Delegation Checklist for Small Businesses
Delegate a workflow only when the outcome, authority, and review point are clear. This keeps a new remote role useful instead of making the assistant absorb unresolved ambiguity.
Select work
- Identify tasks that recur weekly or monthly.
- Estimate current owner time and the business consequence of delay.
- Choose work with an observable output.
- Keep regulated, safety-critical, or strategic decisions with authorized staff.
Write the handoff
- Name the trigger and input for the task.
- Provide one example of an acceptable output.
- List systems and minimum permissions required.
- Specify when the assistant must stop and escalate.
Review and improve
- Pilot one or two workflows before expanding scope.
- Review errors and exceptions with the assistant weekly.
- Measure timeliness and quality, not just task counts.
- Update the SOP when the real process changes.