Being a mum is hard work, we all know. You have to manage your time properly, pay attention to your family, put your best into your work, relate with friends and grow in your faith. It can be tiring and overwhelming. Now try running a successful business on top of that. It can take it’s toll on you.
Nevertheless, most of the overwhelm we experience is as a result of doing too much. Just because you run a business does not mean you should do every task in your business.
It might make sense to you to do everything and think you will save money in the process seeing you are most likely a one woman business, but in the long run you are only wasting time and losing money.
Focus on your brilliant zone
Let me explain: your time as a business owner should be focused on your brilliant zone, which is where your income comes from. For example if you make hand made jewelry, your time is best spent on making them so you can have something to sell and not on designing your website. If you are a coach, your time is best spent coaching clients who will pay you and not trying to sort out your accounting. Do you get it?
The more time you spend on tasks not related to your core business or brilliant zone the less time you get to spend on your core business which reduces the amount of income you bring into the business.
Also by outsourcing tasks to those who are experts in what they do, they get the job done much quicker, more professionally and in turn save you money.
For a long time, I struggled with the concept of outsourcing. I thought I couldn’t afford it but since I started using a virtual assistant (VA) and outsourcing work not in my brilliant zone, I have seen a significant difference to my business financially. I am also not as stressed as I used to be when I was trying to do everything.
You are the CEO of your business
As the CEO of your business, you are not meant to do everything. You don’t see the CEO of Burger Kings flipping burgers on the ground floor, do you? He/She is “upstairs” making strategic decisions. This is how you should begin to think as a business owner.
This is also what sets you apart from those who still have a hobby and think they have a business.
I hope I have managed to convince you a little bit on why you should outsource.
[Tweet “As the CEO of your business, you are not meant to do everything. “]
5 areas you should outsource as a Mum in business
Here are five areas I think you should outsource except of course this is your core business. There are a lot more but I will concentrate on just this five today.
1. Website and Technical stuff:
Except you are a web designer, you are best leaving this piece of work to a website designer and those who know about hosting, domain names and setting up membership sites. They will do an awesome job in no time while the best you will probably do will take you hours and come out average.
Even if you are great with web designer if that is not your core business, it will make sense to outsource this to someone who does websites for a living. You can always do simple updates to your website when ready but get an expert to do the main work for you.
2. Accounting:
One of the best things you can do for your business is to get an accountant. A good accountant will save you money in unnecessary tax. They are aware of the different allowances and legitimate expenses and will make sure you claim back all that is within your rights.
Using an accountant can save you headaches with the taxman becauseit gives you credibility. The taxman knows a registered accountant isunlikely to cook your books and will most likely accept your figures.
A good accountant can offer advice on how to operate some of the aspects of your business.
The time you spend trying to balance your account is time taken away from your core business.
3. Social Media related stuff:
Yes I expect you to interact with your fans and followers on social media but I don’t expect you to sit down on Facebook or twitter all day long.
Get a virtual assistant to schedule your updates for you over the course of a week or on a regular basis. They can also create nice graphics and memes for you.
All you need to do is dip in and out every now and again to respond to questions or comments.
4. Research:
Except you are a researcher, my advice is to outsource research work for your blog posts or materials you need for a presentation or information about a competitor.
Expert researchers are more likely to dig up solid information for you than you will find. I use Fancyhands a lot for research work because they are really good at it.
5. Administrative tasks:
Get a virtual assistant who you can outsource your admin tasks, email setup, data entry, dealing with general correspondence, raising invoices, typing, newsletter set up, uploading blog post content etc too.
Getting a VA these days is not so expensive and having one will save you time and money in the long run.
So those are five items you should outsource. You may not be in a position to outsource everything right now time but start from somewhere and begin to see the difference it will make in your business.
Yes you will have to spend money to outsource but the time you will save on outsourcing will give you more time to focus on your core tasks, which will bring in more money into your business.
So what tasks do you outsource in your business? Do share.
Next time we will look at 5 things you should outsource at home.
***Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
My husband handles the business end (accounting, shipping, vendors) so I can focus on my brilliant zone. I can do website techie stuff, but I outsource the design end. Right now I am trying to figure out what I need to outsource social media. It is hard for me to delegate, but I know I will be glad once I do.
I know what you mean @Harriet. It can be hard to let go! With social media you can outsource the scheduling of posts but not necessarily the content. What do you think?
I used to have a VA for the most technical website things, but she quit working, and my site is pretty much the way I want it to be. So I do everything myself now. I like the idea of outsourcing, but I’m not doing it at this time.
Hi @Tara! Glad to hear you can manage your site by yourself.
Do you do your own book keeping and accounting as well?
I love these tips! And I’m looking forward to your tips about what we can outsource from home!
Thank you Dr Michelle i look forward to writing them 🙂
I am looking forward to sharing them as well Dr Michelle 🙂 Thanks for stopping by
One of my faourate topics. I love these tips becase focusing on your genious zone allows you to have better results
Totally! Thanks for stopping by Fungai 🙂
Yup! you got that right @fungaiedelinendemera:disqus
Good tips. I particularly like the idea of hiring an VA for social media stuff. I have over 200 quotes from my book (gleaned from readers highlights) that I would like to make in to image quotes but don’t have the time. Just today I was researching how I could do this easily but I probably better to outsource it. Any suggestions?
Check out fiver.com. You may find someone who can do it for you. Or quotescover.com.
Thanks Shay. I will also have a look at quotescover.com
Hi Pamela. thanks for stopping by, yes fiverr.com or odesk.com are good places to get someone that can help.
Lets know how you get in
That Aloted. I’ve used Fiverr before, so I will check them out. I am also familiar with ODesk but having used their services
I outsource marketing and plan to have a good accountant soon. I may outsource design. Right now, I want to do my own content but may look into outsourcing content curation.
Way to go well done!
Interesting- these are definitely the 5 things I should outsource
Good to see you can identify with this…Traycee 🙂
Thanks Aloted, great article on what we should be focusing on. I use VAs, but I can use them much more. This year I am focusing on making sure that I’ve got my systems written down so that I can make delegation and outsourcing easier.
Thanks Davida..this is the stage I am now.. putting my systems in place so I can outsource more.
Excellent post and so much confirmation. I love the way you present a balanced argument. Advising us to focus on our brilliant zone (strengths) and outsource the daily tasks (time consuming distractions) to those qualified to be the midwives in this journey of entrepreneurship.
Thanks, Aloted. I do some of my outsourcing at Fiverr. So far I have had ebook cover designs done as well as one article written. I look forward to outsourcing more. My two biggest concerns are cost and also trust with the one that hire. I look forward to more tips.
Great advice, thank you for sharing