Being too busy to get everything done is a great problem to have. Why? Because it means you have successfully grown your business to the point that you can’t do everything without compromising something. So, pat yourself on the back. This is a huge achievement. The challenge now is how do you move forward as I bet you aren’t making the money you thought you would be. Am I right? You have several options but first of all we need to deal with the elephant in the room…your perfectionist tendencies! Your Inner Control Freak Right now it’s your inner control freak that’s driving you to be fearful of scaling your business. That little voice is telling you… …no-one can do it as well as you …you’ll spend more time re-doing it than you’ll gain by out-sourcing …it’ll take you longer to explain what you want them to do than it will actually take for you to do it. …I’m not sure I can afford to outsource And so on. Time to Take Stock But let’s take stock of your situation. You are working as many hours as you can so you can’t physically take on anymore work. A good chunk of what you are spending time doing isn’t the bit where you add the most value to your clients. The bit where you do add the most value is in applying your expertise to help your clients. Not in doing bookkeeping, social media, emails, newsletters, updating your website or diary management, to name just a few of the classic business time drains. The Art of Out-sourcing So how do you out-source successfully? The answer is by managing it carefully! Exactly how to depends on exactly what you are out-sourcing, but here are my top tips:
- Write down a list of “things” that you do that DON’T require your expertise. To use myself as an example…I write all of my content but my wonderful team of VAs spend time formatting it into my newsletter system as that skill isn’t unique to me and saves me a nice chunk of time. This is a golden list. I bet if you look at how much time you spend on those activities it will be a big number. Look down that list and pick out 1 or 2 things that you feel the most comfortable out-sourcing and then do it!
- Start templating as much of what you do as possible. The more you template things the easier it is to get someone else to do it for you, and you’ll regain some time in the short term as you won’t have to re-invent the wheel every time you need to write the same email. I know your inner control freak is telling you that it’ll be too obvious that you’ve sent a templated email but I promise you, if it’s well written, the receiver won’t know it was a template. Go back and re-read a load of similar emails you’ve written in the past and look at how alike they are. Templating is a good thing!
- Write your brand guidelines. I know this may seem a little grand but you live and breathe your brand but someone acting on your behalf won’t. To ensure they do things exactly the way you like then create your brand guidelines. This should cover everything from how you answer the phone, sign-off emails through to the colours used and your actual logo.
- Avoid drive-by delegation! People can only do the task as well as the info they are given to do it. The more effort and thought you put in to how you explain your requirements the easier it is for the out-sourced resource to fulfil. If it doesn’t go well the 1st time then make sure you feedback to them and help them understand what they need to do different otherwise you won’t progress.
- What things do you wish you had time to do but aren’t actually getting done because you are too busy? Write that list down and see what potential revenue is attached to each activity. If there’s decent ££ to be had then outsource it if possible or outsource something else to free up your time so you can do it.
Signing Contracts A decent out-source provider will ask you to sign an agreement to cover the work they will do for you. Avoid long notice periods and guarantees of the number of hours you are going to need them for. It may mean you have to pay a slightly higher rate at the beginning but you don’t want to get stuck in an agreement if it’s not working out for you. It’s Time To Be Brave If you want to grow your business or just ease your business workload you need to out-source. Don’t kid yourself that things will get easier next week or next month as they probably won’t. Bite the bullet and do it now! [hcshort id=”14″]