Doing everything is highly overrated! My desire for you as a business owner and CEO is for you to spend your time doing things that create growth and revenue. And for everything else, lets get some help!
I invite you to make a list of all the things you spend time on that do not directly make you money. How long is that list? Label it the “Expensive tasks” list. And I invite you to truly think of those tasks that way. You have probably been doing them because you think it will be too expensive to hire someone to do it. You think you can’t afford to hire yet. But the truth is, every minute you spend doing those tasks is a minute you spend not making money for the business. Those are extremely expensive tasks.
Now I want you to make a second list. What are the things you do that actually earn income for the business? How long is this list? I want you to label it the “Money Making” List. Unfortunately for many business owners, the list “Expensive tasks” list is longer than the “Money Making List.” In fact, I sometimes meet business owners who tell me they don’t have time to do more of their “Money Making” beause the “Expensive tasks” list is taking all of their time. And yet they still tell me they can’t afford to hire.
Are you hearing the crazy in that yet? I am! You are going about it backwards! Instead of hiring so you can go out and produce more revenue, you are spending your money making hours doing jobs you could outsource for a few dollars.
Outsourcing for increased profits:
Across the world are highly skilled, well educated people, who would be excited to manage your tasks for you. They are good at what they do and often times will work for well below minimum wage. This gives you the ability to hire the help you need and provides and inbetween step between doing it all and hiring full time help.
Here are some of my favorite resources for outsourcing
1. www.upwork.com
2. www.fiverr.com
3. www.hiremymom.com
Here are some tasks that are easily outsourced
1. Web design
2. Editing
3. Copywriting
4. Graphic Design
5. Social Media posting and content creation
6. Video and audio editing
7. Landing page design
8. Data base clean up
9. Formatting
10. Research
There are many other tasks you can hire out, but those are a few of my favorites!
When possible pay a flat rate. This allows you to determine what a project is worth to you, and sign a contract based on that amount. That way you have no surprises when the project is complete.
Be prepared for a language barrier. Some of our outsourced team members live in places like Bangladesh and Portugal. You will be communicating through email and skype with someone who is often not fluent in English. Make sure that you are communicating regularly, and simply so that you can make it easier for your team member. Don’t leave them guessing what you want and ask lots of questions until you are satisfied that the two of you are on the same page.
Happy outsourcing. Lets get some help!