Another team member that's vitally important is your mentor - and some of us are lucky enough to have more than one. If you don't already have a mentor, I highly recommend finding one - there's nothing like voice of experience to see you through a start-up or growth phase, or even introduction of new products or services.

Employees, if you have them, are key members of your team. Don't ever forget that if you need them, then you couldn't be building your business without them!

Then there's your friends and family members, who most certainly make up a part of your team - sometimes most important part. These are people who, although they may not know your business like you do, know YOU better than anyone. That means they'll know when you need support and encouragement, or when you need a big pat on back for a job well done.

Finally, most important people on your team are your customers or clients. Yes, that's what I said - who else can give you immediate and honest feedback about your service or product and your customer service skills? See them as part of team that's helping you build your business, and you can't go wrong!

Together, ALL of people on your team can make your business successful.

Perhaps you have a close friend who is a single mother and is looking for at-home ways to supplement her part-time income. Perhaps a sibling is in a similar position. You get idea. I imagine that most people know at least one person that they could strike such an arrangement with.

TASKS TO DELEGATE

OK, so you've lined up your assistant. Let's turn now to kinds of things you can delegate to him/her. As a general rule, you want to delegate those tasks that are routine, repetitive and which maintain (rather than grow) your business. Growing business is your job. That's what's meant by working "on" business rather than "in" business. Consider following:

=> Processing Subscribe/Unsubscribe Requests If you publish an ezine, then you know what an administrative headache it can be processing all those subscribe and unsubscribe requests even with aid of automating software.

Despite your best efforts, and clear instructions in your ezine, there are always at least a dozen people who can't seem to figure out how to unsubscribe themselves and send you a message asking you to do it for them. Then there are those who write asking to be added to your ezine list because they've been referred by a friend and don't have your subscribe URL.

So you add them manually too. Then there are those who want to unsubscribe but keep trying to do so using an email address other than one they signed up with. They send abusive emails to you when, for some mysterious reason they keep getting your ezine. They, of course, think you're so desperate for subscribers that you have set up your devious systems so that once they're subscribed they're on your list forever.

Annoying as this is for ezine publishers, real problem is time it eats up dealing with this stuff. So delegate this task to your assistant.

=> Processing Advertising Orders Another routine task that can be delegated to your assistant is processing of advertising orders in your ezine. Set up your systems so that all orders go straight to your assistant (with a copy to you so you're in loop) who then schedules ad, confirms booking with advertiser and then formats ad ready for next issue.

=> Sending Your Ezine Actually sending your ezine to your list is something that you can delegate to your assistant, too. Just email your ezine to your assistant when you've finished it for sending to your list. You may even leave your assistant to insert classified ads.

=> Submitting Your Articles Another routine task that your assistant can take care of is article submissions. I have a list of article submission services that I submit my articles to on a weekly basis, as well as a handful of publishers who have specifically requested to receive them. My assistant sends for each article after it is written (they're all available on autoresponder) and submits it to article submission sites/lists I specify. A longer-term project is to seek out, on a regular basis, new article submission points. That, also, I have delegated.

=> Submitting Your Ezine Similarly, I have delegated task of submitting my ezine to various ezine announcement services that are always springing up all over place. => Negotiating Ad Swaps

If you're an ezine publisher, you know that receiving ad swap proposals from fellow publishers is a frequent occurrence. Delegate negotiation of these swaps to your assistant.

=> Web Site Updating Depending on how computer-savvy your assistant is, they may also be able to take on some simple web site updating for you. We're not talking about major design changes here, just making routine updates to add your latest ezine, article or advertising information, that sort of thing. ~*~*~*~*~*~ By delegating these routine administrative tasks and any others that may apply to your particular business, you will save yourself several hours of work every week. Don't squander this time! Now you have time you need to overhaul your site, write next month's articles for your ezine, investigate and respond to half dozen joint venture proposals you've received this week, create that ebook you've been meaning to get around to writing and, most importantly, *promoting your business*! As stated earlier, you MUST convert your newfound time into dollars. If not, your business is just going backwards ... very circumstance you sought to avoid when hiring your assistant.