In fact, I’d argue that it’s impossible; especially over the long-term. We’re just not good at everything, and I for one don’t really want to be.
I’ve read a lot lately about playing to your strengths and continuing to work on improving them, rather than investing time, energy and resources in getting better at your weaknesses. And this makes a ton of sense to me. (I’m actually trying to apply this to my parenting philosophy as well.)
So what do you do as a solopreneur – someone that works for and by himself – when it comes to trying to do it all vs. playing to one’s strengths? Do you have to suck it up and do the things you’re not any good at or don’t really enjoy? Or is there another, better way?
To some extent, you might need to suck it up and do unpleasant or difficult tasks in the beginning. But there will come a point (and for most of us, it’s sooner, rather than later) where instead of having to try to do it all, you can start hiring out some things instead. Here are three things I outsource in my freelance business, instead of trying to do myself.
1. Web Support
Even though I run an online business, I’m not the most tech savvy gal around. And I’m okay with it. I try to learn things that I need to or that slightly interest me, but for the most part I like to delegate these tasks to my web guy, G.
This is probably the very first thing that I started outsourcing, because it’s not in my background or an area of interest or expertise for me. It’s also not how I make the majority of my income (although it does tie into it).
My philosophy was that it made more sense for me to hire it out, then it did for me to take the time to try and learn it. I.e. if something would take my web guy mere minutes to do, but it would take me hours to figure out/learn, then my time (which I trade for money) is better spent earning, then learning a skill that isn’t pertinent to my long-term business goals.
Make sense?
Here are just a few of the things that my web guy has done for me in the last year:
- Set up my affiliate plugin/taught me how to use it
- Switched over my email based course from Mailchimp to Drip (and he’s also currently migrating my lists as well)
- Installed a new theme on my website and moved all of my content over
- Hard coded any website changes I’d like to see, but didn’t know how to implement on my own
If you’re like me, Tom offers a great (free) service for people that are looking to set up a new website/blog, but that don’t have the knowhow, time or desire to learn how to get one up and running. Check out the Leaving Work Behind Blogging Mentorship Program for more information.
2. Editing/Formatting
Farming out the editing and formatting of guest posts on my site and interviews for a client site is something new that I’ve started doing just recently. The goal is to pay someone less than what I could earn in the same amount of time to do it for me. This should save me time and allow me to further scale by taking on more client projects.
So far it’s going pretty well. Getting up and running with something like this is always going to involve the most time investment. But once you get past that hurdle, in theory you should be increasing the return on your time. It also frees me up mentally, knowing that someone else is responsible for importing, formatting and editing the content.
Katie and I have developed a system using both Google Drive and Trello. When someone submits a guest post to me, I’ll save it and their headshot into our shared folder. Then I move their name/the date of their post from one Trello board to another (i.e. “Awaiting more info.” to “Ready to be formatted by Katie”).
When she’s done her part, she moves it to another board, “Formatted and ready for review by Gina.” We also have a board for posts completed that month, which is an easy way to keep track of work that’s been completed for invoicing purposes. Again, it takes a time investment up front, but it’s well worth it as I try to continue to scale and grow my business.
3. Advertising
Another thing that I need to do, but isn’t something I’m naturally gifted or interested in, is advertising. For my business currently, this involves doing Facebook ads and dipping my toe in Google Adwords.
I have a product (an email course) for sale currently. My goal is to continue growing my platform and increase sales. I use a portion of the course’s proceeds to reinvest in advertising in an effort to realize this goal.
But I’m not that well versed in either Facebook or Google ads. So I hire it out. Again, it comes down to only having so many hours available to work on my business. And instead of putting other things on hold (especially income generating tasks), I choose to hire them out instead with the hope of increasing my ROI both from a time and monetary standpoint. So far so good!
In Conclusion
It’s impossible to do it all as a solo business owner. We can try, but we might just end up a jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none.
Instead of driving myself crazy or wasting a ton of time trying to improve my weaknesses when it comes to my online business, I strive to delegate or hire out certain tasks that I’m not good at, not interested in learning about or don’t have the current capacity for.
For me, this includes technology-related projects, editing/formatting work and advertising. I started with just the first and then added the other two over time as my business income grew. This is the best way that I know to continue scaling my business. I urge you to think about your own and make a list of the things that you’d like to (eventually or now) hire out instead.
What task would make the top of your list to outsource?
Photo Credit: Eutah Mizushima via Unsplash