Submitted by
Sestini & Co | on Wed, 07/24/2013 - 19:01 | In
Uncategorized For new business owners, the temptation or natural instinct is often to take on everything the business requires.
From being an employee with a clear set of strengths, skills and qualifications, we suddenly decide we can/should become the typist, the designer, the post room, the accountant, the marketing and PR department, the receptionist, the finance officer, CEO, PA and manufacturer/service provider.
Whilst this might be a necessary evil in the set up stages while there is little or no cash available, it can be a situation which persists long after the business is profitably up and running.
Once you’ve started doing everything it can be very, very hard to let go. After all, maybe you should just wait until the business is making just a bit more money before you relinquish one or more activities to (and hence pay) someone else.
If you’ve fallen into this mindset, one idea is to list out the activities you do which actually make you money. And make a separate list of the ones which simply take up your time…when you could be making money. Write against each the amount of time you spend on each activity in a typical week. Then make a list of your skills and what you enjoy doing, and see how those match up against both lists.
There is naturally a cost-benefit analysis to any outsourcing, but don’t underestimate the benefit of the additional motivation (and hence potential income) you will get from relieving yourself of a time-consuming job you hate doing.
One of the great things about the technological age is that many, many businesses have sprung up in the last decade offering to take on the tasks we don’t want to do. There are firms who you can email a letter to and they will print and post it…there are interim FD’s…there are people who will write your twitter feed for you.
So, if you are worried about outsourcing, I would say, find the one thing you like doing least in your business, and give it a 3-month trial. I’m pretty sure you won’t look back 🙂
