Outsource

“Leverage your expertise and delegate the rest.” These wise words come from Jeff Moore, president of two seafood companies. Another word for delegating these days is outsource. Kevin Kruse, author of 15 Secrets of Successful People Know about Time Management, talks about the importance of prioritizing how you spend your time. He quotes the Harvard Business Review to explain that 41% of time was spent on actions that weren’t personally satisfying and could have been done by someone else.

He suggests you should drop what you can. Do you really need to be doing it? Does it need to be done? Does it need to be done by you? Maybe you should delegate it. What can you outsource? If you need to be the one to do it, is there a better way?

You might not think you’re ready. My first thought when I read this was, I don’t have enough money to pay someone else. But Kruse’s reasoning is sound. What else could I be doing if I wasn’t cleaning the house, making routine follow-up calls, or hanging signs around town? Tasks that I could hire out to free me up to do things only I could do within my company. It was a freeing revelation for me.

Once I decided to make the leap, it was like a burden was lifted from my shoulders. I was trying to do everything, and it was wearing me out. Sharing the burden has given me more time and has allowed me to expand my business to areas I’ve had on the back burner for a long time.

This step has also brought another key point to light. Being an entrepreneur can be lonely. I have worked with others for so long that when I retired from the Air Force, I missed having someone to bounce ideas off. Hiring another person part-time has rejuvenated me and given me the sounding board I needed to keep the ideas flowing. It has also made me accountable to someone else. Not literally, of course, but knowing I needed to get a certain task done before we met again has helped me keep various lines of effort moving forward.

There are many different companies that have popped up to help you find part-time assistance in anything from accounting and payroll, to picking up your laundry. Decide where you want to spend your time and what you can outsource. You will thank yourself.