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How you know when it’s time to hire someone

Tank running on empty?
Dropping balls?
Skipping over tasks repeatedly because you really hate to do them?
Suck at something or lack expertise?
Work inefficiently on the same tasks?

It's time to hire an assistant.

I know you’re thinking, 'but Sal, I barely make enough money to pay myself, let alone anyone else.'

And I get it. Believe me.

I scraped by for the first years of my business by paying myself around $12k AUD per year and reinvesting anything else I made. That's barely enough to pay rent in Sydney, let alone grocery and utility bills.

You’re working around the clock and barely moving through your task list. How on earth are you going to have time to lift your head above water to plan what you can hand over from your biz, and on top of that find an expert you can trust?

But here’s the thing: Money is a renewable resource. Your time isn’t.

Whilst it’s great to do everything in-house when you start out so you learn the ropes of your biz from the ground up, you have to know when it's time to hand over the responsibility to someone else to help you out. Chances are there is someone far more efficient and specialist in (enter pet-peeve task HERE) and it's simply not worth your time battling with it. You could be using that time to generate income to pay that person, PLUS bring in additional profits for your business, so that you can enjoy the fruits of your labour with a nice holiday or two. Don't believe you can take a break? read THIS POST on how to prepare!

Q.

What would it look like for you if you could claim back a few hours of your life each week? Perhaps you could use those hours for sleep, creative thinking time, strategic planning, finally sorting out your finances. What could you do with those hours to drive more profit to your business to make hiring your person a financially viable exercise?

A.

Free yourself up to impact the world in a way that only YOU can.

You have space to be creative and drive your business forward, and work on growing it into an empire rather than dealing with the everyday shit that bogs you down.

Covert your time, not your money.

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What will happen when you invest in help:

You will create better work

You will generate bigger profits

Gain the freedom to drive your business forward

Regain personal time for socialising / sleep / family. This stuff in turn gives you rest time which makes you a better entrepreneur!

For me, I recently invested in a Content Manager. Sasha is an all-round gun with a Type A personality, just like me. She gets things done before the words have even left my lips. Having her on my teams has means I can spend less time creating pinnable tiles for blog posts, pushing posts out to social media, scheduling, designing newsletter templates and so much more. It frees me up to write more blog posts (just like this one) and create more beautiful content that serves YOU.

It's taken me 5 years to get to this point and really get an awesome team of people who I can trust to help me when I need it.

My team now includes:

IT guru / website fixer
Accountant (end of year tax returns and a million studio questions)
Book Keeper (for those quarterly BAS returns)
Content Manager
Social Media Manager for Fit Mixes
Graphic Designer

Taking the first step

You may feel like you need an interim step between the whole interviewing and hiring process, and outsourcing your work.

I totally fell you, and it's how I transitioned into outsourcing the many elements of my business.

Below is a list of awesome platforms you can use to outsource one-off specific tasks. You might even find your person on these channels who will stick with you for the long-term!

List the job you need completing and receive competitive bids from freelancers within minutes. Awesome and quick way to find your perfect person for a job. Simples!

Designcrowd.com - for Graphic design, logos, flyers, web banners, etc.
Upwork - freelancers for everything! Sales and marketing, customer service, copy writers and more.
Fiverr - a bit of everything - similar to Upwork. Video, animation, photo retouching, programming, tech and anything else.
Virtual Valley - Virtual Assistants to help you do...you know.... whatever you need assistance with. Customer service, email management etc.
Freelancer.com - Similar again to Upwork and Fiverr. Whatever you need doing, they have people who can do it.

Key takeaways:

Hand over mundane, process-driven or time-draining tasks
Hire someone who is better and / or faster at doing what you do
Free up time to focus on the things that will take your business to the next level
Build your profits

Feel free to ask questions by jumping on over The Fit Foodie Insiders Group on Facebook to post job requests or ask other entrepreneurs about their outsourcing experiences!

Remember: You've got to spend money to make money. Think Richard Branson did it all on his own?

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Sally O'Neil - Editor in Chief

Sal is on a mission to prove that healthy and nutritious doesn’t have to be boring – and that even while staying in shape you can have your cake and eat it too. After losing 14kg from adopting a healthier lifestyle, she shares her journey with others on The Fit Foodie Blog. She also works as a commercial food photographer and stylist, is studying a Bachelor of Health Science in Nutrition and Dietetics, and is the author of two cookbooks: Love Move Eat (Bauer Media, 2017) and Meal Prep Plan (Murdoch, 2019).