We often here entrepreneurs say “I wear lots of hats” Which translates to; “I’m saving money by doing it all myself”.
This can be a big mistake that ends up costing the entrepreneur more than they realize. Some things are done better and more efficiently (saving money) by delegating or outsourcing them to professionals with expertise in those areas. You know what your area of expertise is and it isn’t the multiple tasks you find sucking up your time every day.
All of these DIY tasks take you away from doing what you LOVE, what you’re BEST at; the big vision, new ideas, sales, or finding investment dollars that help you grow your business to the next level and increase revenue. These are the highest level, most important drivers of company growth; you should be prioritizing them over everything else. So why aren’t you?
Saving money? You can just do it yourself? You don’t have enough work to hire someone full time?
No problem, the new “Gig” economy allows business owners to outsource expertise in many areas by hiring experienced professionals on a part-time/fractional basis, while saving the added costs of hiring full-time employees; employment taxes, benefit packages, training and onboarding expenses to name a few.
If you’re a DIY entrepreneur or small business owner who’s still doing it all, it may be time to embrace the “just because I CAN, doesn’t mean I SHOULD” approach to your business growth plan.
Consider hiring an experienced professional to leverage your company growth in one or more of these areas:
Legal
It may be tempting to proceed without legal advice or proper contracts but this can be dangerous and end up costing much more than what you saved. At minimum there are on-line services like CorpNet can help you register your business as an LLC and perform other legal tasks, and the websites such as RocketLawyer that you can use for creating basic contracts. However there are many circumstances where hiring a lawyer will provide the legal protections you need and peace of mind is priceless
Financials
Even if you have some knowledge in finances, bookkeeping or accounting, these are very specialized roles with specialized knowledge, especially in places with lots of regulations. There are companies specializing in fractional part-time placement of bookkeepers who can balance your books each month, accountants to help you with your taxes at the end of the year and even part-time CFO’s who can give you broader advice on business growth, cash flow and tax implications. The time savings is worth every penny, and again peace of mind…priceless.
Graphic Design
Unless you are a trained graphic designer, don’t do your logo, website, business cards, or other graphics your business needs. This DIY will leave your business looking unprofessional and foolish. Even the professionally designed templates can leave your business with a “paint by numbers” feel, not good! There are many great freelance designers ready to upgrade your brand identity at very acceptable costs, just ask your network of business owners for a trusted referral.
Web Development
Yes, anyone can create a basic website, but if you’ve spent any time working with Word Press or other DIY sites you already know this is a lot tougher and time consuming than it looks. Again reach out to your network for a trusted referral and find a good web developer. Having a freelance developer on retainer who’s familiar with your website or blog can be a life saver when you’re stuck or something breaks.
Social Media
….Ugh! Really what is the best use of your time? Social media is one of the easiest things to outsource. Just do it!
Copywriting
Yep, you certainly can write your own content, but should you? If you’re not a professional copy writer you’re an amateur, is this something you really want to leave in the hands of an amateur? Freelance copywriters can be found in abundance just tap into that network of yours and let go of it. If you want to hold on to some control write the first draft and let them polish it for you.
Filing, Data entry or Transcription
Many tasks that don’t require special skills can easily be done by a virtual assistant or part-time office assistant just a few hours a week. Have paperwork to be filed, data to enter, or audio or video transcription to be done? These tasks can be outsourced quickly and easily.
Marketing
Again, unless you are a marketing expert, leave it to the pros — there are many marketing experts who have joined the gig economy and left big businesses to go independent. You can support them in their ventures and save yourself lots of time and money. This covers everything from a direct mail campaigns, email marketing, Facebook and more. Professional skills and experience can make the process quicker, easier and more profitable.
IT and Data
Having someone on retainer to phone when the computers go down is saves a lot of stress for you and your team, not to mention limiting the time your business is down. Beyond that businesses need to understand and interpret all their data in order to make better business decisions. Let someone else fix the computers and sort your data into useful reports, save your time for making key business decisions with that data.
Operations
At the risk of sounding redundant, leave it to the pros. Plain and simple, no business can grow successfully from start up to millions in revenue without a solid operating system at its core. And I’m not talking about Windows or iOS. I am referring to the people management, communication, growth planning, strategic execution plans, problem solving, and accountability systems and processes. These are the systems and processes that visionary entrepreneurs get a headache from thinking about, so don’t.
There are a rising number of operations advisors and experts available to collaborate with you to create an operating system that will fit your unique culture and business model. Everything from the pre-fabricated systems like; Gazelles, EOS, The Great Game of Business, MAP, etc. to independent operations advisors who will work with you and your team to custom design a system that maximizes your results your way. Also available on a part-time fractional basis, reach out to your network for a trusted referral and find your unique fit.
Household to do list?
Those of you who’ve already outsourced home chores, please share this life saving tip with your network of entrepreneurs, you know the ones who are so busy DIY’ing they can’t see the forest for the trees? Downtime is quite simply a necessary ingredient to every successful business; so pay the kids or hire the neighbor’s kids to handle the raking this fall.
So what are you doing yourself that you should be delegating to the professionals?
What high level high priority activity should you be doing instead?
Who you gonna call?… DIY busters!
From Vision to Reality 