How do you know when it's time to outsource??
As business owners, our business is our baby and that can make it very difficult consider outsourcing. I mean, nobody is going to care about your business more than you do, right?
Whilst I understand the sentiment from personal perspective, there is another way to look at this. As a Digital Marketing manager, it is my job to make other businesses look good. If I don’t help your business to grow, then mine won’t grow either… food for thought?
So, you know that you need to do something but you are still not sure what. There are two elements that are worth looking at to help you make the decision.
What do you enjoy doing?
What is your budget?
Business is starting to get busier and you are finding that you no longer have the time to do the things that you love because your work is always there, in the background, playing on you mind.
You are missing out on potential clients because you just don’t have the time to keep on top of all those emails and messages.
You have lost momentum with your advertising because you don’t have the time to do everything. What happens when it get’s quiet again?
What happens when it get's quiet again?
And here is the crux of why I am so passionate about what I do.
I got busy in my own business. I took some time off for maternity leave and stopped advertising as I didn’t want to take on any new clients whilst I was getting used to my new role at home.
I LOST EVERYTHING.
Three years of building my business and my reputation was gone in a blink. I took my eye off the ball and I learned the lesson – consistency is ESSENTIAL to maintaining a steady flow of business.
Why?
I don’t know whether I was over confident that new business would always be there or if I got complacent but TRUST ME, if you do not maintain your advertising presence, it is MUCH harder to start again from scratch.
How do you choose what to outsource? Who do you outsource to?
The most logical things to outsource will be the things that you do not enjoy doing. Make yourself a list of the “chores” that you HAVE to do on a regular basis for both your home and your business. If somebody could wave a magic wand and make some of your chores disappear, what would be the first to go?
Some of the most common are below.
Home Chores
- Cleaning
- Washing/ironing
- Shopping/finding gifts
- Gardening
- Keeping on top of the family diary
- Arranging appointments
Work Chores
- Email Lists and CRM
- Social Media
- Diary Management
- Accounts
- Collating receipts and invoices for your accountant
- Answering queries
- Keeping your website up to date
Now you have your list of “chores”, it’s time to write yourself a second list. This should be all the jobs that you don’t seem to have enough hours in the day to get done. For small businesses, this is usually social media management, customer enquiries and lead generation. You know it is important to generate new business and ensure that your current customers are happy BUT you are already working until midnight most nights and there isn’t any more time to spare.
Now is the time to ask the really tough questions…
Can I really afford it?
You have your two lists; it is time for you to be honest with yourself.
What portion of you budget can you afford to spend on outsourcing?
How much more productive could you be if you didn’t have to worry about getting the chores done?
It’s important to remember that this should be a regular outlay (it can be done on a month to month basis but this can lead to inconsistency when you get quieter).
One question to ask yourself; how much is your time worth during your busy months. For example, if your hourly rate is £15 and you spend 5 hours per week on your social media profiles, it is already costing you £300 per month to manage your social media. ABSS Social Media & Admin Support have packages that could do this for you which would allow you to spend those 20 hours on income producing activities (or enjoying family life).
You have made the decision, it is time to enlist some help, now comes the important part... finding the right fit.
For Home.
- Check our local Facebook pages
- Ask for recommendations from people that you trust
- Speak to more than one company
- Trust your gut instinct!
For Work.
- Ask for recommendations from people that you trust
- Check out their own social media and see if it appeals to you
- Check that they are insured and registered with the relevant bodies (ICO, AML etc) and that a contract is in place to protect you both
- Speak to more than one company
- Trust your gut instinct!
Speak to as many as you have time to (ideally via video) and see if they fit with your values and that you are both on the same page.
Once you have made your decision, it is time to get started and start handing over those jobs.
Make sure that there is plenty of communication between you and your new team.
There will always be teething problems whilst you get used to working with each other and good communication is key to building a great working relationship. You need to be clear on what you want and make sure that there is plenty opportunity to ask questions.
If you would like to see if the team at ABSS would be a good fit for your digital marketing, you can book in for a chat here.