As entrepreneurs and business owners (that often have a shortage of cash lying around!), there is a real temptation to try and do everything by yourself. But in order for your business to truly be successful, you need to work on your business, not in it. And that means focusing on those aspects of your business that will spark growth and revenue. So, here are a few of the tasks that you should outsource in your business:
(1) Administrative Tasks
The amount of paperwork that businesses have to do now is, well, overwhelming at best. With a mountain of Federal, State, and sometimes even city regulations and everything from payroll, insurance, tax forms, accounting, social security, health programs and more, the burden of keeping up with it all is more than a full time job. Spending valuable time on these kinds of tasks leaves business owners with virtually no actual time to run their business, not to mention that it increases their business burnout, frustration and errors. You can even get a virtual office with a virtual administrative assistant that you can use on an as-needed basis. One of my clients, Regus, officers virtual office support than can help you with tasks like mail handling and phone answering. Outsourcing these kinds of tasks will free you up to work on what will grow your business.
(2) General Busywork
Many business owners make the mistake of thinking that they will save money if they do general busywork themselves rather than hiring someone to take care of it. The cliché “time is money” definitely holds true here, as business owners should be spending their time on tasks that will build and grow their businesses. Everything from scrubbing toilets, dusting and taking out the trash to stuffing envelopes, running errands and shipping can be done effectively by almost anyone; your business can only be run by you.
(3) The Internet Black Hole
One of the most important arenas for businesses to outsource is all things internet-related. From social media, blogs, your website, researching, monitoring your business, scoping out the competition, newsletters (I’m getting overwhelmed just writing this list!) and more, there just aren’t enough hours in the day to get to it all. And because the internet is so vital for businesses today, business owners often make the mistake of tackling the internet black hole themselves and before they know it, their whole day is gone and nothing revenue-generating has been accomplished. Having experts that know how to build websites, monitor your social media presence and construct your blogs will really allow you to focus on the “big picture” business tasks that matter.
These are just a few tasks that you can outsource to help you focus on growing your business. What other tips do you have? Please share them below.
Thanks to Debi Einmo of White Glove Services LLC, Suzanne Gose of Flip n Flop Learning, Deborah Laurel of Laurel and Associates, Ltd, Myles Miller of LeadUP & Learning Breaks, Elinor Stutz of Smooth Sale, LLC and Shelley Ellis of Online Performance Marketing for the inspiration behind some of these ideas.
