“If you want something doing, do it yourself.” An entrepreneur’s mantra, some might say. So it’s hardly surprising that when a business grows, many owners do not re-evaluate their priorities. After being responsible for everything from HR to bookkeeping since day one, there’s no-one better qualified to do it . . .

Except, of course, there is. Or there definitely should be. Says Charles Russam, chairman of interim management solutions company Russam GMS: “The important thing for any business is to get the best people you can afford.” To have trust in the abilities of the people around you is vital when you start to take a step back from some of your responsibilities.

The fact that others are better placed to carry out tasks is sometimes a wake-up call to the benefits of delegation. Nick Gray, managing director of marketing agency Live and Breathe, describes the moment he first started to think about the best use of his time: “We were doing a project for a client, and basically I ballsed it up. It was quite straightforward, but I was so busy. Any one of the team could have done it with their eyes closed. So we had a company meeting and the team asked why they weren’t doing more.”

Added to this was the objective advice of a management consultant. “The consultant said ‘your areas of strength are XYZ, but you’ve got a right-hand man whose strengths are ABC. Why aren’t you splitting the roles?’ And I really started to think more about delegation.”

But even with the best of intentions, delegation isn’t easy. Russam advises giving people ownership of their jobs. He says, “I admire people with a mentality of having ownership of the business.

That’s why we have a share option scheme. When they look at what needs to be done, everyone feels they’re owning their challenges.” This mentality can only be instilled when employees feel that a signifcant amount of trust has been placed in them, but the benefits are significant. “As a result, time keeping becomes irrelevant,” says Russam.

“The nature of our business is very immediate. When a client rings, in 90% of cases he’ll be in contact with our competition too. People don’t think anything of getting on the phone at 8pm because they’re focused on turning the job around.”