You know how it always feels like you can never accomplish enough in one day and wonder why? The truth is no matter how much we wished there were more hours in a day to get things done, it really just isn’t feasible. Why? Because we are human. We get tired, stressed and burnt out. We need to rest, rejuvenate and replenish. It just isn’t possible to do every single thing yourself and expect the results to be optimal. We have to accept that. We need to work smarter, not necessarily longer hours.
We also have to accept the fact that there will be areas that we are just brilliant at and there will be areas where you could have spent a good chunk of your day and still have no idea how to go about it. Multitasking is actually counterproductive. Sure, you can do more than one thing at once, but are you utilizing your time efficiently or is it, in fact, slowing you down? Are the results at the same optimal level as when you are focusing on one task or is it severely lacking?
But hey, it is okay. It’s okay that you aren’t the best at every single thing. It’s okay that you can’t do it all. It’s okay that you aren’t some machine. It’s okay to accept that you need external help. It’s not only okay to outsource. In fact it’s a smart business decision. Let me enumerate why.
First, when you outsource business functions, you not only leverage that part of your business by automating it, but you are also able to take that time you would usually allot there to scale areas you are superb at. For instance, if you are great at acquiring new customers, then that translates to more business growth compared to trying to, say, finish admin tasks like updating the customer database, which someone else can do for you at a relatively lower rate than you pay yourself.
Secondly, related to the first one, know if you are worth your hourly rate. For instance would you pay yourself the rate you pay yourself if you are really admittedly very poor at it? If you are taking two hours to figure out tabulations in an excel sheet and paying yourself an hourly rate, wouldn’t it be more economical to pay someone else who can do it in less than 30 minutes at the same rate or even lower? This is where we say you are saving money instead of spending money and it’s really an awesome business strategy to tap into the expertise of others.
Lastly, you can finally have that work life balance and peace of mind that someone else is taking care of the business instead of having to manage every little nitty-gritty aspect of the business. Stress affects so many things. It affects your relationships with your loved ones, peers, customers and employees. It affects your motivation in doing things and it severely affects making the right business decisions. Being in your best health also means you are in the right frame of mind in making sound choices. Your judgment isn’t clouded, you don’t feel pressured and you know that you are on your tippy toes.
So, really, outsourcing is actually a lot about automating business functions that bring in income and less about added expenditure. And if you’re still wondering if outsourcing is the right fit for your business, there’s a simple way to do the math. List all the tasks you do single-handedly in one day, estimate how much time it takes to complete each task and calculate how much you actually pay yourself to do it. Now, compare this cost to the cost of outsourcing your business functions. The results should make it crystal clear if outsourcing is a tool you need to leverage your business.
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