First of all let me start with an apology. I took on the Blogtober challenge and I couldn't finish it. The main problem was actually technical. I accidentally spilt some water on my Mac and... I nearly lost my mind. I was unable to work at all for a couple of days and by the time I got a new one (the old one was not repairable 😢) I thought I'd lost the momentum with Blogtober, so I just focused on catching up with the rest of the tasks I had to finish. I felt quite unsettled for some time because I really don't Despite all that, I managed to complete 10 days of the challenge, which is 1/3! My posts seemed to be performing well and people were interested in reading them. I choose to count it as a win.
Moving on, I am coming back to my regular routine of publishing new blog content every Monday. In my content plan, I had put October as a month dedicated to time management, increasing productivity and gaining better organised entrepreneur. I've already covered some of these topics, but today I'm going to give you some hints on how to make your life easier, while your business moves forward and you save money in the long run. Outsourcing is the key to that. But it is everything you can and should outsource. No. Especially, not the things you are great at and bring you joy. Those should be reserved to you and you alone. Generally speaking, however, there are 5 best business areas you can hire someone else to do for you to save yourself time, money and A LOT of stress.
Accounting
I know very few businesses (even solopreneurs) who their own accounting. Except if they are accountants, of course. Bookkeeping is not just about some monthly income and cost calculations. Certified accountants can help you with financial strategies that will not only minimise your costs, but also increase your wealth. In addition, they know tax laws and would keep you out of trouble with the regulatory tax bodies. Believe me, you don't want to get on the bad side of those. So what if you pay a monthly fee for know-hows and peace of mind? The value you gain from a professional accounting service is so much more than what you give.
Branding
It's true you know your brand like no one else. But branding specialists can discern your ideas and bring them to reality through powerful graphics and designs. They are trained to understand consumer psychology and deliver messages in a creative way, communicating directly to the consumer's subconsciousness. Logo designers can be expensive, but their professional work is worth it. Besides, you can find affordable services with freelancers and small digital agencies.
Content Creation
No doubt one of the most time consuming jobs is content creation. And I don't mean just content writing. Visual content, such as inspirational images or videos are crucial to the development of your business. Outsource these tasks to content specialists who may also be able to help you with SEO and your social media engagement. Content marketing has been a leading component of all marketing activities any size businesses are undertaking. It's still going strong and not going away in the near future. If you know you aren't great at writing or you simply can't afford to spend all that time creating blog posts, social graphics and promotional videos, give the job to someone who has the skills and experience of doing just that. You can find competitive content packages in many places, including on our website.
IT Support
Some entrepreneurs have revolutionary ideas and a great mind for business development, but they lack technical knowledge. It would be a shame to not give such a potential success a top notch website that runs seamlessly at any point of the buyer journey. To achieve this, you need a professional developer, a stable server, and someone to rely one when technical hick ups occur and they need to be quickly eliminated. Professional website design and support maybe quite pricy, but it's one of the most important mechanisms your business needs to succeed.
Admin Support
Your life as an entrepreneur is extremely busy. And your main job is to strategise. That's right. As a business owner your key responsibility and task is to plan for the development of your organisation and idea, research the trends, get to know your audience better, create strategies for the future. That should take 80% of the time you spend on your business. Manual work such as admin tasks, creation of a product or delivering a service should make up for only 20% of your time. A lot of micro businesses also hire VAs who handle those minor (but at the same time important tasks). It's an investment that keeps your business going and allows you to think of new ways to grow it.
What part of your business do you outsource? Or perhaps you are trying to be a one-man/woman show? If that's the case, I'd really like to know how is it going? There was a time when I did this too and it was extremely stressful. Also, it kept me stagnant. The money that I was supposedly saving resulted in not increasing my revenue at all. Essentially, I lost money in the long run. A little lesson learnt for me. I hope you aren't making the same mistake. Or if you are, I hope you make steps towards fixing it.
