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Stop it! The truth about doing it all
I see it over and over - and in fact I’ve done it
myself, but you’ve got to STOP IT if you want your
business and your life to be successful and profitable.
Let me ask you something? Do you think Ralph Lauren is out in
the shipping room packing boxes? or Diane Von Furstenberg does
her own bookkeeping? Do you think Martha Stewart does all of
the projects that appear in her magazine or takes all the
photographs? 
Of course not....
Okay, these are the big guys - but they did not get bigger by
doing everything themselves. They had help, asked for help and
found the right people to help them.
One of the biggest challenges I run into when I am
consulting or coaching clients is the lack of understanding
about outsourcing or hiring someone to help.
There seems to be a universal resistance.
Here are the top 3 excuses I get:
1.
I can’t
afford to hire anyone
Truth:
PLEASE, I am so tired of this one. You can’t afford not to!
Sounds like a cliché but it is so true. I fell into that trap
at first. My sales were low and I kept thinking I could not
afford the luxury of help other than manufacturing. But
finally I did something that freed up my time - I hired a
housekeeper. It gave me more time for my business and more
time for my family.
With that first hire I realized I could easily leverage myself
in other ways too. It opened my eyes to hiring or delegating
other work, which led to making more money and profiting
faster. The next person I hired was a bookkeeper - and that
changed everything!
Ask yourself the question: Am I creating a business or a job
for myself? If it’s the right answer < Business > you must
learn to delegate or all you have done is create a JOB.
2.
I don’t
have time to find the right person
Truth:
You don’t have time not to! Time is so
precious; we all have the same 24 hours every day. By taking
the extra time in the short run to hire the right person you
will save time in the long run. It will make up for itself
more than 10 fold.
Start by deciding which job you want done. Then write down all
the skills that would be associated with that job. Remember
you are expanding yourself NOT DUPLICATING yourself. If you
are a clothing designer would you hire yourself as a
bookkeeper? Probably not the best choice....
3.
It’s
easier to do it myself
Truth:
NO it is not! You may think it’s easier
at the time - but add up your time day after day, week after
week, month after month doing all those tasks where you say
“it’s easier to do it myself”. Think of what you could create
for your business vision by just using that time to build your
business? In the long run creating systems for all those
things you think are easier if you do them yourself and hiring
someone to do for you is far easier than using your precious
time.
As my mother would say, it’s FALSE economy.
Maybe you don’t think it’s s*exy to create systems - but what
is more s*exy than a great life creating the business of your
dreams that can run without you doing everything yourself day
after day?
Now you’re saying to yourself, okay Jane, easy for you to say,
but where do I start?
Good question.
Start at the beginning by
writing all the component parts of your business.
If you have a creative product
business you likely have these 7 basic parts of your business:
-
Design /
Product and Line Development
-
Sourcing /
Pricing
-
Sales &
Marketing
-
Production /
Manufacturing
-
Operations /
Accounting / Bookkeeping
-
Fulfillment /
Shipping
-
Customer
Service
Regardless of how big or small your business is these are the
basic parts. Grab a piece of paper and at the top of each page
write one of the component parts. You’ll have 7 pages.
Go through each area and write down all the tasks that need to
be completed in each category. In this case the size of your
business does not matter. It also doesn’t matter if you are
currently wearing all the hats. Just start writing everything
that connects to each area and not necessarily in order.
For example, take Sourcing / Pricing. List all the
relevant steps you might take if you’re working on that aspect
of your business. You might:
(1) Research other products on the internet so you
know your competition and their pricing
(2) Find new sources for raw materials or order
samples of raw materials to make prototypes.
(3) Create a spread sheet with all of your cost of
goods for each product to make sure you will be profitable
Once you have gone through each of the areas, ask yourself
these questions: Is this something that I could
outsource or hire someone else to do? Does it require my time
doing the work or overseeing and checking the results? Am I
the only one who can do this task?
When you
have gone through this exercise you can clearly see what can
be delegated and what cannot. Combine that with the answer to:
what do I most want off my plate? and you’ll have your
decision on where to start outsourcing or hiring so your
BIG IDEA becomes a profitable business.
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