If your dream to run your own business so you can set your own lifestyle is proving harder than you thought, perhaps it’s time to consider outsourcing some key tasks, writes Kate Christie, time management expert and CEO of Time Stylers.

Let’s face it – you started your business with the dream of being your own boss, of setting your own hours, paying yourself what you are worth, working when it suits you and spending a lot more time with your family. So, what on earth happened?

The reality for many small business owners, especially those that fly solo, is that we tend to work non-stop. So much for the dream.

Yes, in the early days it makes sense to be the Jack or Jill of all trades to keep costs down, but maintaining a Jack and Jill mindset is not sustainable in the long term. Eventually, something is going to have to give, and we don’t want it to be our mental health, energy, physical wellness or family happiness.

I mean, just how many of you do you actually think there are?

Outsourcing might be the solution

On top of that, are you really, genuinely good at (and/or love doing) all of the many elements that your business needs: from product design and development to production to sales to legal to IT to HR to graphic design to social media to finance to book-keeping to data analytics to coding to web development to … ?

Perhaps the time has come to outsource?

Outsourcing allows you to focus more of your time on the tasks you absolutely love to perform – your passions – the very reason you went into business in the first place. If you are a jeweller, you went into business because you adore making beautiful jewellery. You do not adore – nor are you likely to be very good at – bookwork, payroll, process development or managing a CRM.

I have a very simple decision tree I use to help me decide what to outsource in my business:

1. Does the business need this task completed right now?

If YES, I will move on to question 2 below.

If NO, I will park the task for now.

2. Is the task revenue-generating?

If YES, as a solopreneur, I will complete the task myself.

If NO, I will most likely outsource the task to free up my time to invest in revenue-generating tasks. By engaging the right people with the right skill sets for the non revenue-generating tasks, I not only free up my time for the tasks I excel at, but I also expose my business to the opportunity for growth.

But, before I outsource the task, I ask myself question 3.

3. Is there an expert who can do this task faster, better and cheaper than me?

If YES, I will always outsource the task – unless it is something I absolutely love doing. Sometimes it might make financial sense to outsource a task, but for mine, I am in business not just to make money but to spend my time doing what I love.

If NO, then I will eat the frog and do the task myself.

50 tasks you might think about outsourcing in your business

1. Email management, email triaging, email templates
2. Calendar management
3. Booking appointments with clients
4. Task organisation
5. Travel arrangements and planning
6. Cloud management
7. Document management
8. Preparing PowerPoint presentations
9. Creating forms
10. Creating document templates
11. Social media management
12. Blog writing and commenting
13. Blog publishing
14. Managing Facebook pages and posts
15. Managing LinkedIn
16. Managing a YouTube account and uploading videos
17. Managing an Instagram account and posting
18. Answering calls
19. Sending invoices
20. Paying bills
21. Personal tasks
22. Website design
23. Website build
24. Website management and maintenance
25. Website analysis
26. Google analytics
27. Google AdWords
28. Payment gateway integration and management
29. SEO writing
30. Link building
31. Keyword research
32. Creating landing pages
33. Press release writing
34. Engaging and managing other consultants (for example, IT, designers, web builders)
35. Sales
36. Bookkeeping
37. Accounting
38. Legal
39. HR
40. IT
41. Data analysis
42. Database building
43. CRM management
44. Campaign design and management
45. Branding
46. Logo design
47. Graphics
48. Podcast creation and publishing
49. Ghost writing
50. Videography

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