Are You Afraid To Outsource Some Of The Tasks In Your Business?
Recently I wrote an article about outsourcing that struck a nerve with a lot of entrepreneurs. I figured it would because I was once at that point where I was doing too much in my business but didn’t know if I could really afford to outsource certain things (once I learned how to release control of those tasks:). In the article, I discussed some of the advice that my mentors and coaches have given me that put me in the right mindset to even consider outsourcing. A reader had a question about that advice and so I’ve posted her question and my reply here today.
“I interviewed Brian Tracy earlier this year and one of the issues that we spoke of regarding solopreneurs was outsourcing. He said that you should not spend money on outsourcing before your budget can handle it and said that you certainly should not borrow money to outsource. This seems contradicts what you say your 7-figure income mentors are telling you about outsourcing before you can afford it. Is there more to your mentors’ stories that you can share about how they justified “spending money that they did not have” to start outsourcing?”Sincerely,Monique Wellshttp://understandingtimemanagement.com/blog
This brings up a lot of really good points, especially for coaches and consultants, on our relationship with money and how we spend it on our businesses. So let me make one thing clear, I know that we have heard many inspiring entrepreneurial stories of how they had nothing, funded their businesses with their credit cards, and now they are millionaires — but this is not the reality for most entrepreneurs. The reality is is that if you fund a lot of your business expenses via credit card you will simply fall into debt. Don’t do that!
No, the entrepreneur I am speaking to in this and the previous article are those of us who are generating money in our businesses but are doing EVERYTHING in that business and as a result are losing large chunks of our day doing tasks that could be outsourced to someone else.
Remember This: You should always be working on a revenue generating task in your business – not clerical or technical things.
Checking emails, listening to voice mail, sorting mail, transcription, among a zillion other things take up a lot of time. Just try that timer clock feature on your iPhone or use a simple kitchen cooking timer to see what I mean. You’d be surprised at how much time you are spending on the “busy work” of your business. Yet it may also surprise you that many of you are using the “cost” of hiring someone to outsource to as an excuse to avoid releasing control of all these things.
That is the core issue with many small business owners. You are afraid to outsource. You have spent so much of yourself creating your business, that you don’t trust anyone to handle anything, because you just “know” that they will not do it as well as you can. And it’s that control factor which leads back to the point my original article…
In order to break through my REAL issue which was a fear of losing control, they had to help me move past what I thought the issue was which was money — and this is what I’ve learned:
1. The cost of TIME that you are spending on busy work in your business is probably considerably more than the cost of outsourcing. Consider what you charge a client privately. If you charge $300 and hour and you spent two hours checking email and updating your WordPress plugins today, you just lost $600! Or even more if you could have spent those two hours creating a product or program in your business worth more than $600.
2. You do not have to hire a full-time assistant. Outsourcing can be as small as hiring a virtual assistant to complete tasks for you one hour a week. Thinks small, digestible chunks of work to outsource at first. This is very affordable.
3. Outsourcing will force you to step up in bigger ways in your business. You need to get somewhat organized to tell the VA what you need them to do for you. You need to be able to lead and direct your VA towards growth. You have to pay your VA on time and occasionally offer incentives and sources of motivation for bigger assignments and bigger results.
The more time you can spend on income generating activities, and the more time your VA is able to spend on other tasks in your business, the more money you will make. The more clients you will book. The more streams of income you can create. That has been proven over and over by many, many business owners.
So what may make you feel a little uncomfortable now, especially in these tough economic times, can result in a tremendous payoff later in terms of how much more efficient you will be in your business. Uncomfortable is ok, but finally breaking through those fears – is better.
Related Reading: What Is Outsourcing & Can You Afford It?
Lisa Angelettie
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