Do you dream of the day you can call on your “team” to help you with projects? Or are you so worried about something getting done “right” that you want to do it all yourself?
I’ve been there—both places. I’ve longed to be able to hire out some of my own business tasks, but I also have a hard time letting go. There are days when I feel like my business needs to be just that—completely my own. But the reality is that some jobs are just better off in someone else’s hands.
So how do you know when it’s time to hire out some of your tasks? Every business has different needs—even those that are within the same industry. And it all depends on your preferences. Here are some of the guidelines I use:
When it has to do with accounting.
I’m a writer, through and through. Finances have never been my cup of tea. I don’t like looking at numbers and I’m terrible at tracking expenses and tax deductions. Oh, and I suck at math too. Thankfully, my sister is a CPA in her own practice and has taken on the role of being my accountant. (Yep, she got all the math genes before I was even a twinkle in our parents’ eyes.) I haven’t touched my own taxes since 2006 and I’m happily out of the loop. Of course, she keeps me as informed as I need to be. But I’m all too happy to let her balance my business accounts and do my taxes for me. I’m sure she’s saved me thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours over the years. And probably a few grey hairs too.
When it takes too much patience.
I love learning new things. But when technology doesn’t cooperate and work the way my brain works, I often shut down. I get frustrated and half-ass what I really want to be perfect. I found myself starting to do that with some changes to my website and I knew I needed help. Through some networking connections, I hired on a developer who helps me on an as-needed basis. So when I’ve had enough of trying to figure out why the banner is off-center or the links aren’t the right color, I have someone to call so I can get back to what I do know how to do—write.
[bctt tweet=”Hire out work when the job takes more patience than you bargained for.” username=””]
When I hate doing it.
Admit it. There are things in your business that you hate to do. Just the very thought of it makes your skin crawl or want to stay in bed all day. When I have a task that I just don’t want to do on my own, I’ll generally find someone I can hire it out to. Clearly my accounting is one of those tasks. But I’ve also hired out some mild graphic design and some mild content creation that I just wasn’t up for. Doing this gave me back the time I needed to do client work and stick to my schedule.
When someone else can do it just as well as me.
Whether it’s scheduling social media posts or creating graphics in Canva, I know that someone else could do these tasks just as well as me. And by hiring it out, I open up some of my time to bring on new clients or expand my services. I recently hired a virtual assistant to take on this task for me, and I couldn’t be happier. I still do all the writing and planning, and my virtual assistant creates the graphics and schedules everything for me. It’s helped me get more intentional with my social media and my writing, and taking this off my plate has opened up my door for more opportunities to work with clients.
[bctt tweet=”Hiring a VA is one of the best things I’ve done for my business. Saves time, frustration.” username=””]
Even if you consider yourself a solopreneur, you can still hire out some of the tasks that you don’t enjoy doing or can’t do on your own. Whether it’s content writing, accounting, graphic design, website development or production-based tasks.
What is it that you hire out to someone else? And how has doing this helped you to grow your business?
