For the first two years of running kaminski.link I did everything myself. I coded. Designed. Wrote proposals. Issued invoices. Answered phones. Managed social media. And I was proud of it.
Then I calculated my hourly rate. It came out to about $9/hour. Less than a grocery store cashier. Because I was doing $50/h programming and $0/h invoicing. The average doesn't lie.
Why I didn't delegate
"Nobody can do it as well as me." Know that sentence? I repeated it like a mantra. And you know what? I was right. Nobody will do it like me.
But the question is different: do I really need to do it MYSELF?
Someone will issue an invoice at 80% of my quality. But I get back 3 hours a week. Someone will run social media with 70% of my "vision." But I can use that time to write code worth $1,200.
The math is brutal. And it doesn't lie.
Second reason: fear. Fear that someone will break what I built. That a client will be unhappy. That I'll lose control. This is normal. But it's also a trap that keeps you in the role of the most expensive employee in the worst-paid position.
My first mistake: delegating without a process
The first time I delegated social media management. Found a freelancer. Said: "Here are the credentials, post something 3 times a week." And left.
After two weeks I visited the company Instagram and didn't recognize it. Different tone. Different graphics. Random hashtags. Her fault? No. Mine. Because I gave her zero guidelines.
Lesson number one: delegating without a process isn't delegating. It's dumping responsibility.
What finally worked
Three things. Simple, but requiring discipline at first.
1. Recording Looms. Instead of writing instructions — I record my screen and talk through what I'm doing. 5 minutes of recording replaces an hour of writing documentation. And it's crystal clear because the other person SEES what I mean.
I now have a folder with 40+ Looms. A new freelancer comes in and watches the videos. Knows exactly how we do things at kaminski.link. No two-week onboarding.
2. Checklists instead of descriptions. Not "write a social media post." Instead:
- Product photo 1080x1080, filter X
- Text: max 150 characters, tone: casual but professional
- 3-5 hashtags from the approved list
- Post: Tuesday/Thursday, 12:00 PM
- After posting: link in Slack channel #social
Zero guesswork. Zero "what do you think?". The checklist says what, when, and how.
3. Feedback for the first month. After every task — feedback. Not control. Feedback. "This is great, keep going." Or: "Change X here because we do it differently." After a month — I let go and trust the process. Because the process works.
What to delegate first
Many people start by delegating the hardest things. Mistake. Start with what's easiest to describe and hardest to mess up.
My order was:
- Accounting — handed to an accounting firm. Cost: $120/month. Time recovered: 8h/month. Obvious decision
- Simple graphics — Canva + freelancer. Cost: $200/month. Time recovered: 12h/month
- Email handling — virtual assistant filters, answers typical questions. I only get what requires my decision. Also worth looking into automating with Zapier or Make
- Social media — but only after creating a process. Second time went much better
What I DON'T delegate: strategic client contact, pricing, project architecture. That's my expertise and what clients pay for.
What it costs and what it gives
I spend about $850/month on external people. I recover ~60 hours. Hours I can spend on $50-75/h work. Or on life. Or on developing LetMeWork.ai.
But the biggest value isn't in money. It's in your head. When you don't have to think about invoices, posts, and graphics — you have mental space for things that actually move the business forward. Like setting up a proper CRM that handles follow-ups for you.
As I wrote about remote work productivity — systems beat discipline. And I'll tell you something you won't read in delegation books: the first month is WORSE. More work, not less. Because you need to create processes, record Looms, give feedback. But the second month? Magic. The third? You can't imagine going back.
Delegation isn't losing control. It's reclaiming time for the things where you're irreplaceable.