The Business Owner

Do you struggle to do it all? We choose to be in business for many different reasons - but whether we choose to admit it or not we are doing it to make money!

For some people this honesty might be uncomfortable. As business owners looking to survive there are many more things than working with clients, whether providing a product or service. The unseen aspect of running a business is time consuming and at times stressful.

You are your own IT department, Bookkeeper, Customer Service Department and Social Media Manager, while also working in your Business Development department. This is as well as delivering the products or service.     

Along with this you are also trying to balance this with your own life, whether as a partner, parent or carer or more frequently a combination of all of them. 

Outsourcing the things that you hate or feel overwhelmed by can make your life a lot easier and you a more pleasant person to be around. I say this from a personal point of view and my daughter would certainly agree! This frees you up to concentrate on the things you enjoy doing, rather than the things you feel you have to do because there is no other option.   

This isn't a new idea, if you read Chillpreneur by Denise Duffield-Thomas she advocates this from early on in your business journey.

For me, I outsource my bookkeeping & accounting. I am comfortable preparing my invoices and uploading my expenses but anymore than that, means I am then way out of my comfort zone. My lovely accountant knows this and is always patient with me. She must despair at times, I know I certainly do! Even though I am organised you can never find one piece of paper when you really need it (it is usually in the right pile but in the middle of it)! One year in the (hopefully) not too distant future, I will surprise her and not have to spend time looking for something. To make her life easier I now scan everything as it comes in.

Everything else I do in my business (with some assistance from my teenage daughter). Interestingly I having spoken to a few other Mums recently we have all co-opted our teenagers - willingly or not into working in our businesses. A tip for any teenagers reading this is that you can't pick & choose what you do, in the working world everyone hates some aspects of their jobs but you can't choose not to do them!

And it is the same for business owners, we don't get to choose which part of our jobs we don't want to do - but that is always why, if you are in the position to do so, outsourcing is a good option. It limits the chaos (and removes the parts you really have an issue with - such as my accounts book-keeping), and allows you to really focus on doing what you enjoy. 

Often weekends are spent working on my business and I know I'm not alone on this. My next plan is to get a cleaner (Covid permitting) - so that's one thing off my always growing to-do list. In the meantime if this post resonates with you and you feel like you are drowning, work out what you dislike doing & think about outsourcing.