Should You Hire Help Yet?

As a private practice grows, one question eventually comes up: Should I hire help? Maybe you need a virtual assistant, another dietitian, or someone to handle scheduling, paperwork, or marketing. But while hiring can be a great solution, it isn't always the first solution you need.

In this episode, Libby explains how to determine whether you're truly ready to delegate and why hiring someone before establishing clear systems can actually create more work. She walks through the signs that indicate it's time to hire, the importance of repeatable processes, and a simple delegation audit to help you identify which tasks require you—and which could be handled by someone else.

You'll learn why systems should usually come before hiring and how creating clarity and repeatability can make delegation much easier.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

When hiring help actually makes sense
Why feeling overwhelmed doesn't always mean you need to hire
The difference between wanting less work and wanting different work
How to determine whether your tasks are repeatable enough to delegate
Why having clear processes is essential before bringing someone on
How to conduct a simple delegation audit
Why hiring without systems can create more management work
How to prepare your practice for successful delegation

Connect with Libby:

Instagram: @libbyrothschild | @dietitianboss
YouTube: Dietitian Boss

Resources:

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Episode Transcript

Should You Hire Help Yet?
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[00:00:00] One of the questions I hear more often as practices grow is, should I hire help? Maybe a virtual assistant or another dietician, someone for scheduling or someone for marketing. And honestly, many people start asking this question the moment the practice feels difficult, which makes sense because when you feel overwhelmed, hiring sounds like a solution, but sometimes hiring creates more work.

So today I wanna talk about when hiring help actually makes sense, when it probably does not, and how I would think through this decision. And while you're listening, I want you to think about whether you want less work or different work, because those two are not always the same thing

There's more admin work, more messages, more moving pieces. And naturally you might think, "I can't keep doing this myself." And sometimes that's true, but sometimes the problem is not too much work. The problem is unclear work. So as [00:01:00] a quick reflection, I want you to ask yourself, if someone started tomorrow in your business, could you clearly explain what they should do?

And if the answer is not really, that matters. Signs you might be ready, there's a few clues. If your schedule consistently feels full, not for one busy week, but consistently, that's, that could be a decent sign. And if tasks repeat consistently as well, like scheduling, paperwork, intake emails, reminders, repeatable work matters.

And then finally, if you already know the process, and this one's huge, 'cause if you can't explain your process and how something should happen, then someone else probably can't either. And then there's the delegation audit, which I have great templates inside of my membership to help you with this, and I can walk you through it step by step.

Simple exercises can include writing things down, everything you do each week, and then separate what requires you versus what requires [00:02:00] someone, maybe not always you. And many dietitians discover that they spend a surprising amount of time doing, not doing clinical work, doing things that someone else can do.

So the biggest mistake is that you think hiring creates systems, but usually systems make hiring easier. So the order does matter. So imagine that you hire someone for scheduling, but you don't have any workflow, you have no processes, and you have no clear expectations. Now, instead of doing scheduling, y- you manage scheduling, and that's not necessarily easier.

So the final thought here is that hiring help is not automatically the next stage. Sometimes the next stage is more clarity, more systems, more repeatability. Then hiring becomes much easier. So there's three actions this week I want you to take. Action one, write down every task you do this week. Action two, circle tasks that repeat.

And action [00:03:00] three, ask, could another person actually do this today? If this episode was helpful, I want you to send it to another dietitian who might need it. And if you want support building systems, simplifying decisions, and creating a practice that actually feels sustainable, I want you to check out the Dietitian Boss membership found over at dietitianboss.com.

Thank you for listening, and I'll see you next week.

Should You Hire Help Yet?

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