Being an entrepreneur involves a lot of moving parts. Because I’m a mom of two toddlers, running a multi-million-dollar, rapidly growing business, I often get asked, “Lisa, how do you do it all?”.
The answer is, I don’t.
I’ve learned a few things about outsourcing that I’d like to share with you today. On my team we call it “Free the Wizard” because we all know that we will keep growing and servicing more people if I don’t get bogged down in things that are better done by someone else.
You may need to start slowly at first, but do start. Outsource early for the growth that you seek. Besides, it’s much better to get ahead of the train than later be run over by it!
It’s all about delegating, and here are some guidelines:
1) If someone else can do it faster, cheaper or better, give it away. If you need a nudge to help you let a task go, just imagine what you could be doing with that time to grow your business in the area of your blessing! Also, when you are passing work on to someone else, they get to do their blessing as well. It’s a divine circle!
2) Delegate things that you can live with being “good enough.” If a task has to be absolutely perfect, you may not be able to give it away. But do consider that someone else can get it to “good enough,” and then you can either move it forward as is or edit it so that it meets your standards. By the way, in my company, we call editing “tweaking.” Maybe it’s because we’re mostly women, but it just seems to feel better when I send back my “tweaks” instead of my edits or changes.
3) This is a new and exciting discovery for me: Recognize your Stuck Point. Ever notice how you can pack for a two-week trip in an hour, and then it takes you the rest of the night to pack those last-minute items? (Moms, you’ve surely dealt with this when traveling with kids!) Entrepreneurial projects are the same way. You can usually bust out 90% of the work in a quick sitting, and then you’ll agonize over the last 10% for weeks. I believe this phenomenon is THE reason why so many wonderful ideas never quite get to market. If you can recognize your Stuck Point and delegate at that time, just imagine how freed up you’ll be and how many incomplete projects will actually come to life!
I would love to hear your experience as you Free the Wizard in your business. And YES, the Wizard is YOU! Let us know below!
Lisa-I love this post and came at such the perfect time to help me organize my thoughts and communicate why I started my business! Thank you!
Hi, Lisa,
Delegating at our “stuck” points is fabulous advice. When I outsourced, I ran into
a nightmare. Instead of the copywriter-Wordpress expert getting my website looking great in
a few days time, she dragged everything out for 3 months and walked away saying she had completed
everything. Trouble is – I’d prepaid her for the entire job. Now I’m trying to get a credit card
refund while I assign the job to another wordpress expert.
Ruby