Consider these six tips as you begin the process of building your team – and firing yourself:

1. Decide what will be for your hands only: Your time and attention should be reserved for those few things that only you can accomplish. For many entrepreneurs, this means focusing on the most valuable sales and marketing opportunities — meeting with key prospects and building markets for your product or service. If you, too, need to focus on being the face of the company, then tap into others for help with the rest.
2. Focus on growth: Once you’ve brought in others to handle the tasks you don’t need to perform directly, such as bookkeeping and managing the office, allow yourself to focus more intently on the keys to growing the business. And by the way, there may also be growth-oriented activities, such as consulting services, that you will discover can and should be managed by others.
3. Set the tone: As you delegate to others, set clear goals and responsibilities for each new position from the beginning, and make sure each person you hire understands them. Otherwise, you may find yourself spending too much time managing people instead of the next stage of growth.
4. Hire ahead: Hire people who can grow with the company. If you hire someone who can perform a task required today, but nothing more, you will won’t have the talent needed for the next phase of growth.. “You usually don’t have time to do on-the-job training,” Gorman advises. Make sure the people you hire understand the company’s goals and where you want to take the business over the next three to five years.
5. Manage expectations: Be careful not to give employees inflated titles. Entrepreneurs are often inclined to give a new hire an executive title, such as vice president, in lieu of a high salary or an equity stake in the company. But if the person is not equal to the demands of that role in a larger company, then your growth will force you to bring in someone above him or her. Why set yourself up for conflict that may distract you from the bigger picture?
6. Find advisors who will keep you thinking: Consider setting up an advisory board to help you secure talent and determine the overall structure and strategy of your business. You need others to infuse new thinking and to help you figure out how to delegate your responsibilities.