Outsourcing: aka Strategic Avoidance of Things You Hate

When I first started my business, I thought my head might pop off with the number of things I had to keep on top of. A year on and I’m still not sure how many balls I’ve got in the air, (and I don’t want to pause to check in case I drop one!).

But I’ve recently realised that sometimes it’s more expensive to do it yourself – and I’m not just talking about financially.

Math and I have never been friends, and while I can reckon, reconcile and many other things starting with ‘r’, I don’t enjoy it, it’s not my forte, and anything related to numbers is going to take a lot longer than I’d like. (Shit, that reminds me, I need to update my cashbook!) Those tasks are the ones that frustrate me most as a business owner, so they’re the ones I’m most likely to avoid doing (see earlier comment about cashbook!).

And in my experience, the things you avoid are the things that are most likely to come back and bite you in the ass.

Because owning a business was never on my bucket list, I’m very much learning as I go along. I figured the end of financial year would be a steep learning curve, and I spent more than a few nights worrying about getting it wrong. But while financial returns are an essential part of my business, they’re not part of my purpose, or my reason for starting this business.

The strategic decision was clear, so I reached out to a small business accountant, leaving me free to focus on my business’s core purpose. Something that would take me an hour of sweating and swearing, will take someone that loves numbers ten minutes. If I value my time (and I do- and you should!), then it’s a pretty simple ‘cost/time calculation’. But I like to factor in how much I hate the thing I want to outsource too.

Math used to give me a headache even before the chronic migraines, and while I’m absolutely capable of doing it myself, I know it would take me ages and I’d just get pissed off.

So I’ve decided to prioritise the things I enjoy and/or am good at, and outsource the rest. Hell, there has to be some perks to being your own boss right? And it means I’m supporting another woman out there running a small business- giving someone else the opportunity to focus on their core purpose too.

So figure out which aspect/s of your business that you hate, and find someone who loves those things to outsource to. It may not seem cheaper in the short term, but I can guarantee it will save you money and sanity in the long run.

And if this is how you feel about content creation, I know just the Pixie who could give you a hand.