When you can't delegate, you learn to learn. When a new project comes up, and its specifications sound a bit foreign, you learn everything you can about those specs. Once you've accomplished that, then you can hire the subcontractors.

But what happens if the new project is outside your field of expertise? What if it has nothing to do with your business model? What if it's a project you have no salient interest in, that was foisted upon you?

That's the typically situation of the small business owner. Such owners are thinking 24/7 about their business. Marginal costs and marginal revenues, fixed costs and fixed revenues, research and development, marketing and operations, cash flow, net profit, working capital, debt leverage and financing… you get the picture.

Human resources, while critical to the success of any company, represents the least interesting facet of business to most entrepreneurs. Yet they understand that, without human resources, a new company will never achieve the growth necessary to breakout of the startup phase.

To attract the most productive of those human resources requires benefits. Many benefits can be easily provided directly by third-party vendors. Not so with the company retirement plan. The plan sponsor's role rests solidly within the fiduciary framework of all plans. It simply cannot be removed.

Without significant delegation.

This is where it's hard for many small business owners. Used to making and executing all decisions, the idea of trusting your fiduciary life to a third party can lead to many sleepless nights.

Rest easy, though. If it involves a 401(k) plan, there's already a tried and true off-the-shelf solution waiting for the inquisitive plan sponsor.

And if you want to find one, it's best not to cut corners.

The worst thing a plan sponsor can get is to get what they paid for.