When we start our own small business from home, we often find ourselves if the position of having to be everything. We’re working on a small budget and on our own. Which means that we are our own marketing team, designers, PR representative, admin assistant, content creator, social media manager, accountant and anything else that comes up during the course of our work. We become a person of all trades. We make the most of the skill that we’ve already got, and spend our free time gaining new ones. It’s normal. It’s a great way to save money, and it’s utterly exhausting.
Working like this has benefits away from the obvious financial ones. It gives you full control over your company, which in the early days can be useful. It gives you a chance to find your feet. To learn what you want from your business and how you want to get there. It means that when you do grow, you have at least a basic knowledge of all areas of your company. That you are a well rounded and knowledgeable manager and owner. It can help you to be fairer and more understanding.
But, at some point, hopefully, your business does start to grow, and you can face a tricky transitional period. You’re making money, but you’re not yet ready to commit to hiring a large team. You still want control, but you are working yourself into the ground trying to do everything and be everyone. To make more money, you need to do more. To maintain growth, you need to work harder. At the same time, you need to come up with new ideas, and you might start to find that your own basic skills aren’t good enough to be competitive in your market. You need help.
Outsourcing can be the perfect solution. Hiring freelancers and other companies to take on some of your work, gives you the help that you need, without a long term commitment. You can use them when you need to, but you don’t have to worry about paying them if you have a terrible month and need to lose their services. It can be ideal. But, what jobs should you outsource? Which parts of your business do you want to give up some control? To an extent this will depend on your own skills and talents, but here are some ideas to help you pick.
Answering the Phones
Do you spend a good portion of your day answering calls, making calls, replying to emails and generally speaking to people and making appointments? This is valuable, having someone at the end of the phone can boost your reputation, help you to maintain excellent service and make your customers feel valued. But, is it a good use of your own time? Use virtual answering services all of the time, or just to deal with the overflow of calls when you are busy. It can free up your time for more important things.
Social Media
Social media is a massive part of business today. You can use it to grow your audience, and reach new people. It can be a valuable tool to communicate with your customers and clients. It’s a great way to advertise your business. But, it’s exceptionally time-consuming. You could quickly lose your whole day to managing your business’s social media accounts. A social media manager or freelancer virtual assistant can take control of growing your online presence and all of your social media endeavors. This could save you literally hours every week.
Accounting
Small business accounting is something that terrifies many of us. We’re not great at keeping track of our finances. We lose invoices and receipts. We leave everything until the last minute. Even if you are good at your accounts, you lose time doing it, and it probably stresses you out, at least a little. Outsourcing accounting and bookkeeping to a professional can save you time, ease your stress and maybe even save you money.
Research
A bit part of growing a business is research. You have to assess the data of marketing campaigns. You need to spend time researching new methods and techniques. You need to study your competition. It’s worthwhile but time-consuming. Outsource this research to a virtual assistant who can condense their findings.
Search Engine Optimization
Whether your business is based on or offline, your website is crucial. You might want to outsource it entirely to a designer and a web manager. But, if you’re going to do it yourself, a search engine optimization specialist can be a worthwhile expense. They’ll increase your website traffic enormously.
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Vinh Van Lam & Stuart Horrex
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