How My Business Changed When I Began Outsourcing Tasks

For the first few years as a small business owner and solopreneur, I was personally doing ALL THE THINGS. Every aspect of my business was handled by me. Customer service, marketing, IT, accounting – all of it fell on my to do list. I enjoyed having control of everything related to my business. And for a while, it worked. Maybe not the greatest at times, but it worked.  Then I started to realize there were certain parts I needed to outsource.

With the type of client information I deal with, I couldn’t, for my clients’ sake, take risks with their information. I hired a technology company to help me with security and data backups. We set up a system, and of course with IT, the issues never happen when it is convenient. They happen during the busiest time of the year. And it was no different for me.

Even after hiring outsourcing my IT to professionals I still ran into issues. Thankfully, in my case, it was just a matter of not being with the proper service provider for my needs. I found a new service provider that was able to identify my issues, provide solutions more suitable for my situation, and is a better fit for my business. From this situation, I learned that not all service providers are created equal. Often times, your gut is right. And sometimes, you just have to try a different alternative.

Business continued. I was providing a set of core services to my clients that met their business needs from an accounting perspective. And they were grateful for my services. They were so grateful that they began telling their fellow business owners about my services. And my business began to grow.

As it grew, my schedule began to fill up. And as I reviewed where I was spending my time, I found a reoccurring situation happening. A new business owner would reach out and want to schedule a meeting. I would accept the meeting and during the meeting I would find that each business owner, while their business may be slightly different than others, had the same general questions. Enter the idea for my online course.

But hold up. How was I going to pull that one off?

I had filmed short videos before, which normally took multiple takes, editing took forever, and with a lot of them I gave up before ever finishing.  If I were to create something that I felt was professional enough to market and sell, I needed someone with experience helping me. Enter my videographer.

By committing to her price and having a date scheduled on the calendar, it actually happened.  I found time in my days and weeks leading up to filming day to plan out the course and write out my scripts.  Had I not committed to someone else, I am not sure I would have made it a priority.

With the creation of my course, I quickly realized that it would take a different type of marketing than I was used to. Up to this point my business had grown by word of mouth and by simply posting on social media that I was a business owner and these were the services I offer. While this course could be sold using that method, to reach the goals that I set it was going to take more than that.

So, I did what any small business owner and solopreneur would do. I started doing my own social media content creation, posting, scheduling, etc.  However, I quickly began to feel overwhelmed. I constantly felt like social media promotion was pulling me away from the client related tasks that generate current revenue. Yet, I was having a hard time, because asking someone else to handle those tasks for me would be giving up control.  Having experienced the situation with the initial IT company, I knew that if I were to hand these tasks over it was going to take the right person.

I turned to a group of women that I trusted, that I knew would have some knowledge about this particular topic and asked for their advice.  Through them I found the right person and within a short period of time after connecting with them, I felt the weight lift from my shoulders. I was able to see that in order for my business to grow in the direction I wanted it to, I would have to give up some of the control to free up my time for tasks that fit my skill set.

Whether it is financial, trust, control, or any other number of reasons we use to prevent ourselves from asking for help with various aspects of our business, I understand. I have been there on more than one occasion. And each time, I have learned a different lesson and with each turn my business grew.

There is no one size fits all. Each business is unique, and it requires finding the right service provider for the task and your company. But I am here to tell you, when I found the right people, when I was brave enough to commit to letting others helping me with my business and listening to their advice, my business benefited. And not only did my business benefit, I benefited because I no longer was trying to do ALL THE THINGS. I could get back to client tasks and the whole reason I started my business.