How to grow your business

Just because you ‘can’ do something, it doesn’t mean you’re always an expert at it. Some things are just better done by someone with the right skilllset – for example bookkeeping or accounts (hint: try our directory of Licensed Accountants).

Outsourcing tasks that are beyond your skill set are likely to give you more hours in a day to focus on your core abilities. This, in turn, leaves you free to concentrate on what you’re really good at, which is usually what you love and the reason you’re in business to begin with. What’s more, it’s more often than not what makes you money. So as long as you leverage those hours properly you’ll be making more money and having more fun.

Tim Ferris’s bestseller – The 4 Hour Work Week – documents how he decided to see how much he could let go of to free himself up for other stuff by automating processes. It’s inspiring to see how someone can take all the day to day stuff off his plate to free himself up to concentrate on his own strengths.

A great place to start if you aren’t sure where to go and what to do to start handing over is Fancy Hands. It’s a team of virtual assistants on hand for you. Things like looking up train times, booking appointments, doing research. All of the time consuming but necessary tasks done for you.

Cash flow can be tight in the beginning when you’re starting out, but try by starting with something affordable like Fancy Hands. Right now they’re $29.99 a month on the starter plan of 5 requests, that’s about £20, £4 per task. So let’s imagine you want to look up train times, book a hairdressers appointment and get some research done – that’s easily an hour of your time but it’s costing you £12. If you replace that with client work at a MUCH higher rate than £12 you’ve already made back that investment and more. If you can start to let go before you’re really ready, you’ll see the benefits way more quickly and you’ll have time to think about what you can hand over.

Other Benefits

Working with a virtual assistant (VA) can pull little bits together to make your business run more smoothly, to make things run as you want them to, rather than just reacting to requests. And now, people know to contact her and she’s there behind the scenes and I don’t need to worry about any of it. Working with a VA encourages your to create an operating manual for your business which means that when you start working with others it will be easy to hand over logins and tasks etc.

The two things most frequently asked questions can be:

• What things to hand over? The things which you procrastinate on, that sap your time and energy.
• How to manage things once they’re handed over? Communication is key. Even if you think you don’t have any updates, check in with your VA weekly and stick to it. You’ll build a better relationship, your assistant will have a deeper understanding of your business and so will be able to provide even more value.

So when you’re ready –  take the leap! Even if you don’t feel ready, dip your toe in and get yourself accustomed to ditching the tasks which drain you.