Many business owners start out alone with little cash, and so they get into the habit of doing everything themselves and trying to cut costs while they do so.

This can be okay – and is often necessary – in the early days of getting the business off the ground but, once you are past that stage, having a Lone Ranger complex will be a massive hindrance to the growth of your business.

Before considering outsourcing have a look at what you are doing each day and make a decision regarding the tasks involved.

Can you delegate to a team member?

Do the tasks really need to be done?

Can you systemise or automate the task?

Can the task be outsourced?

You’ll be pleased to know that you can outsource just about anything these days without too much expense and you can trust that the job will be done right.

Some small business owners see this as a cost they can’t afford, but your maximum hourly rates will be more than the hourly rate you pay for outsourcing, so you come out in front and you can be spending your time more productively.

Delegating and outsourcing are essential to the growth of your business but these are two areas people often struggle with. Let’s have a look at some common challenges to delegating by outsourcing.

I don’t know what I don’t know

Sometimes we just become so caught up in the day-to-day craziness that we don’t even stop to consider other options. Make the time to stop, look and listen; find out what the issues are in your business and how you can address them. You can’t solve a problem that you don’t know about.

Trust

This is common problem for business owners.

They are so used to being experts in their field and doing everything themselves that they are reluctant to hand responsibility to others. If you want something done properly you have to do it yourself, right? Wrong! The tasks for which you earn your highest hourly rate are best done by you, but let me tell you something: for most other tasks
in your business there are people out there who are better at it than you – and that’s fantastic!

Chances are you are not an expert bookkeeper, or warehouse manager, or marketing manager, but too many small business owners try to wear too many hats and don’t perform any of these tasks as well as they could be done.

You need to trust your staff and service- providers. You don’t need to be afraid of outsourcing to Bangladesh or maybe even Russia.

Too busy

As a business coach this response drives me nuts! The reason you think you are too busy today is that you didn’t stop and make changes yesterday.

You must make the time to improve things today; that’s the only way you’ll be less busy tomorrow.

Got it?

Putting things in a format people can follow

Because small business owners get used to doing everything themselves they often develop their own unique methods and this becomes an impediment to delegation and outsourcing.

But this is an easy problem to overcome – you just need to spend some time developing processes that you
can easily pass on. It may take a bit of extra effort now but I guarantee it will save you time in the long run.

We can’t afford it

Let me dismiss this one for you here and now – if you want to grow your business you can’t afford not to delegate and outsource. Even if you are outstanding at what you do, if you don’t let go of managing the day-to-day issues in your business you are putting a ceiling on how much you can grow, and that ceiling is how many hours you can work in a week. If you think you can’t afford it, can you afford not to? If you are this close to the edge something
has to change.

If any of these are holding you back, you have to address them – now. You need clarity about where your best work is done and what is getting in the way of growth. It might be you. The sooner you do this, the faster you will build a business that gives you the outcomes you deserve.

Power to you this week.
Stefan