profit doesn't happen by accident. Profit is a Choice is proud to be part of the designnetwork.org where you can discover more design media reaching creative listeners. Thanks for listening, and stay creative and business minded.