Well, it’s not as simple as just saying “Oh, I hate album design, I’m not going to do it any more!” You have to decide if you can afford it and if it’s realistic for your budget. The problem is, most small business owners operate under the “If I can do it myself, I should do it myself” mindset. For one thing, it saves money. It also seems like the right thing to do because people always say that running small business should be HARD and DEMANDING and TIME CONSUMING. Both of those things are more than likely inaccurate.

Yes, you have to PAY someone to do work for you. But the reality is, TIME = MONEY and MONEY = TIME. So when you spend HOURS doing something YOU don’t HAVE to do, you’re costing yourself money. If you ONLY pay attention to all of the money that you’re saving and not the time that you’re losing then you’re really being a naive business owner. Your time is the only thing you have that you cannot duplicate. You can’t get more of it and it’s extremely valuable. If you have big projects that need to get done but they NEVER seem to move forward because your days are spent doing $15/hr jobs that you don’t HAVE to do, then your business is in a “Maintaining” phase and it is failing to “GROW”!

Sarah Bradshaw is in our panel group, and she shared that business owners should outsource 6 months before they feel the pain of having to make a drastic change. I loved this because it’s so true! If you wait until you are DROWNING, you’ve waited too long. Start making the transition to outsourcing certain areas of your business before you feel like you’re losing control and are completely stressed out. This is important because part of outsourcing is relinquishing CONTROL. If you’re already feeling out of control, it can make it even HARDER to just hand over your area of struggle to someone else to take care of in the midst of the chaos. This takes trust and an understanding that you truly do have to spend money to make money.

I could talk about this for hours, but here are some points I want to make sure that I hit on before wrapping this post up! :

– Outsourcing isn’t just about you. It takes unnecessary work off of your plate and blesses others with work that they are thankful for. Your willingness to relinquish control means allowing others to be blessed. It’s so rewarding!
– They can do it better! If you’re scrambling to get everything accomplished, you can’t possibly have the time and energy to do all of your tasks with greatness. Even if you execute these tasks well, from the outside looking in, you’re probably still struggling to do them with JOY because of the sheer amount of OTHER stuff that you know is looming over you. Let someone else do it better.
– Do what ONLY you can do! My business coach made me list out EVERY job and task I was filling my time with and then label what was a $15/hr job versus a $50/hr job. I was spending most of my time doing $15/hr jobs that someone else could do for me and the big jobs that only I could take on weren’t getting done!! I now outsource nearly EVERY $15/hr job to others and I only do what Katelyn HAS to do…. and you know what has happened in the process? I’ve given my sister the most amazingly flexible, mobile job in the world and I’ve given myself so much PEACE. It’s a win-win in so many amazing ways!
– More time for the DREAM FACTORY! Our team jokes that I’m in charge of the “Dream Factory”… which eventually turns into the “Money Factory” and so the Dream Factory is VERY important to everyone on the team. My job is to dream, create content, be the face of the business and shoot! Whenever I’m trying to take on roles that others on our team should do, they remind me that I need time for the DREAM factory and that job is IMPORTANT! More time for the Dream Factory has resulted in a 200% jump in revenue for us… which leads me to my next point.
– You have to SPEND money to MAKE money! It’s scary to approach outsourcing this way because the way that outsourcing will eventually MAKE you more money isn’t going to be CLEAR right away. It took about a year for me to understand how taking stuff off MY plate produced more income overall. However, you will immediately see a change in your quality of life. My quality of life sky rocketed when I stopped managing social media, proofreading, doing ALL emails, scheduling and planning workshops and courses, etc. It’s magical!!!
– Start Small!!! What do we outsource? Well, right now we outsource bulk editing, album design, album ordering, emails that I don’t have to respond to directly, social media management, proofreading, client experience tasks, cooking, cleaning and a lot of other stuff. You may be thinking “Um, you’re crazy”, but it works for us. However, it didn’t start that way…. at ALL. We started small. The first thing I did was outsource social media scheduling and blog post promotion…. for $12/hour… for a couple hours a week! It was so affordable and ANY high school or college aged intern could have taken on that role easily and joyfully! What 15-21 year old doesn’t want to get paid to be on FB, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram?!
– Remember that you’re GROWING! When a small business turns into a BIGGER business, what is something that normally happens to determine if it’s really a big business or not? The number of employees. We probably have over 8 different companies or individuals that are a part of our outsourcing and we’re so thankful for them!!! The more people on your team, the bigger the company. Remember that this is a NORMAL and positive change in the lifespan of your growing business!!!!

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