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Happy Entrepreneuring!!

Katherine

Sound familiar?

As your business grows, you will inevitably have times when there is more work to do than one person can manage. So, what’s an entrepreneur to do? You could always hire another person, but you should weigh that option carefully. Adding to staff creates more than just an added salary. There is the additional overhead that encompasses another body in your office space and unless you’re consistently overwhelmed, hiring another body as a “just in case” for the peak periods means you may be paying someone to sit around during the non-busy times. Alternatively, outsourcing may be a good fit for your needs.

Outsourcing has gotten kind of a black eye in the past few years as more and more big businesses are shipping jobs out of the country. However, when it comes to tailor made help for a small business’ needs, outsourcing can be your best friend.

When you’re first starting out, doing everything yourself is often the best way to do things. It helps keep overhead low and you can dip your fingers into the beginnings of every role in your company and set the processes in place just the way you want them. You can “try on” different solutions and quickly figure out what works and what doesn’t. If you’re thinking ahead, you can also use the hands on experience in the beginning to help you decide which functions you will be able to delegate to someone else and in what order you want to peel those duties away from your core activities, the things you love that drew you into business in the first place.

In the not so distant past, telecommuting was a young business model and technology was growing exponentially to keep up with the demand for newer, faster, more reliable ways to keep in touch and work efficiently. Consequently, in today’s business environment, working across the world is almost as convenient as working across the hall. There has also been a surge of experts and professionals who have opened up their own shops making quality assistance more accessible than ever for small business people – from bookkeeping, to billing, to engineering, to warehousing/shipping/transportation to payroll and HR services to IT services to administrative support – there are thousands of quality companies available to help meet your needs.

The key to a successful collaboration with any company you outsource to is clear communication. Know exactly what duties you want to turn over. Talk to a few different companies to see which would be the best fit for you. Also, just as you would with a potential employee, talk to other companies that use their services. Reputable resources should be happy to turn over references. Many companies will offer packages in varying levels that empower you to decide what level of service you need right now. As your needs grow, you can upgrade your level of service incrementally with that company which is a great way to manage your costs.

Delegate, don’t abdicate! As small business people, we’re often so relieved to not have to deal with the parts of the business we didn’t enjoy that we tend to turn over the tasks and forget about them. You can’t just call across the office to check on a project so make sure you maintain the communication and create clear deliverables and deadlines. You may not be performing the details of the tasks anymore, but they still contribute to YOUR business.

The options for outsourcing are only going to grow in the current economy as more and more professionals find themselves transitioned out of their corporate jobs. Many of those professionals, unable to find a suitable opening often choose to start their own venture. By opting to do business with outsource companies, you not only get a level of experience you’d be unlikely to get for the same price in an employee, but you foster a stronger economy and a stronger foundation for your own company.

Happy entrepreneuring!

Katherine

© Yanwe

Besides just the downside of the benefits listed above, being disorganized also severely impacts your productivity, costs you time and money. Let’s estimate that a bit to put it in real world terms. Experts estimate that the average worker spends an hour a day looking for misplaced items. Say your income is roughly $60,000 per year. That hour adds up to almost $150 per week. Almost $600 per month. And over $7,000 per year.

That’s $7,000 a year flushed. Gone. Buh-bye.

I know, I know, being organized is a PAIN! It takes discipline and follow-through, but how much pain does it cause you to lose $7,000 a year?

What could you have done with that $7,000?

Tips for getting and staying organized

1. Clean the slate. You’ve seen those organizational shows where they pull everything out of the house and make the people go through and sort it, right? To stay organized, you need to get organized.

2. Create Stacks. Once you have that stack of items piled up in front of you that you’ve been putting off dealing with, go through it and put it into 4 stacks:

Trash, Shred, File, Action Needed

The trash part is easy. Throw it away. Be careful not to throw anything away that has personal information, even if it’s partial like credit card numbers, birth date, medical information, etc. You’re better off to shred it. Better safe than sorry. You’ll be surprised at how much of the stuff you can just toss.

Shred – easy, peasy. If you don’t own a shredder, this is one of the best investments you can make. And get a cross cut shredder. The old style strip shredders are pretty useless. It might take some time, but anyone who is patient enough can patch those strips together and have any information you thought was protected.

File – I have an ongoing file stack. I have some of those nifty stackable trays and one of them is specifically for filing. Then every Friday, before I close the office for the day, I file. It usually takes all of 10 minutes and then everything is in its place. If it’s not in the file, it’s in the tray. How easy is that? And 10 minutes is WAY doable…I don’t care who you are.

Action needed – I’ve found that this stack is usually fairly small. Either write them down in a list, or sort them in order of priority and schedule time to deal with them.

3. Make a to-do list. Taking a few minutes to write down the to-do’s of the day will help you to stay on task. You’ll also get a sense of accomplishment by checking items off when they’re complete.

4. Stay on top of it. I know, it may take an extra 2 minutes to sort through the mail as soon as it comes in, but those 2 minutes will save you having to repeat steps 1 and 2 again. Over and over.

5. Use your calendar. If you start using a calendar to schedule your time, you will be surprised to find out how much time you can find. I subscribe to several magazines and have time for reading them slated into my schedule.

There you have it. A few simple things followed consistently and your work world will be a much more organized, productive place, which for me, makes it a happier one, too.

Now…what can I use that $7,000 for?

Time is like water. Water can’t ever be completely controlled. We might throw up a dam and think it’s under control, but that’s when a crisis will happen and we’re faced with either a flood or a drought on one side of the dam or the other.

Finding the balance is tough, but crucial. If we hoard the water above the dam (worklife) so we can get a lot done, the land below the dam (homelife) will dry up and die. If we let too much water flow downstream, we don’t have enough resources above the dam.

Planning our time is the cornerstone of good time management. Otherwise, you’ll be like me and turn around and time has floated downstream without much to show for it. Over-planning is just as dangerous and you can start to feel like a slave to the calendar and resentful and when that happens, we start sabotaging ourselves.

So, for me, it’s back to a schedule, with time for work and time for family and a little bit of room to let the water flow and do its work in case Mother Nature sends me a rainstorm.