Growing My Small Business

In this post I’d like to share some thoughts about growing my small business and outsourcing. Here’s a post by Shay Rockhold that caught my attention. I like her story and analogy.

I have a hard time outsourcing my personal projects. I feel like I can do everything better myself, so I do it all myself.

But as I was buying coffee this morning, it hit me.

I have worked in retail stores where I was the manager. I called the shots. The owner was free to have multiple stores (and make more money) because he hired people (like me) to run his stores. Those owners were wealthy, played golf, and had little stress (that I could see).

But I have also worked for owners who always worked by my side. They micromanaged. They were limited because they could only work a certain amount of hours. They were limited financially. They worked 6-7 days per week. They stressed. It was miserable. In some cases, they made (after expenses) even less than I did.

The person serving me my coffee this morning was an employee. The owner would probably do a better job of running the store, but he was free to do other things because he outsourced.

I have a dozen niche blogs. I do not post on them nearly enough because I do not outsource. I did use PLR material once, but then did not do so again. (Again, because I felt I could do things better myself.)

So, in order to take my personal business (not my ghostwriting business, obviously) to the next level, I need to start outsourcing.

That was the most educational cup of coffee I have ever bought.”

- Shay Rockhold
www.shayswahideas.blogspot.com

I had the same problem as Shay… I’m a writer, I like to write, I’m pretty good at it and no one else is quite as good, I like to use my own voice…. and so forth.

I also had big problems with spending the money. I mean, why should I spend that much on something I could do easily (and better) myself? Especially when I wasn’t getting much traffic and few sales. I was hung up on the cost because all I could see was that I was spending more on the outsourcing than I was making on it, or the cost of the outsourcing was leaving me with little profits.

What I couldn’t see was the time factor. Yes, I could write my own quality article or rummage around for a free website header so I wouldn’t have to pay someone else, but I was so busy doing that kind of thing that I didn’t have time to take a step back, look at the big picture of where I wanted my small business to grow, plan it out, and decide what actionable steps I would take next.

I was so busy taking care of the small things (that I could easily do myself) that I didn’t have time for marketing, networking, and managing my business.

What I was telling myself, every time I wrote an article, was that my time was only worth $14 an hour. That’s not thinking big, is it? That’s not the way successful business owners conduct their businesses.

In the offline world, soon-to-be business owners take out loans and get seed money to start their businesses. Why is it that Internet Marketers (me included) feel they should do everything on the cheap? Maybe it would be better if we started our online businesses getting a small loan?

It makes me think of Monopoly. You can buy your houses and hotels in budget district, but you also don’t make very much when someone lands on them. Now, if you buy the luxury properties – sure they’ll cost more, but you get a much bigger return on your investment.

Now that I’m all outsource-enlightened, I see that in order to have “multiple stores” as Shay put it, I need to let others take over tasks they can do. That way I can have time to do strategic planning, gather my thoughts, start creating my next income stream, and grow my income.

Okay, I’ll stop now because I’d really like to hear what you think. Do the comment thing, please.

No related posts.